{"id":453,"date":"2022-04-20T16:33:28","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T16:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/2022\/04\/20\/when-heaven-earth-click\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T20:16:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T20:16:16","slug":"when-heaven-earth-click","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/when-heaven-earth-click\/","title":{"rendered":"When heaven & earth click"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWhile they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.\u201d -Luke 24:15-16<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe Jesus has been right next to you, and you didn\u2019t even realize it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 1960s a Catholic nun named Corita Kent<\/a> saw Andy Warhol\u2019s new, explosive art: Campbell\u2019s Soup Cans<\/em><\/a> \u2013 a series of silkscreen prints of exactly what it sounds like. Warhol\u2019s prints remain controversial,  but for Corita, they clicked<\/em>. There was something more going on under the brand labels and advertisements that we see every day. Soon, Corita Kent was the \u201cpop art nun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through her own art, Corita began to highlight how spiritual messages might be found in the aisles of the grocery store or in-between the newspaper headlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her 1962 silkscreen print wonderbread<\/em> <\/a>depicts twelve round communion wafers in the blue, red, and yellow style of Wonderbread packaging, inviting us to ask, \u201cWhat really is the wonder-bread?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for eleanor<\/em><\/a> displays the giant cursive \u201cG\u201d logo of General Mills with the added text: \u201cThe big G stands for goodn[ess]\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another print<\/a> blares the word TOMATO in the giant block letters of advertising, while the smaller handwriting includes the words: \u201cif a canned food company feels justified in saying their tomatoes are the juiciest, it is not desecration to say, \u2018Mother Mary is the juiciest tomato of them all.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By bringing the mundane and commercial into the realm of sacred contemplation, Corita Kent invited us to look beyond the advertising messages constantly bombarding us, using them to push through all this consumerism and peer into the realm of the holy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the ancient Easter Proclamation<\/a>, which Pastor Jim read during the Chapel\u2019s Easter Vigil service this past weekend, we hear these wondrous words: \u201cThis is the night in which heaven and earth are joined \u2013 things human and things divine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the theology behind Corita\u2019s art. She once wrote: \u201cWe lift the common stuff \u2013 groceries and signs about groceries \u2013 out of the everyday and give it a place in our celebration, and heaven and earth will not be so far apart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The connection of heaven and earth; the mundane and the holy; the human and the divine \u2013 this was also the point of Jesus coming into the world. Corita wanted to remind us that the connection between us and God continues in our own daily lives. \u201cThe Incarnation is still going on and is still bursting like firecrackers and sending out great shoots of light into all things around us.\u201d1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe Jesus has been right next to you, and you didn\u2019t even realize it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the gospel story that has come to be known as the \u201cRoad to Emmaus\u201d (Luke 24:13-34<\/a>), two of Jesus\u2019 disciples are walking from Jerusalem to the nearby village of Emmaus. It\u2019s Easter Sunday, just hours after Jesus\u2019 resurrection, and they are trying to process the week\u2019s chaos: Jesus\u2019 arrest, his speedy trial, his crucifixion. And now word is spreading that Jesus\u2019 tomb is empty; some of the women are saying that they saw angels, who told them that Jesus is alive. But no one else has seen Jesus.\u201cWe had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel,\u201d they say, and the question hangs in the air: was he or wasn\u2019t he the Messiah?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they\u2019re walking along, a man joins them on their way. The author lets us know that the man is Jesus \u2013 but the disciples have no idea. For some reason they don\u2019t recognize him. He joins their conversation; he teaches them about the Messiah from the scriptures; they feel the power of his teaching…but they still don\u2019t recognize him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until dinner. There\u2019s a moment that would have been so ordinary for these Jewish people: Jesus takes the bread, offers up a prayer, and passes it around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BOOM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the breaking of ordinary bread, they suddenly realize that Jesus has been with them this whole time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe Jesus has been right next to you, and you didn\u2019t even realize it.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We long to know God\u2019s presence through undeniable events: miracles, visions, answers to prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We find it easiest to feel God\u2019s presence in grandeur: the bright, towering windows of the Chapel; the soaring music of worship; the perfection of our plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the most holy moments in the life of the church are made up of the most ordinary things in the world: water, bread, and wine. God comes to us in the things we know. God comes to us in the things we need. After all, it\u2019s the ordinary things we need most: food and water; shelter and safety; relationships; moments of stillness. And it is through these things that God has promised, over and over, to be with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one of Corita Kent\u2019s prints puts it: \u201cGod\u2019s not dead, he\u2019s bread.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pr. Kate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1<\/sup> About her work on the celebration of Mary Day at her convent. Quoted in Cassidy Klein, \u201cFinding Solace in the Work of the Pop Art Nun,\u201d Sojourners<\/em>, August 2021. https:\/\/sojo.net\/interactive\/finding-solace-work-pop-art-nun<\/a> Accessed 19 April 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rev. Katherine Museus Dabay<\/a> takes turns writing weekly devotions with Rev. James A. Wetzstein at Valparaiso University, where both serve as university pastors.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhile they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.\u201d -Luke 24:15-16 Maybe Jesus has been right next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-katherine-museus","category-csl-newsletter-devotionals"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"dev@eridesign.com","author_link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/author\/deveridesign-com\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/04\/godsnotdeadhesbread-300x265.webp","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Katherine Museus<\/a>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Katherine Museus<\/span>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 years ago","modified":"Updated 1 year ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on April 20, 2022","modified":"Updated on August 18, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on April 20, 2022 4:33 pm","modified":"Updated on August 18, 2025 8:16 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":782,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions\/782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}