MASTERPIECE MONDAY #3 I think today we'll have to shine a light on our friend Michelangelo. One of the greats, no doubt, and a personal favorite of mine since art school. This is one of the "ignudi" from the Sistine Chapel (Ignudo is the term he used to describe the 20 seated male nudes he placed on the ceiling). Pope John Paul II called the Sistine Chapel a "shrine to the Theology of the Body." He said that, in his own way, Michelangelo saw the beauty and the glory of God shining through the human body, and he fearlessly portrayed it in his glorious work that spans all of salvation history. May God grant us that true purity of heart that will allow us to look past lust and into love, to see the glory of God shining through the body! As Pope John Paul II says, "The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus be a sign of it." (Theology of the Body Pope John Paul II, February 20, 1980) The mystery that the body (male and female) reveals is the very life of God! That inner life of dynamic, selfless, total Gift that is the very heart of the universe, Love giving to Love in a ceaseless Whirlwind of Love. And God has willed that each of us should have this amazing mystery planted right in our bodies, created male and female to become Gift for each other! May we have the eyes to see it! For a beautiful tour of the work of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, visit the Vatican's website by clicking here!