The world is being carried along on a rushing torrent of events which are beyond human control. Armageddon seems to be approaching in one form or another. However, there is one power available to change the course of events and to support us in the great crises of life, and that is the power of prayer.
Due to the crises in the
Bishop Robert Barron (
This work, is for me the masterpiece which most expresses for us the suffering of Jesus. This haunting work was never meant to just be looked at as a piece of art, but rather it was meant to be a means of worship, speaking to a people suffering in extreme pain and facing death. The painting was supposed to prepare people to bear their sufferings, facing death with their faith intact.
At the Isenheim hospital, the Antonine monks devoted themselves to the care of sick and dying peasants, many of them suffering from the effects of ergotism, a disease caused by consuming rye grain infected with fungus. Ergotism, popularly known as St. Anthony’s fire, caused hallucinations and skin infection, and attacked the central nervous system, eventually leading to death.
This depiction of the suffering Jesus, shows the violence and ugliness of crucifixion. The darkness and despair of this painting is prophetic of the brokenness of the Church in its day but also of our world today - a brokenness which seems beyond repair except for the Resurrection. But when one gazes upon this scene one does not yet know what is ahead.
