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Martyrdom of John the Baptist
Friday, August 29, 2014
| Feast Day: Friday, August 29, 2014
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| Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, Caravaggio (London) |
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCMzfpLl_GE
Uploaded on 10 Mar
2009
St.John Co-Cathedral Valletta Malta
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The Pope and Caravaggio,
Eddie Lalor. Africa St Patrick's Missions,May 2014
Scanned from the missionary magazine...
A Big Heart Open to God
http://americamagazine.org/pope-interview
Who Is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?
I have the first question ready, but then I decide not to follow the script that I had prepared for myself, and I ask him point-blank: “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?” The pope stares at me in silence. I ask him if this is a question that I am allowed to ask.... He nods that it is, and he tells me: “I do not know what might be the most fitting description.... I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.”
The pope continues to reflect and concentrate, as if he did not expect this question, as if he were forced to reflect further. “Yes, perhaps I can say that I am a bit astute, that I can adapt to circumstances, but it is also true that I am a bit naïve. Yes, but the best summary, the one that comes more from the inside and I feel most true is this: I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.” And he repeats: “I am one who is looked upon by the Lord. I always felt my motto,Miserando atque Eligendo [By Having Mercy and by Choosing Him], was very true for me.”
The motto is taken from the Homilies of Bede the Venerable,who writes in his comments on the Gospel story of the calling of Matthew: “Jesus saw a publican, and since he looked at him with feelings of love and chose him, he said to him, ‘Follow me.’” The pope adds: “I think the Latin gerund miserando is impossible to translate in both Italian and Spanish. I like to translate it with another gerund that does not exist: misericordiando [“mercy-ing”].
Pope Francis continues his reflection and tells me, in a change of topic that I do not immediately understand: “I do not know Rome well. I know a few things. These include the Basilica of St. Mary Major; I always used to go there.” I laugh and I tell him, “We all understood that very well, Holy Father!” “Right, yes”—the pope continues – “I know St. Mary Major, St. Peter’s...but when I had to come to Rome, I always stayed in [the neighborhood of] Via della Scrofa. From there I often visited the Church of St. Louis of France, and I went there to contemplate the painting of ‘The Calling of St. Matthew’ by Caravaggio.” I begin to intuit what the pope wants to tell me.
“That finger of Jesus, pointing at Matthew. That’s me. I feel like him. Like Matthew.” Here the pope becomes determined, as if he had finally found the image he was looking for: “It is the gesture of Matthew that strikes me: he holds on to his money as if to say, ‘No, not me! No, this money is mine.’ Here, this is me, a sinner on whom the Lord has turned his gaze. And this is what I said when they asked me if I would accept my election as pontiff.” Then the pope whispers in Latin: “I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I accept in a spirit of penance.”
The Calling of St Matthew, Caravaggio
I won't go into the details of this matter because I simply don't have the authority nor the competence to discuss about it, but I'm carefully following every step of this affair.
And since there's this interesting discussion going on, what a better time to do a closer examination on this artist?
The work I choose for today's post is The Calling of St Matthew, made by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio in 1600 for the Roman church of San Luigi dei Francesi. Caravaggio made two other paintings of Matthew for the same church, The Martyrdom of St Matthew and The Inspiration of Saint Matthew.
The scene is an episode of the New Testament: Matthew was a tax collector, and while he was sitting in the custom house Jesus told him "Follow me" and so he did. Matthew's job is suggested by the presence of some coins on the table.
The light enters from a point we can't see, on the right high angle, and it strikes Jesus' face, his hand and the men sitting at the table. In this way, it establish a direct bond between Jesus and Matthew.
Jesus is pointing right at Matthew with a gesture that has probably been inspired by the scene of the creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo.
The experts are still debating over Matthew's identity, as some believe that he's the bearded man, pointing at himself, while some others propose that he may be the younger man counting the coins (according to this interpretation, the bearded man would be pointing at him).
The painting is also useful to show how the artist worked. Every character has a particular, carefully prepared, almost theatrical pose: in fact, Caravaggio used to create some sets in which every model posed alone, and only in the end he had the complete composition depicted on his canvas.
Some studies proved that Jesus' figure is entirely painted even if we can see only his head and arm, so we can assume that Caravaggio started his painting portraying the figures on the background, then added those on the first ground over the ones he previously painted.
The Calling of St Matthew
God vouchsafed to select the very things about Him which are most incommunicable, and in a most mysteriously real way communicate them to her. See how He had already mixed her up with the eternal designs of creation, making her almost a partial cause and partial model of it. Our Lady's co-operation in the redemption of the world gives us a fresh view of her magnificence. Neither the Immaculate Conception nor the Assumption will give us a higher idea of Mary's exaltation than the title of co-redemptress. Her sorrows were not necessary for the redemption of the world, but in the counsels of God they were inseparable from it. They belong to the integrity of the divine plan. Are not Mary's mysteries Jesus' mysteries, and His mysteries hers? The truth appears to be that all the mysteries of Jesus and Mary were in God's design as one mystery. Jesus Himself was Mary's sorrow, seven times repeated, aggravated sevenfold. During the hours of the Passion, the offering of Jesus and the offering of Mary were tied in one. They kept pace together; they were made of the same materials; they were perfumed with kindred fragrance; they were lighted with the same fire; they were offered with kindred dispositions. The two things were one simultaneous oblation, interwoven each moment through the thickly crowded mysteries of that dread time, unto the eternal Father, out of two sinless hearts, that were the hearts of Son and Mother, for the sins of a guilty world which fell on them contrary to their merits, but according to their own free will.— Fr. Frederick Faber, The Foot of the Cross.
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