Art/ Heritage

THE PROFESSION OF FAITH: ‘The Incredulity of St. Thomas’ by Caravaggio (1601 -1602)

 On the evening of the first day of the Resurrection, Christ appeared to His apostles and bestowed upon them the gift of peace. Poor Thomas missed the apparition. Disillusioned and disturbed he refused to believe and blurted out, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

A week had passed since. It was supper time and the disciples bowed their heads to pray. They remembered with great joy their encounter with the Risen Lord. To Thomas this made no sense.  He was bitter and disappointed. Deep down his fragile heart he wondered whether the words of his friends were true. If indeed they were, he felt dejected for having missed the encounter with his Risen Saviour.

As he bowed his head to pray, he struggled. The battle in his mind grew stronger. Suddenly he heard a familiar sound that calmed the storm within him, ‘Peace be with you.’ the voice said. Thomas at once recognised that this was indeed his Master. Jesus lovingly called out to Thomas and invited him to fulfil his desire. Embarrassed, Thomas dared not meet His Master’s eye.

Caravaggio, the father of the Baroque school of art, with the masterful stroke of his brush brings this episode to life. His colours brilliantly agree with the dark inorder to throw light on the Gospel and the faith that it proclaims. His painting dwells on the most famously dubbed ‘doubting Thomas’.

Four meticulously rendered figures complete the canvas. Although Christ face is shadowed, his chest and white garments are bathed in light. The light enters the canvas through an external source. It leads us in a circular motion from Jesus to Thomas and from Thomas to the other two apostles. Completing the circle we are once again drawn to Christ, the first and last figure we behold.

Notice the garb of Thomas. It is ripped indicating his poverty, rather his poor faith. It also mirrors his debacle between his doubt and his desire to believe. He bends low and peers closely at the open side, his left hand perched doggedly on his hip. As he stretches out his quivering finger towards the stigmata, Christ Himself indulgently holds his hand and guides his probing finger into the gaping open wound. As the skin is pushed up by the invading knuckle, Thomas gasps in amazement. His doubt dissolves into belief. His raw emotion permeates the beauty of this canvas. The quest for empirical data was complete.

St. Thomas at once realised that this was not a ghostly Christ. Rather his encounter bore witness to the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus our Saviour. Christ here was real flesh and blood.  He was tangible, palpable and alive. Awestruck, Thomas opened his heart and exclaimed, ‘My Lord and My God.’ His faith was restored and made whole.

The other two apostles, namely Peter and John, overlooking the scene, stand in absolute fascination as they bear witness to the tangible phenomenon. The emphasis on the physical, rather Real Presence of Christ was crucial in Caravaggio’s day and age, as the winds of the Counter Reformation grew stronger. 

As the Easter songs of Alleluia resound the room, in the shadows of Christ face one perceives a vulnerable Saviour. Tenderly, he gazes at the curious faces of His apostles and friends. His poignancy stands in contrast to their searching stares and poking noses. Christ, by revealing His wounded side, represents the new Adam, who gave birth to a new Eve. Undoubtedly this new Eve is the bride of Christ i.e. the Church; the Church that still professes the faith of St. Thomas, ‘My Lord and My God!’

 

Joynel Fernandes- Asst. Director- Archdiocesan Heritage Museum

 

In thankfulness to God for the Gift of 18 years in the priesthood- Fr Warner D’Souza

For a scriptural understanding of the Gospel please refer to: http://www.pottypadre.com/?s=Doubting+Thomas

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Faith

When enemies make strange bed fellows- Saturday- Octave of Easter- Acts 4:13- 21

A trial of sorts is on and Peter and John stand accused of an act of kindness. It has taken the might of Jewish Sanhedrin to come together.  Politics they say make strange bed fellows, and so this incident should not raise eyebrows in surprise.

We are told that Peter and John have healed a cripple in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. A frenzied crowd sees in this act, not the hand of God, but the wonders of humans. Peter gives all the glory to Jesus of Nazareth and calls for a repentance of sin, which leads to the second mass conversion of five thousand people; this time in the very temple of Jerusalem.

Prompted by jealousy, the might of the Sanhedrin gets together; yet as I said it’s a strange assembly for among Peter and John’s accusers, are groups of people who would not get under one umbrella on even the stormiest day; yet they now stand side by side.

Take for example the Pharisees who now stand beside the Sadducees. One understands why the Sadducees were jumping up and down protesting against Peter and John, for John and Peter were preaching a resurrected Christ. The Sadducees denied the belief in the resurrection and angels, something that the Pharisees held close to their heart. Yet while they could never see eye to eye on anything, they now choose to stand hand in hand against the apostles.

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Faith

Preaching not from might but what is right- Friday, Octave of Easter- Acts 4:1-12

For most of us, the heightened spiritual season of Lent gives way to a more relaxed season of Easter. We feel that we have ‘achieved’ much and ‘endured’ much through Lent, and so the Easter season is a period of ‘spiritual reward’! While we may take comfort in such thoughts today, it was certainly not the reality for the early Church.

The early Church under the apostles lived the first fifty days post resurrection, in fear of losing their own lives. However, once they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they were working twenty four seven; now with certain risk to their lives. There was no time for the apostles to sit back.

Chapter four and five of the Acts of the Apostles gives us an insight into the life and trials of the Apostolic Church; a trial that sprang up out of jealousy, for it was a “good deed done to someone” that got the authorities all riled up. One could see the pretext being made out of no apparent context. It sounds a bit amusing that the preaching of two uneducated fishermen was enough to stir the entire Jewish establishment, bringing together the whole shebang to call for a trial.

We are told that at this ‘trial’, a formal session of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin was called. It consisted of the “rulers, elders and scribes along with Annas the High Priest, Caiaphas, John and Alexander and all of the high priestly family. From the historian Josephus, we know that Annas was high priest in 6-15 AD., and his son-in-law Caiaphas was high priest at this time (18-36 AD.; John 11:49; 18:13). The identities of John and Alexander (4:6) are unknown, but some manuscripts read “Jonathan” instead of John. (Jonathan was the name of Annas’s son, who became high priest in 36-37 AD).

There are three takeaways from today’s readings. The first is that this is the third recorded speech or homily recorded in the Acts of the Apostle. In each case, Peter uses the opportunity presented, to preach Christ. Evangelization does not need an organized forum, a pulpit or a stage; it needs a willing heart that is never afraid to preach Christ, and preach the truth. Peter, in proclaiming that it was Jesus who healed the cripple, also blames the ‘supreme council’ of the Jews for crucifying Jesus.

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Easter, a call to repentance! Thursday, Octave in Easter- Acts 3:11-26

The first miracle in the Acts of the Apostles is followed by a homily; a homily not made by choice but by necessity. Peter and John are besieged by a throng of people in Solomon’s Portico, who attribute the miracle to the human hands of Peter and John, and not to the divine. 

So Solomon’s Portico became the setting for Peter’s second homily. According to Josephus, Solomon’s Portico was a double-columned porch on the east side of the Temple near the court of the Gentiles. It was about 23 feet wide and the columns were about 40 feet tall. Josephus the historian claimed they were white marble with cedar-panels for a ceiling.

Peter and John take absolutely no credit for the cripple’s healing; that glory belongs to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The patriarchs mentioned in this text would certainly have not gone unnoticed, for every Jew would harken to these names while calling on YHWH (The Jews never called God by name and so never even wrote the vowels in His name, making His name impossible to be taken). Curiously Peter also adds another line, “the God of our ancestors has glorified His servant Jesus.”

This title “servant” would have not been lost on the Jews listening to Peter. They were familiar with the servant Psalms of Isaiah (Chapter 42, 49, 50, 52 and 53). Now that Peter has their attention, he proceeds with his sermon whose theme and content is modelled on similar elements in his Pentecost homily. Christ was rejected, handed to Pilate, put to death but raised from the dead.

But to the reader familiar with Peter, one can see a change from the apostle in the Gospels as compared to the apostle in Acts. No longer is Peter impetuous, for there is a marked temperance in his thought. Now he speaks also with compassion, for according to him, the murder of the “author of life” was also an act of ignorance on the part of the people and rulers.

Perhaps what should strike the reader the most in this homily, is the recurring theme of repentance. It is a repentance of sin that was called for in Peter’s Pentecost homily, and that won the Church three thousand converts, and the same theme recurs in the homily given in Solomon’s Portico which will win the Church five thousand converts.

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Faith

Beggar to believer- Wednesday in the Octave of Easter- Acts 3:1-10

The narration of the healing of the crippled beggar by Peter and John, and the subsequent address by Peter in Solomon’s portico will be taken up by the lectionary in two parts. Today we will hear the miracle, and tomorrow the homily. These actions on the part of Peter and John will lead to the first persecution in the Church.

While in chapter two we hear in a generalised way “that many signs and wonders were done”, here is the first recorded miracle performed by the apostles. If you look at the pattern of this healing story, it is typical of a miracle story in the life of Jesus. It is interesting to note how the Church follows Christ, as it should be.

We are told that Peter and John enter the temple at three pm which was one of the three hours of prayer for a pious Jew, and it is here that they see a man who was lame from birth being carried in. We are told that the cripple is laid at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful gate.

Let us talk a bit about this gate which Josephus the historian records. He says this gate was called the ‘Nicanor’ gate and was seventy five feet high and made out of Corinthian bronze. It was a gate that separated the court of the woman from the court of the men or Israel. Fifteen steps led to the court of the women, and it was here that the cripple was placed.

Scripture also tells us that this man was begging from people ‘entering the temple’; technically he is ‘outside the temple’. He has not come as a worshipper but as one seeking charity. He asks Peter and John for alms and so we can surmise that he was not looking for a healing, he was looking for a hand-out.  Interestingly after his healing he ‘enters’ the temple as a worshipper and a man of faith.

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