Art/ Heritage

PICTURING THE PASSION: ‘Christ Carrying the Cross’ by El Greco (1577 – 1587)

The best understood symbol of Christianity is undoubtedly the Cross; a dead tree on which was hung the Saviour who brought life to the world. With life, the cross also provided an identity to Christians and a hope to faith. El Greco, through his painting ‘Christ carrying the cross’ magnifies the essence of this identity and hope. He rejects all theatrical skills in order to evoke an attentive soul to the profound beauty found in Christ and His Cross.

Born in Crete in 1541, Domenikos Theotokopoulos, nicknamed ‘El Greco’ (the Greek), was a man with a vision of embodying a higher realm of spirit within the mortal realm of the soul.  Although initially trained as an icon painter, he soon transformed himself from the flat symbolic world to master the dynamic elements of the Renaissance.

His approach was also influenced by the characteristics of his time. Europe, during El Greco’s age, was in a state of religious upheaval. The Reformation, in full swing, had triggered a series of events, including the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563). Inorder to cleanse the Church of its evils, the Council devised decrees that had an impact on all the facets of life.

The execution of this rectified religion and faith required instruction and education.  The best way to communicate to the illiterate was undoubtedly through art. Paintings served as mediums of not only information but also visual contemplation that aimed to stimulate imagination and spirituality. In keeping with the tenets of the Counter Reformation, El Greco’s art achieves precisely that.

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Catching the bull by its tail-Wednesday, 5th Week of Lent –  John 8:31- 42

So this is a classic case of catching the bull by its tail. The result is obvious; you get bull shit! Not a great way to begin a gospel reflection but it makes the silliness of the Jews quite evident. Jesus is doing some straight talk; the Jews are on an emotional trip to nowhere.

It is for this reason, that by the time we arrive at the end of Chapter 8, it becomes obvious that the two have divergent paths of thinking. Jesus will finally utter the great words, “Before Abraham was, I AM” and with one swift move will declare to the Jews that HE IS GOD.  The Jews will hear a blasphemer and pick stones to kill Him.

In yesterday’s pericope, Jesus reached a point of frustration when He said to the Jews, “why do I speak to you at all?” But hardly has He finished venting His frustrations at their lack of understanding, than He gives them one more shot and tries convincing them, all over again. It’s amazing how the Lord never gives up on us!

The invitation of Jesus is to those who wish to ‘truly be His disciples’. It is an invitation to ‘remain in His word, ‘a word of truth, that will set one free.’ It is God’s word that will preserve us from the bondage of sin. Remember how Jesus battled satan in the desert? He did so by using the ‘word’ against the lies of satan.

Sin ‘enslaves’ us, period! And enslavement to sin deprives us of our ‘permanent place’ in the house of God. But Jesus, the sinless one, has a place there for everyone (Verse 35). It is Jesus who desires to set us free from satan and welcomes us into ‘His house’.  What keeps us away from making that shift, is the ‘I’ of ego. The same ‘I’ that is found as the central alphabet in the word SIN.

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Listening or Hearing? 5th Week of Lent- Tuesday- John 8: 21-30

The frustration is pouring out and this time it’s not the Jews. Yup! It’s Jesus. His exact words are, “why do I speak to you at all?” (I kid you not, those are His exact words). Maybe its not a statement of frustration as much as it is of judgement, and if so, what’s got Him all riled up?

Jesus is in the treasury of the temple and has declared Himself to be ‘the light of the world’ to the Jews who were quite evidently, spiritually blind. This blindness is manifested in their line of questioning, “where is your Father?” This will prompt Jesus to clearly indicate that He is the Son of the Heavenly Father and that ‘He is from above and they are from below.’

Did they get the point? Absolutely not! So they carry on with their mindless three and four word questions; ‘Who are you’?, ‘Where is your Father?’ ‘Is he going to kill himself?’ In response to these questions Jesus makes some extraordinarily explosive statements. In verse 23 He repeats those controversial ‘I am statements’, which end with judgement; if they don’t believe that He is ‘I am’ then they will die in their sin of disbelief. Jesus simply declared Himself to be God.

Seriously you wonder, why did they not stone Him? That is answered in verse 20, ‘his hour had not yet come.’ So we now have the context of this pericope; let’s look at the ‘take away’ from the text. In the gospel of John, the sin of the Jews is their unbelief. He says this clearly in 16:9, “About sin, because they do not believe in me.” 

Belief is the matter of the heart and here in lays the problem. The Jews had long closed their hearts to the words of Jesus and so they ended up hearing and not listening. What the difference? Have you ever had a loved one say to you, “you’re not listening to me”; only to find you repeating their words in a triumphant, “you were wrong, look I repeated your words.” Yet the person making the accusation is right, while you are ‘technically’ right but obviously wrong.

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Louder than words- Encapsulating the life of St Joseph, the Just – Feast of St Joseph – Luke 2: 41- 51

So are all Joseph’s dreamers? Well the Bible presents us with another dreamer, this time in the New Testament and he is the foster father of Jesus. St Joseph’s dreams don’t require any interpretation like the ones in Zechariah or Daniel. His dreams are straightforward though their execution called for obedience; and obey he did.

So I often wonder why we don’t make much of St Joseph. For some reason we have made him the third person of the Holy Family and often the least acknowledged for his role. Joseph, like Mary also said yes! Yes to a socially interpreted scandalous marriage, yes to being homeless, yes to being a refugee, yes to being a foster father and this last one being a tough one. Joseph said YES; and yet there are no hymns that I know that sing of his ‘fiat.’(From the Latin, “let it be done”)

The gospel of today speaks of another lost son, not prodigal, but lost all the same. Jesus in a very theological sense was not lost, He was where He should be, ‘in his Father’s house’; but his parents most certainly though they had lost him. 

Luke is the only gospel that gives us a story from Jesus’ childhood. This precocious little twelve year old most certainly gave Mary and Joseph a three day fright. The first words that Jesus spoke in the New Testament, are recorded in this narrative; “Why were you searching for me, did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Make no mistake, for all the love my parents have for me, that statement coupled with three days of insane stressful searching would have earned me a good thrashing. And yet I presume Joseph and Mary were silent and not angry. How often perhaps, in His childhood, had Jesus said things that only solicited puzzled glances from Mary and Joseph? 

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A matter of life and death- Fifth Sunday of Lent – John 12:20-30

Jesus has clearly accepted the cross in His life. He has come to Jerusalem for the Passover but this will be the last time He is here. It is Palm Sunday and Jesus has entered Jerusalem to the shouts of Hosanna. The Pharisees are seething with anger as they sense the loss of control as the “world has gone after Him.” However, the crowds that follow Jesus are still divided and unable to square up His claims of being the Messiah. We are told that among them are some Greeks who approach Philip with a wish to see Jesus.

The irony of this passage is all too evident. The ones who seek Jesus are Gentiles; the ones that the Jews scoffed at and mockingly called them “dogs”. For the Jews, these were pagans, yet they come seeking Jesus while the Jews reject Him.  Josephus, the historian tells us that there were ‘God fearing’ Gentiles who came to Jerusalem to worship at the Passover.

In Chapter 7:35, the crowds express their curiosity about Jesus teaching ministry. Would Jesus go to Gentile land to minister in the Diaspora?  Perhaps by the time that John wrote the Gospel, the process of evangelization had moved from the Jews to the Samaritans and now to the Gentiles. It is the Gentiles who seek the Lord and this helps explain their presence in Jerusalem.

 In this narrative, the Greeks wish to see Jesus but we are not told if they do. They make a request to Philip who tells Andrew, and together they tell Jesus (verses 21-23).  Andrew is no stranger to the word ‘see’. One chapter earlier, when he was curious to find out where Jesus lived, he was told. “come and see.” Jesus’ discourse that follows is, in part, a response to this request. If you wish to see Jesus, then this is what you will and must see and a lot of it may not be pleasant.

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