The Name That Saves: The Healing of the Lame Man

Nicolas Poussin ( 1594–1665 )

Saints Peter and John Healing the Lame Man

1655

Oil on canvas

49 1/2 x 65 in. (125.7 x 165.1 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum, New York

The catalogue of The Metropolitan says of this work:

The subject of Saints Peter and John Healing the Lame Man, the first miracle performed by the Apostles after the death of Christ, is taken from Acts 3:1–10.  

At the gate of the Temple of Jerusalem a lame man begging for alms is miraculously cured by Peter, who asks him to rise up and walk, and John, who touches his arm and points to heaven—the true source of the miracle.  

The stairs, at the top of which this encounter is staged, are animated with carefully balanced figure groups, not unlike Raphael's 1508 fresco of the "School of Athens" (Vatican Museums). 

Some of the witnesses express amazement, while others simply go about their business. 

The young man on the second step gazing toward the right has been borrowed from Raphael's fresco.  

The facial type of the lame man and, to a great extent, his pose are closely modeled on the figure in Raphael's cartoon of this subject, and the hands of Saint Peter and the lame man recall those of Adam and God the Father in Michelangelo's famous "Creation of Adam" in the Sistine Chapel ... 

[M]ade  for Monsieur Mercier, treasurer at Lyons, in 1655 (see Refs. Félibien 1685 and Loménie de Brienne 1695). According to Loménie, it passed from Mercier to a Monsieur de Bordeaux, a financial official, and then to his secretary. All of this must have taken place within a brief time frame, as the picture clearly belonged to the painter Jacques Stella by 1657, the year of his death.

It is believed that Poussin painted in the mid-1650s, suggesting it is a deliberate attempt to equal or excel Raphael's tapestry cartoons of the Acts of the Apostles

All in all, an important work and one seen as such by the artist and his contemporaries. It is more than just an essai on Cityscapes rather than Landscapes

The fact that the hands of Saint Peter and the lame man recall those of Adam and God the Father in Michelangelo's famous "Creation of Adam" in the Sistine Chapel is not perhaps a mere detail.

The event takes place after the Crucifixion, after the Resurrection, the Ascension and Pentecost

As the catalogue makes clear it is the first miracle performed by the Apostles after the Death of Christ

The aftermath of the event is more instructive. It demonstrates the importance and significance of the event. It is  related in Acts 4

Peter and John are hauled up before the Sanhedrin for the miracle and for their teaching

The Sanhedrin  was an assembly of twenty to twenty-three men appointed in every city in the biblical Land of Israel.

This court dealt with only religious matters. The Great Sanhedrin was made up of a Chief/Prince/Leader called Nasi (at some times this position may have been held by the Kohen Gadol or the High Priest), a vice chief justice (Av Beit Din), and sixty-nine general members. 

In the Second Temple period, the Great Sanhedrin met in the Hall of Hewn Stones in the Temple in Jerusalem. 

This was the Court before which Christ was condemned. At that time Peter issued his three denials of Christ

Later St Stephen (Acts 6 and following) and then St Paul (Acts 21 et seq)

We should not of course forget the presence of St John in the painting

John is the witness and the ever faithful and beloved disciple of Christ

He is pointing upwards. We recall John 5  and the healing of the lame paralytic by Christ on the Sabbath at the Pool of Bethesda in the temple area in Jerusalem

Christ is attacked by the Temple authorities because  he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God

But we also recall Christ`s words about Resurrection and Eternal life:

"Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. 

25 Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 

26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself. 

27 And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 

28 Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voices 

29 and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation. 

30 I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

What has changed since Peter was last up before the Sanhedrin, or the time that Christ cured the lame man in the Temple precincts to the fury of the members of the Sanhedrin? 

The Crucifixion ? No. Alone that would have been a single tragic event which, as Pope Benedict XVI, said illustrates "the absurdity of being"

It is quite simply that decisive event  called  The Resurrection.

Pope Benedict XVI explained it in his Catechesis on St Paul in 2008: Saint Paul (11) The Importance of Christology: the Decisiveness of the Resurrection.

""If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain... and you are still in your sins" (1 Cor 15: 14-17). 

With these strong words from the First Letter to the Corinthians, St Paul makes clear the decisive importance he attributes to the Resurrection of Jesus. In this event, in fact, lies the solution to the problem posed by the drama of the Cross. 

The Cross alone could not explain the Christian faith, indeed it would remain a tragedy, an indication of the absurdity of being. 

The Paschal Mystery consists in the fact that the Crucified man "was raised on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures" (1 Cor 15: 4), as proto-Christian tradition attests. 

This is the keystone of Pauline Christology: everything rotates around this gravitational centre. The whole teaching of Paul the Apostle starts from, and arrives at, the mystery of him whom the Father raised from the dead. 

The Resurrection is a fundamental fact, almost a prior axiom (cf. 1 Cor 15: 12), on the basis of which Paul can formulate his synthetic proclamation (kerygma). 

He who was crucified and who thus manifested God's immense love for man, is risen again, and is alive among us. "

Benedict went on to say:

"In synthesis, we can say with Paul that the true believer obtains salvation by professing with his mouth that Jesus is the Lord and believing in his heart that God has raised Him from the dead (cf. Rm 10: 9). 

Important above all else is the heart that believes in Christ, and which in its faith "touches" the Risen One; but it is not enough to carry our faith in our heart, we must confess it and bear witness to it with our mouths, with our lives, thus making the truth of the Cross and the Resurrection present in our history. 

In this way the Christian becomes part of that process by which the first Adam, a creature of the earth, and subject to corruption and death, is transformed into the last Adam, heavenly and incorruptible (cf. 1 Cor 15: 20-22 and 42-49). 

This process was set in motion by the Resurrection of Christ, and it is, therefore, on this that we found our hope that we too may one day enter with Christ into our true homeland, which is in Heaven. Borne up by this hope, let us continue with courage and with joy."

Pope Francis spoke of the Trial of St Peter and St John  in his homily today. 

He discussed the speech of St Peter to the Sanhedrin following on his cure of the cripple. It is reported by Vatican radio: under Learning to trust in the name that saves

"We can only be saved in the name of Jesus Christ, no-one else can save us, not fortune tellers or tarot card readers. 

On Friday Pope Francis continued his reflections on how the Resurrection shapes our lives and human history during morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae chapel with employees from the Vatican Pharmacy. 

Emer McCarthy reports:  

Commenting on the readings of the Friday the Octave of Easter, the Pope recalled St. Peter's words: " There is no salvation through anyone else." 

Peter, who had denied Jesus, now with courage, in prison, gives his testimony in front of the Jewish leaders, explaining that it is thanks to the invocation of the name of Jesus that he has healed a cripple. It is "the name that saves us."  

However, Peter does not pronounce that name on his own strength, rather he is "filled with the Holy Spirit." 

In fact - said the Pope - "we cannot profess Jesus, we cannot talk about Jesus, we cannot say anything of Jesus without the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that impels us to profess Jesus, to speak about Jesus, to have faith in Jesus. Jesus who is always with us on our life’s journey”. 

Pope Francis then told a story: 

"A humble man works in the curia of Buenos Aires. He has worked there for 30 years, he is the father of eight children. Before he goes out, before going out to do the things that he must do, he always says, 'Jesus!'. And I once asked him, 'Why do you always say' Jesus '?'.  

'When I say' Jesus '- this humble man told me - I feel strong, I feel I can work, and I know that He is with me, that He keeps me safe'”.  

Pope Francis continued: 

“This man never studied theology, he only has the grace of Baptism and the power of the Spirit. And this testimony, did me a lot of good too, because it reminds us that in this world that offers us so many saviors, it is only the name of Jesus that saves”.  

Pope Francis concluded: 

“In order to solve their problems many people resort to fortune tellers and tarot cards. But only Jesus saves and we must bear witness to this! He is the only one. "  

"Mary always leads us to Jesus," as she did at Cana when she said: "Do whatever he tells you”. Let us trust in the name of Jesus, let us invoke the name of Jesus, and let the Holy Spirit push us to say this prayer trusting in the name of Jesus ... it will do us all good."

The Looming Centenary

Joseph-Félix Bouchor (1853-1937)

La cathédrale de Reims, septembre 1917

1917

Oil on wood panel

26.8 cm  x 35 cm

Musée national de la Coopération Franco-américaine, Blérancourt

Joseph-Félix Bouchor (1853-1937)

La cathédrale de Soissons coupée en deux par les obus. 

1918

Oil on wood panel

27.5 cm  x 35 cm

Musée national de la Coopération Franco-américaine, Blérancourt

Next year is the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. States are making arrangements for its commemoration

Broadly it was the first popular "Total War". Life on this planet has never been the same afterwards even among states which were non-combatants. 

Whether we are conscious of it or not, we are still affected by it and its aftermath

In "Les ravages de la guerre 1914-18", Alain Galoin provides the context for the images above which in many ways sum up the effect of that War on religion

See also the website of  the Musée franco-américain du château de Blérancourt 

What happened at Reims and Soissons were no accidents. 

Reims was under bombardment for three and a half years. It was first set alight in 1914 by enemy bombarment. By the end of the conflict it was 90% destroyed along with the rest of that great historical city

Soissons was also subject to this type of treatment. The cathedral was literally cut in half.

It was only due to the efforts of Myron T. Herrick, the American ambassador to France, John Davison Rockefeller (1839-1937) and the State of Denmark that after the war, reconstruction of the cathedral was completed within 10 years

But Total War  did not come out of nowhere.

In a recent review of Emile Simpson’s War From the Ground Up, Michael Howard  in the Times Literary Supplement writes:

"Clausewitz saw that the limited wars of the eighteenth century on which he had been brought up had been transformed into the total wars of the Napoleonic era – and all subsequent eras – not by any change in the nature of weaponry, but by the enlistment of “the people”; people whose emotions would distort the rational calculations of governments and the professional expertise of the military, but could never again be left out of account. 

Now there has been a further change. 

The paradigm (still largely accepted by Clausewitz) of “bipolar” wars fought between discrete states enjoying the support of their peoples has now been shattered by globalization.  

Popular support can no longer be taken for granted. “The people” are no longer homogeneous and the enemy is no longer a single entity.  

Further, “the enemy” is no longer the only actor to be taken into account. The information revolution means that every aspect, every incident of the conflict can be instantly broadcast throughout the world in width and in depth, and received by anyone with access to the internet; including the men in foxholes fighting it.  

All this is common knowledge....  

The ultimate object of combat is to convey a message; and to ensure that the message is understood, one has to understand the audience for which it is intended  

In traditional “bipolar” war between nation states, the ultimate “audience” was the enemy population, which was assumed to be united behind their government and armed forces and therefore only likely to listen to reason once the latter had been defeated – or clearly would be defeated if they were brought to battle ... 

Simpson explains, a “strategic narrative” is all-important. 

This is a public explanation of why one is at war at all, and how the military operations are devised to serve the strategy that will lead to the desired political outcome. 

Without such a narrative, no government can command the support of its people, nor, indeed, ensure effective planning by its armed forces – to say nothing of gaining the sympathy of “the strategic audience” beyond its own frontiers. 

The narrative must not only be persuasive in rational terms. 

It also needs drama to appeal to the emotions. 

Above all, it needs an ethical foundation. Not only one’s own people, but the wider “strategic audience” must believe that one is fighting a “good” war."

In the early months of what was still a European War, the newly elected Benedict XV in his first Encyclical Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum (November 1914) had this to say about the conflict which was still in its early stages:

"Certainly those days would seem to have come upon us of which Christ Our Lord foretold: "You shall hear of wars and rumours of wars - for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom" (Matt. xxiv, 6, 7). 

On every side the dread phantom of war holds sway: there is scarce room for another thought in the minds of men. 

The combatants are the greatest and wealthiest nations of the earth; what wonder, then, if, well provided with the most awful weapons modern military science has devised, they strive to destroy one another with refinements of horror. 

There is no limit to the measure of ruin and of slaughter; day by day the earth is drenched with newly-shed blood, and is covered with the bodies of the wounded and of the slain. 

Who would imagine as we see them thus filled with hatred of one another, that they are all of one common stock, all of the same nature, all members of the same human society? Who would recognize brothers, whose Father is in Heaven? 

Yet, while with numberless troops the furious battle is engaged, the sad cohorts of war, sorrow and distress swoop down upon every city and every home; day by day the mighty number of widows and orphans increases, and with the interruption of communications, trade is at a standstill; agriculture is abandoned; the arts are reduced to inactivity; the wealthy are in difficulties; the poor are reduced to abject misery; all are in distress."

Unfortunately it just got worse and worse in a way which no one on the Continent or in the World would even have dreamed

What was so easily destroyed has taken generations to repair and reinstate and the work is still going on

Scenes from Nineteenth Century Italy

Luigi Ferrazzi (Italian, 19th/20th Century)

Un San Giovannino che torna dalla processione/ A young St. John back from the procession 

1881 

Oil on canvas

121 x 85 cm

Private collection

Stefano Novo (1862 – 1927)

La prima comunione (Interno della Basilica di San Marco), Venezia/ The first Communion (Inside of Basilica of San Marco), Venice

1889 

Oil on canvas

110 x 80 cm

Private collection

Vincenzo Irolli (1860 – 1949)

Pray to the Virgin Mary

Oil on canvas  

50 x 47 cm

Private collection

Much of nineteenth century Italian art is not appreciated outside Italy. Some regard a lot of it as too much of the “chocolate box” school of art.

True there is a touch of too much saccharine but the works were and are popular

The prejudice against it is still with us. The balance of opinion is still in favour of a more austere and abstract composition. We prefer more intellectual, ideological  works. Such works as above appear to be too “simple”

But there is no mistaking the feeling and the joy and happiness which are at the root of such works. 

As pictures they are pleasant company if they hang on walls of houses and seen in museums and art galleries. Yes they are sentimental and the emotion is not purified and refined. 

But they depict every day people going about their lives. They are not pictures of despair and misery but happiness. And the intent is to communicate that happiness

True, the artists are what are called painters of portraits and genre scenes. But alongside intense maternal figures, portraits of children and colourful scenes of everyday life, they also depicted religious subjects. Religion was part of Italian life at the time. It suffused the culture or cultures. One was either with it or against it or, in some cases, both. One could not ignore it. However it such art did not and does not seem to travel well outside Italy. It is perhaps bound in space and time

Some artists of the time were Symbolists; others were Decadents; others were members of other Groups or refused to join Movements or ideological clubs. It could get like the Guelphs and the Ghibelines; or the Zelanti and the Modernists.  All movements had, of course, Manifestoes.

Although Irolli was a Symbolist, he never forgot his religious roots and his religious works do, on occasion, inspire

The pictures above are from an exhibition in a gallery in Milan, Italy called Bottegantica

The exhibition is entitled OTTOCENTO VENETO da Favretto a Zandomeneghi (Veneto in the Nineteenth century: From Favaretto to Zandomeneghi)

Feet Washing

Jacopo Tintoretto 1518 - 1594

Christ washing the Feet of the Disciples

1548-1549

Oil on canvas

210 cm x 533 cm

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Jacopo Tintoretto 1518 - 1594

Christ washing the Feet of the Disciples

about 1575-80

Oil on canvas

204.5 x 410.2 cm

The National Gallery, London

Ford Madox Brown (1821‑1893) 

Jesus Washing Peter's Feet 

1852-6 

Oil paint on canvas 

1168 x 1333 mm 

Tate Britain, London

Ford Madox Brown (1821‑1893) 

Jesus Washing Peter's Feet 

1857-1858 

Watercolour on paper 

394 x 448 mm 

Tate Britain, London

Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet was a favourite theme of Tintoretto, and there are at least six known works by him on the subject. Two which are in Venice are still in their original locations

The Prado Washing is disturbing to look at. However the weird perspective derives from its original location on the right wall of the presbytery of San Marcuola in Venice. 

The Prado commentary explains:

"the image of Christ washing Saint Peter's feet was on the part of the canvas closest to the congregation. When seen from the right, the painting is extraordinarily coherent. The dead spaces among the characters disappear and the composition appears ordered along a diagonal that begins with Christ and Saint Peter and continues along the table and the Apostles around it, to end at the Arch behind the canal, which is the work's true vanishing point."

In the background to the scene is the celebration of The Last Supper in another room

Ford Madox Brown`s work caused an outcry when first shown. Jesus was shown half clad. He had to paint in more clothes for Christ

Of course, the theme of the paintings is a disturbing one as it was for the Apostles. Even today people still get greatly disturbed by it. Very greatly. So greatly that they allow themselves to be driven away from the powerful message contained in the Gospel of John by distractions

It is a very strange story. The years and the repetition of it do not diminish its strangeness. The event is narrated in John 13

It arises before the Last Supper:

"So, during supper,  

3 fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God,  

4 he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist.  

5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.  

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Master, are you going to wash my feet?"  

7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later."  

8 Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me."  

9 Simon Peter said to him, "Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well."  

10 Jesus said to him, "Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all."  

11 For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, "Not all of you are clean."  

12 So when he had washed their feet (and) put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, "Do you realize what I have done for you?  

13 You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am.  

14 If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet.  

15 I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.  

16 Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.  

17 If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.  

18 I am not speaking of all of you. I know those whom I have chosen. But so that the scripture might be fulfilled, 'The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.'  

19 From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.  

20 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me." "

The act of washing another's feet was one that could not be required of the lowliest Jewish slave. 

Christ has washed their feet. He tells the Apostles to wash the feet of others in the same way he has

The instruction (or Mandatum) does not admit of exceptions

It is re-enacted once a year in the Missa in Cena Domini of Holy Thursday. In the Roman and Orthodox rites

The Coptic liturgy does it ordinarily every Sunday

Members of the Benedictine Order who followed the old Rule of St Benedict did it once per week It is said that the act was a religious one and was to be accompanied by prayers and psalmody, "for in our guests Christ Himself is honoured and received". 

John Calvin ridiculed the annual re-enactment by the Catholic Church:

"The Papists boast that, by Christ’s example, they observe the forty days’ fast, or Lent. But we ought first to see whether or not he intended to lay down his fast as an example that the disciples might conform to it as a rule. We read: nothing of this sort, and, therefore, the imitation of it is not less wicked than if they attempted to fly to heaven. 

Besides, when they ought to have followed Christ, they were not imitators, but apes. 

Every year they have a fashion of washing some people’s feet, as if it were a farce which they were playing on the stage; and so, when they have performed this idle and unmeaning ceremony, they think that they have fully discharged their duty, and reckon themselves at liberty to despise their brethren during the rest of the year.   

But — what is far worse  — after having washed the feet of twelve men, they subject every member of Christ to cruel torture, and thus spit in Christ’s face. 

This display of buffoonery, therefore, is nothing else than a shameful mockery of Christ. At all events, Christ does not here enjoin an annual ceremony, but bids us be ready, throughout our whole life, to wash the feet of our brethren and neighbours."

The last sentence can not be disputed

But many Baptists observe the literal washing of feet as a third ordinance. It appears regularly in their services

The Anglican Church in England has seen it revived by Archbishop Rowan Williams after the practice fell into desuetude in the 18th century (except for some ordinations)

It is a long standing practice or discipline in the Catholic Church. 

The washing of feet was in use at an early stage without relation to Holy Thursday, and was first prescribed for use on Holy Thursday by a 694 Council of Toledo. 

By the twelfth century it was found in the Roman liturgy as a separate service. 

Pope Pius V included this rite in his Roman Missal, placing it after the text of the Mass of the Lord's Supper. He did not make it part of the Mass, but indicated that it was to take place "at a suitable hour" after the stripping of the altars.

The 1955 revision by Pope Pius XII inserted the rite into the Mass

One of the great exponents of the practice was Saint Pope Pius V whose tomb Pope Francis prayed before on the first full day of his pontificate.  

Of Pius it has been said:

St. Pius joined to prayer assiduous mortification and large alms. He often visited the hospitals, washed the feet of the poor, kissed their ulcers, comforted them in their sufferings, and disposed them for a Christian death. 

Also:

In his charity he visited the hospitals, and sat by the bedside of the sick, consoling them and preparing them to die. He washed the feet of the poor, and embraced the lepers. It is related that an English nobleman was converted on seeing him kiss the feet of a beggar covered with ulcers. He was very austere and banished luxury from his court, raised the standard of morality, laboured with his intimate friend, St. Charles Borromeo, to reform the clergy, obliged his bishops to reside in their dioceses, and the cardinals to lead lives of simplicity and piety.  

Lataste, J. (1911). Pope St. Pius V. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved April 1, 2013 from New Advent: 

In the 19th century, the custom and practice was still adhered to as can be seen from the two works below:

Sir David Wilkie

1785–1841

Cardinals, Priests and Roman Citizens Washing the Pilgrims' Feet 

1827

Oil on canvas

49.5 x 73.7 cm 

Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, Glasgow

Sir David Wilkie

1785–1841

The Princess Doria washing the  Pilgrims' Feet in Rome

1827

Oil on canvas

50.2 x 42.2 cm

Purchased by George IV

The Royal Collection, London

Wilkie, a  son of the manse,  is principally famous as the most popular genre painter of his time

In 1825–8 Wilkie travelled on the Continent for reasons of health and his work changed radically under the influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting

From sketches done in Rome, he executed these works in Geneva (of all places)

These were the only two Italian works which he brought back to London.

The scenes obviously deeply affected him

The London critic in The Edinburgh Literary Review described the works as "pathetic" and indicative that at heart all artists were "Roman". However King George IV thought otherwise

One of the antiphons for the washing of feet on Maundy Thursday is Ubi caritas. The opening words sum up the antiphon: "Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est." (Where there is Love and Charity, there is God)  As an antiphon for Maundy Thrsday it cannot be bettered

The Gregorian melody was composed sometime between the fourth and tenth centuries. 

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.

Exsultemus, et in ipso jucundemur.

Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.

Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero. 

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

Simul ergo cum in unum congregamur:

Ne nos mente dividamur, caveamus.

Cessent iurgia maligna, cessent lites.

Et in medio nostri sit Christus Deus. 

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

Simul quoque cum beatis videamus,

Glorianter vultum tuum, Christe Deus:

Gaudium quod est immensum, atque probum,

Saecula per infinita saeculorum. Amen.

Where charity and love are, God is there.

Christ's love has gathered us into one.

Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him.

Let us fear, and let us love the living God.

And may we love each other with a sincere heart. 

Where charity and love are, God is there.

As we are gathered into one body,

Beware, lest we be divided in mind.

Let evil impulses stop, let controversy cease,

And may Christ our God be in our midst. 

Where charity and love are, God is there.

And may we with the saints also,

See Thy face in glory, O Christ our God:

The joy that is immense and good,

Unto the ages through infinite ages. Amen

Pope Francis in his recent visit to Prison for Minors "Casal del Marmo", Rome on Holy Thursday, 28 March 2013 by his acts and words tried to communicate the same command which Christ had communicated nearly two thousand years before

"This is moving. Jesus, washing the feet of his disciples. Peter didn’t understand it at all, he refused. But Jesus explained it for him. ... 

It is the Lord’s example: he is the most important, and he washes feet, because with us what is highest must be at the service of others. This is a symbol, it is a sign, right? 

Washing feet means: “I am at your service”. And with us too, don’t we have to wash each other’s feet day after day? But what does this mean? That all of us must help one another. Sometimes I am angry with someone or other … but… let it go, let it go, and if he or she asks you a favour, do it. 

Help one another: this is what Jesus teaches us and this what I am doing, and doing with all my heart, because it is my duty. 

As a priest and a bishop, I must be at your service. But it is a duty which comes from my heart: I love it. I love this and I love to do it because that is what the Lord has taught me to do. 

But you too, help one another: help one another always. One another. In this way, by helping one another, we will do some good. 

Now we will perform this ceremony of washing feet, and let us think, let each one of us think: “Am I really willing, willing to serve, to help others?”. Let us think about this, just this. 

And let us think that this sign is a caress of Jesus, which Jesus gives, because this is the real reason why Jesus came: to serve, to help us."

The then Pope Benedict XVI in his Message for this year`s Lent (2013) perhaps put it more succinctly but not as effectively when he wrote:

"Christians are people who have been conquered by Christ’s love and accordingly, under the influence of that love – “Caritas Christi urget nos” (2 Cor 5:14) – they are profoundly open to loving their neighbour in concrete ways (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 33). This attitude arises primarily from the consciousness of being loved, forgiven, and even served by the Lord, who bends down to wash the feet of the Apostles and offers himself on the Cross to draw humanity into God’s love. "

In 2008 Pope Benedict XVI in his homily for the Mass of the Last Supper devoted a great deal of time to what he called, the sacramentum (not a sacrament but a holy thing) of the washing of the feet

He said:

"[I]n this way the word with which the Lord extends the sacramentum, making it the exemplum, a gift, a service for one's brother, also acquires new meaning: 

"If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet" (Jn 13: 14). 

We must wash one another's feet in the mutual daily service of love. 

But we must also wash one another's feet in the sense that we must forgive one another ever anew. 

The debt for which the Lord has pardoned us is always infinitely greater than all the debts that others can owe us (cf. Mt 18: 21-35). 

Holy Thursday exhorts us to this: not to allow resentment toward others to become a poison in the depths of the soul. It urges us to purify our memory constantly, forgiving one another whole-heartedly, washing one another's feet, to be able to go to God's banquet together."

Those who feel greatly aggrieved by a possible breach of a rubric by a good Christian doing a Christian act in obedience to his Master might wish to recall that. And he is Peter`s successor. Not them

Happy Easter

Papal Easter Blessing from the Vatican 150 years ago

From Glasgow University Special Collections (Dougan Collection) (Dougan 102 Item 9.)

I have seen the Lord ... and heard Him and touched Him

Andrea del Sarto (1486 - 1530)

Apparizione di Cristo risorto a Santa Maria Maddalena / The Appearance of the Resurrected Christ to Mary Magdalene

1509 - 1510

Oil on wooden panel

176 x  155 cm

Museo del Cenacolo di Andrea del Sarto, Florence (Now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence)

Vasari records that this was commissioned for the Church of the Augustinian convent outside  Porta San Gallo. That church was demolished in 1531

It was then moved to the Capella  Morelli in Chiesa di S. Jacopo tra i Fossi where it remained until 1849

It looks like a scene between an ordinary man and a woman somewhere in Tuscany or in Umbria. 

The countryside could well be that of Italy rather than Palestine. There are six other people in the scene. Two groups of three in the distance. Who they are can not be ascertained. We can only speculate

But it is not a garden somewhere in Italy where a woman is entreating a gardener. 

It is the scene described in John 20 just after Mary Magdalene has visited the tomb on Easter day and found it empty.

"11 But Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb  

12 and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been.  

13 And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.”  

14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. 

15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.”  

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,”which means Teacher.  

17 Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 

18 Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and what he told her."

In this translation the words of Christ in the Vulgate "Noli me tangere"  are translated as Stop holding on to me as in Mt 28:9, where the women take hold of his feet. This translation is more faithful to the original koine Greek

In Mark, Matthew, and John, all point out and emphasise that Mary Magdalene is the  first human witness to the resurrection. She saw it. She heard it. She touched it. And she announced it.

Unfortunately in accordance with the custom and convention of the time, del Sarto has depicted the Magdalene with long red hair flowing down and past her shoulders. He is perpetuating and reinforcing the early misidentification of Mary Magdalene as a (former) prostitute and adulteress and now penitent 

The Eastern Orthodox Church never made that mistake and regarded her as always being a virtuous woman. They have never celebrated her as a penitent. She is not  the "sinful woman" who anoints Jesus in Luke [Lk 7:36–50]

The exalted role of Mary Magdalene was recognised by Saint Rabanus Maurus Magnentius (c. 780 – 4 February 856), ("Praeceptor Germaniae," or "the teacher of Germany") when he referred to her as "the Apostle to the Apostles", a title which she had since the early Church. 

This title was also repeated by St Thomas Aquinas. 

Both views were cited and approved by Blessed Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem: (italics in the website text)

"The Gospel of John (cf. also Mk 16: 9) emphasizes the special role of Mary Magdalene. She is the first to meet the Risen Christ. At first she thinks he is the gardener; she recognizes him only when he calls her by name: "Jesus said to her, 'Mary'. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, 'Rabbuni' (which means Teacher). 

Jesus said to her, 'Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God'. Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord'; and she to old them that he had said these things to her" (Jn 20:16-18). 

Hence she came to be called "the Apostle of the Apostles". 

38 Mary Magdalene was the first eyewitness of the Risen Christ, and for this reason she was also the first to bear witness to him before the Apostles. This event, in a sense, crowns all that has been said previously about Christ entrusting divine truths to women as well as men."

The Latin language version on the Vatican website is perhaps more emphatic and instructive. It does not miss out the footnotes The italicised words are those of His Holiness

"Ioannis autem Evangelium (Cfr. item Marc. 16, 9) extollit praesertim praecipuas Mariae Magdalenae partes. Prima videlicet ea resuscitato obvia fit Christo. Principio eum, quidem hortorum esse arbitratur custodem, quem tunc agnoscit solum, cum nomine ipsam appellat. “Dicit ei Iesus: “Maria!”. Conversa illa dicit ei Hebraice: “Rabbunì”, quod dicitur Magister. 

Dicit ei Iesus: “Iam noli me tenere, nondum enim ascendi ad Patrem; vade autem ad fratres meos et dic eis: Ascendo ad Patrem meum et Patrem vestrum et Deum meum et Deum vestrum”. Venit Maria Magdalene annuntians discipulis: “Vidi Dominum!” et quia haec dixit ei” (Io. 20, 16-18).  

Quam ob rem nuncupatur quoque illa “apostolorum apostola” (Cfr. RABANI MAURI De vita beatae Mariae Magdalenae, XXVII: «Salvator . . . ascensionis suae eam (=Mariam Magdalenam) ad apostolus instituit apostolam» (PL 112, 1574). «Facta est Apostolorum Apostola, per hoc quod ei committitur ut resurrectionem dominicam discipulis annuntiet»: In Ioannem Evangelistam expositio, C. XX, L. III, 6 (S. THOMAE AQUINATIS, Comment. in Matthaeum et Ioannem Evangelistas), Ed. Parmens, X, 629). 

Etenim iam ipsos ante apostolos fuit Maria Magdalene oculata Christi resuscitati testis ideoque prima etiam testimonium reddidit illi coram apostolis. Certo quodam pacto cumulat hic eventus omnia ea quae prius iam dicta sunt de veritatibus divinis a Christo mulieribus haud secus ac viris concreditis."

They will look on Him whom they have pierced

William Congdon 1912 - 1998

Crocifisso n. 2

1960/63

Mixed media on wooden board

89.5 cm x 58.5 cm

Galleria d’Arte della Pro Civitate Christiana, Assisi

Last year was the centenary of the birth of the American artist William Grosvenor Congdon (1912  - 1998) 

He fought in the Second World War with the Allied forces in Europe

In 1959, he converted to Catholicism in Assisi and he embarked upon a series of paintings using Old and New Testament themes. In 1964 he attended the Eucharistic Congress in Bombay, travelling there with Pope Paul VI. 

He was associated with among others Jacques Maritain and the early figures in  Comunione e Liberazione

His works on the Crucifixion with detailed commentary can be studied at the William G Congdon Foundation website

Christ Crucified is a central theme of his work

In a recent exhibition of Congdon`s works, William Congdon: The Sabbath of History there was included a meditation on Holy Week by the then Cardinal Ratzinger which seemed to mirror Congdon`s own response to this event in history

"“They will look on him whom they have pierced.” 

The whole of John’s gospel is fundamentally nothing but the fulfillment of these words, nothing but the effort to direct our eyes and hearts to gaze on him. 

And the whole liturgy of the Church is nothing more than gazing at the Pierced One, whose hidden countenance the priest reveals to the eyes of the Church and the world, in the Liturgy of Good Friday, the high point of the Church’s year. 

“Behold the wood of the cross on which hung the savior of the world!” “They will look on him whom they have pierced.” ... 

John reports on the event of the piercing of the Crucified with a characteristically elaborate solemnity that immediately shows the weight he attaches to this event. 

In the account which concludes with an almost oath-like attestation, John incorporates two texts of the Old Testament, whose inclusion brings the meaning of this event to light. 

He says, “None of his bones will be broken,” presenting a passage from the Passover rite of the Jews, one of the prescriptions concerning the paschal lamb. Thus he indicates that Jesus, whose side was pierced at the same hour as the ritual slaughter of the paschal lambs in the Temple, is the true paschal lamb without blemish in whom the meaning of all cultus and ritual is finally fulfilled; indeed, it becomes clear for the first time what cultus truly means. ... 

The second text of the Old Testament, built into the scene where Jesus’ side is pierced by the soldier’s lance, makes still clearer what is meant, even as the allusion is difficult to understand in detail. John says that a soldier opened the side of Jesus with a lance. 

He uses here the same word that in the Old Testament is used in the depiction of the creation of Eve from the side of the sleeping Adam. Whatever this reference may mean in its particulars, this much is clear, namely, that he wants to say that the mystery of man’s and woman’s creation from and for each other is repeated in the communion of Christ and believing mankind. 

The Church originates from the opened side of the dying Christ."

In yesterday`s The Passion of the Lord homily, given by Capuchin Friar Raniero Cantalamessa, Preacher of the Papal Household at the Vatican, in this Year of Faith he said:

"Christ also confided to his Church a message: "Go throughout the whole world, preach the good news to all creation." 

The evangelization has a mystical origin; it is a gift that comes from the cross of Christ, from that open side, from that blood and from that water. 

The love of Christ, like that of the Trinity of which it is the historical manifestation, is "diffusivum sui", it tends to expand and reach all creatures, "especially those most needy of thy mercy." 

Christian evangelization is not a conquest, not propaganda; it is the gift of God to the world in his Son Jesus.”

Good Friday: the recurring problem

Vincenzo Foppa (1427 ca. - 1516 ca.), 

I tre crocifissi/ The Three Crucified Ones 

(alternatively, Gesù Cristo crocifisso tra i due ladroni/ Jesus Christ crucified between the two thieves)

1456

Tempera on wood panel

68 x 38 cm

Accademia Carrara di Bergamo, Bergamo

This work is one of the oldest works of the Lombard Renaissance, of the Brescian school

It shows the influence of the Schools of Padova and Mantova (Mantua)

It was commissioned for a small chapel as a work for contemplation and prayer and that aspect of the work should never be forgotten

In the background is a city and castle and from these a serpentine and narrow road leads to Golgotha, the scene of the Crucifixion. Likewise from the point of view of the viewer, the road from Golgotha to the City is through a gate and then the road

The road goes two ways. Some art critics may forget this

The viewer of the painting looks at the scene as if he or she is going towards the City

The Crucifixion is at the Gate of the outskirts of the City and it is a narrow gate. It should remind us of the famous Gate into the City of Jerusalem referred to by Christ. It was so narrow that He described it as being like "the eye of the needle" 

However although it is narrow it is not impassable. There are no obstacles barring the gate. One person if he or she so wished could pass through the gate. The gate is open to all of those who choose to enter

We, the viewers, gaze facing east (or virtual East) towards Jerusalem. To reach the celestial city- Jerusalem, the city of the Resurrection and Eternal Life - we have to pass by and through Death and the Crucifixion 

The work would have hung above the altar and both the congregation and the priest would have been facing the work during the Liturgy. Underneath the work the congregation would have witnessed the same scene performed by the priest in the Mass. 

The priest would have his back to the congregation and in the most solemn act of the Mass, his identity would be hidden and he would simply be "the priest", the channel through which the Sacrifice would be repeated. 

After the Sacrifice and the proclamation of Death and Resurrection, both the priest and the congregation would have received the Eucharist. They would have carried on their journeys (hopefully joyfully) in accordance with the command: "Ite missa est"

To underline this Catholics are often at this point exhorted to go forth to love and serve the Lord

To face westwards (or virtually Westwards) would of course have been a problem. 

We would no longer gaze on the face of Christ. We would be turning our backs on the Crucifixion and all that it means. A never ending problem for mankind over the last two thousand years

That was the problem faced one Good Friday four hundred years ago by the English poet John Donne. It happened about 150 years after the painting was completed. 

The anniversary of the event and the poem to which it gave rise is celebrated in this week`s Times Literary Supplement in Daniel Starza Smith John Donne’s “Goodfriday, 1613. Riding Westward”, at 400

Here is the poem:

Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward

By John Donne 1572–1631  

Let mans Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this,
The intelligence that moves, devotion is,
And as the other Spheares, by being growne
Subject to forraigne motion, lose their owne,
And being by others hurried every day,
Scarce in a yeare their naturall forme obey:
Pleasure or businesse, so, our Soules admit
For their first mover, and are whirld by it.  

Hence is't, that I am carryed towards the West
This day, when my Soules forme bends toward the East.  

There I should see a Sunne, by rising set,
And by that setting endlesse day beget;
But that Christ on this Crosse, did rise and fall,
Sinne had eternally benighted all.  

Yet dare I'almost be glad, I do not see
That spectacle of too much weight for mee.  

Who sees Gods face, that is selfe life, must dye;
What a death were it then to see God dye?  

It made his owne Lieutenant Nature shrinke,
It made his footstoole crack, and the Sunne winke.  

Could I behold those hands which span the Poles,
And tune all spheares at once peirc'd with those holes?  

Could I behold that endlesse height which is
Zenith to us, and our Antipodes,
Humbled below us? or that blood which is
The seat of all our Soules, if not of his,
Made durt of dust, or that flesh which was worne
By God, for his apparell, rag'd, and torne?  

If on these things I durst not looke, durst I
Upon his miserable mother cast mine eye,
Who was Gods partner here, and furnish'd thus
Halfe of that Sacrifice, which ransom'd us?
Though these things, as I ride, be from mine eye,
They'are present yet unto my memory,
For that looks towards them; and thou look'st towards mee,
O Saviour, as thou hang'st upon the tree;
I turne my backe to thee, but to receive
Corrections, till thy mercies bid thee leave.  

O thinke mee worth thine anger, punish mee,
Burne off my rusts, and my deformity,
Restore thine Image, so much, by thy grace,
That thou may'st know mee, and I'll turne my face