The Place, The Word, The Image — contemplation of cosmos in “Roman Triptych”

Article is about John Paul II Roman Triptych. I tried to analyze it, following triple key: place, word, and image. Why? Because author is using constantly such approach which S. Ignatius Loyola is applying in contemplation and meditation in his spiritual exercises. Cardinal J. Ratzinger in his Introduction to Roman Triptych wrote: “John Paul II’s Roman Triptych mirrors the experience of creation, its beauty and its life. The idea […] came to mind that were written by Karol Wojtyla in 1976 when he preached the retreat for Paul VI and the Curia. […] Every time I find myself before the majesty of nature, of the mountains, I feel that HE exists. One can speak of two different ways of perceiving nature! Certainly, the first panel of the triptych closes almost timidly on the threshold” 61. First place are the mountains, silvery cascade, nature. In the same time nature is image of God’s presence and is kind of Word. Pope was seeking of the source of being. Using meditation and contemplation as transcendental reduction, he invited us to start our pilgrimage “against the current”. To be on the place, to hear Word and to see Image. Joseph Ratzinger wrote: “With these words he seeks its source and receives directions: “If you want to find the source, you have to go up, against the current” […]. The spiritual pilgrimage, accomplished in this text, leads towards the “Beginning”. On arriving, the true surprise is that the “beginning” also reveals the “end”62. I also took another intuition of Ratzinger for myself: “The name of the source that the pilgrim discovers is above all the “Word” […]. However, the true key word that sums up the pilgrimage in the second panel of the Triptych is not “Word”, but rather vision and seeing. The Word has a face. The Word — the source — is a vision. Creation, the universe, comes from a vision”63. Word is linked with Vision of Image and has his own Place. We are called to recover that gaze, became sharers of that gaze…to learn from God how to see.