RBWords

     Some of us may be more familiar with the entire work of our artist, John the Evangelist [i.e. the gospel] or even with the works of his "school" [1, 2 and 3 John].  Perhaps we have read Fr. Raymond Brown's THE COMMUNITY OF THE BELOVED DISCIPLE or his magisterial commentary on the Gospel of John.  This would alert us to familiar themes and ideas in the art.  The result could be what I would call "echoes" that take place within us as we get further through the exhibit.  "This seems familiar to me even if I can't just put my finger on what it is." The work we gaze at today, one in a series called "The Prayer of Jesus the High Priest," produced two such "echoes" in me.  Perhaps others may occur to you.

 

     The first "echo" is the use of sharp contrasts or oppositions.  These appear throughout the Gospel of John: truth/falsehood, light/darkness, above/below, sight/blindness, etc.  Today the contrast is between "belonging to the "world" and not "belonging to the world."  Faith in Jesus sets the believer apart.  This, in part, reflected the lived experience of the community when the gospel was composed!  They were being expelled from synagogues because of their belief in Jesus.  How does my faith set me "apart" from the world, especially the "secular" world?

 

     The second "echo" requires that we recall a scene from another "exhibit:" "The Passion According to John," in which Jesus confronts Pilate and says: "'For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.' Pilate said to him, 'What is truth?'" [John 18:37-38]  The truth was standing in front of Pilate who is an example of the "world."  Our faith is the consecration we have received from Jesus and we are "sent into the world" to bear witness to it.  Indeed our whole society may be shouting to us:  "What is truth?"  What do we say?  AMEN