The Last Judgement by Michelangelo Buonarroti in the Sistine Chapel at the
Vatican: Photo: CNS The View
Paradise is depicted at the beginning of the Bible as a heavenly garden. Given that the origin of the Jewish religion was in a mainly dry, hot and arid region of the Middle East, not surprisingly a fertile and fruitful garden represented an ideal habitation for humanity.
The story inspired great works of art, such as Haydn’s oratorio The Creation, the libretto for which was drawn not only from the Bible but John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Wisely perhaps, it did go much into the subject of the fall, where today the biblical account of the blame game is very problematic to modern sensibilities. If his powers had lasted longer, Haydn would have been tempted by a considerably more daunting subject for an oratorio, the Day of Judgment, at the other end, if a libretto from Goethe had been available. Goethe in his reworking of Faust did broach the subject of damnation, inspiring both Berlioz and Gounod. The greatest work of art on the subject is its depiction in the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo.
Risks
One of the biggest fears today, if one were to translate it into religious language, is that mankind risks being damned for its environmental sins. We in Ireland mostly benefit from relatively benign climatic conditions, but this may not always remain the case, and we could equally be adversely affected by the knock-on consequences of a dramatic deterioration elsewhere. Even if we are not a major contributor to world pollution, we have a responsibility to work for its reduction in solidarity with others.
As records of the past show, the Irish climate can be harsh, but most of us are relatively insulated from its worst effects by modern living and working conditions. As a result, we are more conscious of the privilege of living in a country with a climate favourable to agriculture, forestry, and prolific and colourful plants. While the pleasure of floral beauty can be created in very limited spaces, we also have large-scale parks and gardens run by public authorities as well as those owned by private individuals and organisations that open them to the public. While there are fine gardens in other countries, we have a share of them ourselves, with an advantage of abundant sunshine and rain. In many climates, irrigation is a challenge, and the range of plants and trees that can survive and flourish in intense heat and long periods of drought is limited.
Garden
Last week, on holiday with extended family in Mayo, my wife Liz and I revisited the beautifully-maintained walled garden of Kylemore Abbey set against a magnificent background of mountains and lakes. My mother, whose hobby was landscape painting and who took lessons with Kenneth Webb, painted the Abbey twice. Benedictine nuns relocating from Ypres in war-torn Belgium took over around 1920 a fine estate laid out by Mitchell Henry MP, and used it in particular to run a girls’ boarding school. As stated here previously, the survival of some of Ireland’s architectural heritage through turbulent times owes much to occupancy by religious orders.
Well-kept and restored parks and gardens are among the country’s biggest visitor attractions. Their value has been underscored by the pandemic, and over time park maintenance and improvement has become a high priority for local authorities. While housing is a vital need, providing it should not be at the price of amenity spaces, where people can exercise and children can play. There is a potential contradiction between higher housing density and the social distancing required by any pandemic, which authorities responsible for planning and development need to re-evaluate.
This country has overall a low density of population compared to our neighbours. Even a small garden or box-plant well-kept can create occupation and pleasure that contributes to quality of life and mental health. While it may not be a priority or a necessity for everyone, many experts are too ready to dismiss it. One can only speak from personal experience, but contact and physical work with nature as well as with animals, whether domestic or farm, is a great aid to sanity. I suspect even those charged with the highest demands of spiritual welfare try as far as they can to remain earthed.
In many countries, there is a sharp divide between winter and summer. Winter here is rarely barren. Holly berries, daphnes, jasmine and winter-flowering cherries blossom. In the mild Blackwater Valley in Co. Cork, certain types of rhododendron even come into flower in late December. Beginning with snowdrops, plants, shrubs and trees gradually come to life, illustrating nature’s power of renewal. A fireworks display is short and spectacular. Natural displays can also be spectacular, but are on view throughout the year. Kant once linked as sources of wonder the starry firmament above and the moral law within.
Equilibrium
Many parts of our world, through hunger, conflict, disease and other afflictions, natural or man-made, are far from paradise, and more resemble a living hell, reminding the more fortunate of the amount that needs to be done to create any sort of human equilibrium. That is where religious values come in aid or should.
Coming back from Mayo, we stopped to look in on St Mary’s Church, Headford, consecrated by Archbishop John MacHale in 1865, for which a programme of restoration is underway. It was built thanks to an energetic priest Fr Peter Conway with the help of money that he raised from Irish exiles in America. The land for the church, the priest’s house and a school was given, after some dispute and after evangelical opposition was sidelined, by the local landowner, a collateral relative of mine. The influence of the Church in the community was in the ascendant, that of the landlord on the decline, but in 1865 a harmony of interest had, for the purpose of providing proper Catholic church facilities for the vast majority, been achieved. A booklet describing all this and more, A Journey of Hope, is on sale in the church for €2.