John Michael Talbot's Foreword for Alexamenos

A Kind Word from a Brother for Whom I am Deeply Grateful

When we first moved to Arkansas almost fifteen years ago, all I really knew about the state was that a monk named John Michael Talbot lived with his community just outside of Eureka Springs. I knew this because I had been listening to John Michael Talbot’s meditative music since high school and had looked him online. Had you told me when I moved here that John Michael Talbot would write the Foreword for my work on the Alexamenos Graffito, I would not have believed it. But over many trips to Little Portion Hermitage and through some meaningful conversations with Brother John, we have come to know each other a bit. I am likely still “that Baptist pastor down near Little Rock” to Brother John, and I am happy with that. His music and ministry have been a blessing to me. And, now, this Foreword is a blessing. John and I have differences, as he says. I am a Southern Baptist pastor. He is the Catholic head of a monastic community. But we have a common love for Jesus. That is not a bad place to start!

Also, here is my favorite John Michael Talbot song.

Foreword

Pastor Wyman Richardson comes from a very different perspective of Christianity than I do. He’s a Baptist, and I’m a Catholic. He lives in the secular world and I’m a monastic. He’s and pastor and I’m a monastic abba. He’s an educated Doctor of Ministry and I’m a monastic rustic reader of ancient books. He has a great love for movies, novels and artistic motifs, and I’m a simple musician and author.

But we both love Jesus and the apostolic tradition of the fathers, mothers and monastic heritage that gave birth to the deeper mystical heart of the Christian faith. We have a friendship birthed from his pilgrimages to our Little Portion Hermitage and Monastery in the rugged Ozarks of Northwest Arkansas. Plus, I seem to recall he likes the simple music God gave me to share.

It is from this friendship and common ground in Christ that Wyman asked me to write a Foreword to this book on the “graffiti” of a young slave of Rome mocking the faith of another Christian slave. It is a blasphemous graffiti of the Christian slave worshipping a crucified human with the head of a donkey. It’s a blasphemy against Christ and a mockery of the Christian slave.

But what begins as a blasphemous mockery becomes a rather wonderful meditational devotion into the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God as a Man. A Man crucified for all humanity to reconcile all creation back to the full Communion of the Trinity in Christ. It is that and much more. For it is only from the Incarnation and Crucifixion that the Resurrection can take place, which is the pinnacle of the mission of Jesus Christ. By the time of the later letters of St. Paul the Cross and Resurrection had melded into one mystical reality typified by the Cross, usually seen with the sacred Body upon it in ancient icons. That’s what is mocked in this graffiti.

The book begins with personal stories and artistic analogies but quickly gets to the point and is pure gold! This little anti-Christian graffiti from Ancient Rome has much to affirm about the belief of the ancient Roman Christians. And their faith was built on solid rock! (see Mt. 16: 18)

Wyman and I are different. But Jesus and the ancient apostolic Church unite us in Christ. The outstretched arms of Christ on the cross unite the east and west, north and south, left and right, rich and poor. Jesus unites all who accept Him. He unites the donkeys and racehorses, the humans and the animals, the animate and inanimate, and brings us back to our preternatural state in a way according to our order as much as possible this side of heaven. He makes us fully human again by restoring the divine gift we have all lost. This is seen in the great saints of history who walked among wild animals as if they were domestic pets. (See St. Francis of Assisi and St. Seraphim of Sarov.) And we will all see it in heaven in a way beyond what we can possibly expect or imagine. I know that Wyman and I both look forward to that great and glorious Day!

John Michael Talbot
Founder and Spiritual Father
The Brothers and Sisters of Charity at
Little Portion Hermitage and Monastery
Berryville, AR