|
CONTEMPLATING OUR
OFFICIAL PAINTING
OF THE HOLY FAMILY.
1.- Contemplating the image, What to contemplate?
-First of all
it is convenient to look at the whole painting and to be
questioned by it as a whole.
The life, that
is present in the whole painting, expresses the basic and
primary experience of feeling that “God is” or “that I am in
the hands of God.” God is in the life and the life is in
God. The life of the man grows with God because He entered
forever in the humanity of each one.
“In God we
live, we move and we exist” we read in the book of the Acts
of the Apostles.
Jesus is the
center; this is other clear aspect of the whole painting.
Everything is around Jesus. The whole Trinity: Father, Holy
Spirit and Son are present. The Father is the reference
during the whole life of Jesus. The Father is the criterion
of all his behavior, of his prayer, of his sacrifice: to do
His will is the only important thing.
Together with
God-Father there is another father: Joseph. He tells, he
guides, he announces, and he gives testimony of the Father
but he is not the Father. He incarnates and accepts the
Father's vocation, but he keeps silent, he works and he
obeys.
Mary is the
mother. Her womb be the “humus-the soil-the leaven”. She
receives, welcomes the life and allows that Joseph
“guides-directs-shows-reveals” Jesus to His true Father.
-Let us look at
it after in two levels: the horizontal and the vertical.
A-. The
horizontal level: the daily human life, the bonds and
relationships, the opening to the others, the reality of the
world.
B-. The
vertical level: the opening to the mystery, the opening to
God and the searching for meaning, the foundation of our
daily fraternity.
2-.
Contemplating the postures, the expressions of the people
and the people themselves.
- Contemplating
the feet:
the feet indicate the movement, to go toward... it is the
prayer and the mission; to go toward the Father and toward
the others.
- Contemplating
the hands:
the hands are the activity, the creativity, the work... it
is to be with the people, to be open.
- Contemplating
the looks:
it is the relationship with the others, it is to be united,
to become close, to go inside the life, to love it, to
promote it, to be in charge of it... it is Charity, love.
- Mary:
She is the
God-Father’s feminine face. She welcomes and receives the
Word, the will of God. She listens and gives. She accepts
and waits the action of God. She keeps in her heart what is
happening. Mary reveals the presence of the Spirit through
the fruit of her womb.
- Joseph:
He is the paternal face of God-Father. He reveals the
mysterious way of God’s acting. He trusts in God. He accepts
His project that is beyond the human criteria and aims. He
experiences the responsibility of the mysterious “will and
action” of God that is much different from ours. He is
silent, works, and obeys. He shows in his humanity our human
end and vocation. He takes care and develops the project of
God together with Mary.
- Jesus:
He is the center of the looks, the action of the hands and
the movement of the feet. God-Father and the Holy Spirit,
through Mary and Joseph have put all their love in the
beloved Son.
Jesus is the
beginning and end of everything; he is the center of the
life.
3-.
Contemplating the implications of the painting in today’
world.
It is to paint
the painting it in the heart, to take this project of
Christian life, Nazareth, to every day reality:
-Being
a layman in the world:
living every day human life situations with its happiness,
sadness and hopes; being conscious that the project of God,
the family of God, is built in the time and the space, in
the history.
-Consecrated
and
oriented to the Father and the others for the Baptism, that
makes us responsible for this world and our brothers. We are
a gift of God to be given to the others and returned to the
Father. We receive the Trinitarian life and we promote it in
this world.
-Fraternal and
solidary.
Close to the
others, among the others, with the others. Enriching ones
each others. Creating bonds that are born from the same
consecration to Our Lord Jesus Christ and that bring the
same expressions of self-giving.
This is the
Nazareth that we are invited to contemplate and to live in
our world.
Brotherhood (to
be close like Jesus in the family of Nazareth) supposes the
fatherhood of God, source of all paternity and fraternity.
It
supposes to recognize and to praise (PRAYER), commitment and
sacrifice (WORK) and a living solidarity (LOVE).
“PRAYING,
WORKING AND LOVING” it
is a good summary of the mystery of Nazareth and of the
meaning of the painting. In Nazareth: “PRAYER, WORK AND
LOVE” summarizes the Christian lifestyle that the Holy
Family Brothers have discovered in the Family of Nazareth
and have expressed in the official painting.
“PRAYING,
WORKING AND LOVING: PEACE”
summarizes the Christian life that we wanted to make present
in the official painting.
Br.
Aurelio Arreba
(Traducido H. Roberto Cabello) |
