Open House
Kevin Hanna
USA

The house in the center of this imposing scene is a manger. The manger is an open house. It has walls but they are mostly open doors. It has a roof that covers nothing. A flight of steps leads up to the landing, but the landing has no portal. This is no house to stay. People come and go. This monumental representation of salvation history does not yet tell from where people come. But it allows for more than a cursory glance in the direction they take.

There are many stations on the way they walk, some marked with misery, some others a genuine joy to behold, still others sweet and bitter all at once. Leaving the house of Bethlehem, we follow the Holy Family on their flight to Egypt, we join them in the temple, and move on with them to Nazareth. Each one of these scenes begs attention: Joseph's protective hand and fearful eyes as he looks back in panic at Herod's hordes; the wisdom and goodness on Simeon's and Anna's faces at the presentation; the not so ordinary scene of family life in Nazareth where clay birds are flying while father and mother are doing domestic chores. As we move on we find Jesus sitting in the temple and lecturing the wise, his feet dangling and still far from touching the ground.

The next scene, one tier up, represents the wedding at Cana. Jesus and his mother are submerged in an explosion of joy, pointing out that in music and dance, eating and drinking, there is something of God. As the journey continues, Jesus gathers his first disciples: his own mother, the woman at the well, some of the many who ate from the little bread and fish, and Nicodemus with the lamp seeking the light. Most of these scenes are built into or around a church building.

The church wants to be understood as counterpoint to the manger house. If the stable was windy, exposed, and provisional, the church in turn projects stability and permanence. Less welcoming and somewhat forbidding, at least in appearance, it is a lieu of conservation and celebration. However, to be true to its origins, the Church must always accept to be challenged by the spirit of the crèche, its defenselessness before God and generosity for the earth. What we see here is only part of a more complete representation of salvation history. Beautiful in its incompleteness, it remains a torso. But soon the artist will give us the whole panorama of God's dealings with humanity, from creation to the fulfillment of all in eternity.

This monumental narrative in clay, which will count close to two hundred figures, will be solemnly unveiled during the year 2000 at the University of Dayton.