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Audio Reflection
Kathy Janku, a consultant for Seeing the Word (seeingtheword.org or facebook.com/seeingtheword ) reflects on the illumination of Peter’s Confession (Matthew 16:23-33) as we continue our Lenten journey.
Join us every Friday this Lent as we continue to look closer at some of the crosses of The Saint John’s Bible, journeying from the Birth of Christ, to the Crucifixion.
Written Reflection
By Jessie Bazan
“And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”
— Matthew 16:18
In the illumination of Peter’s Confession, my eyes are drawn to the lower left of the page, where blue scrawls canvas the fiery orange hue. It is the artist’s depiction of a modern-day experience of hell. These are not random strokes. Together, they form a microscopic view of the AIDs virus.
This week, I can’t help but think of what else could be depicted.
The idiom “all hell breaks loose” doesn’t seem far from reality these days. Violence is plaguing communities around the world, from Ferguson, Missouri to Libya and Iraq. Its pain hit particularly close to home on Tuesday, when a fellow Marquette University alumnus was brutally murdered nearly two years after being kidnapped in Syria. Journalist James Foley and countless other innocent victims are losing their lives to violence every day.
My rational mind can’t make sense of any of it, so I turned to art — not for answers, but for comfort.
See the area to the right of the horse’s head where the gold intersects the fiery hue? That miniscule mix of color gives me hope. It shows me Christ is not removed from this modern-day vision of hell.
He’s right there in it.
This illumination reminds me that Christ is with us through our own experiences of suffering. He’s with us through the violence. He’s with us through the grief and confusion. Christ is alive in our broken world, a constant sign that the evils of today will never prevail against God’s loving kingdom.
With Christ as our rock, let’s pray for peace.
Jessie Bazan is a Master of Divinity candidate at Saint John’s School of Theology-Seminary and serves as the Seeing the Word graduate assistant.
Peter’s Confession, Donald Jackson, Copyright 2002, The Saint John’s Bible, Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Written Reflection
Credit: Peter’s Confession, Donald Jackson, Copyright 2002,The Saint John’s Bible, Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
A Reflection on Peter’s Confession (Matthew 16:13-23)
Rev. Michael Patella, OSB
In this illumination, Jesus is rendered entirely in gold. He is shown in the center with the enlarged text, “You are the Messiah the Son of the Living God” (Mt 16:16). He is alive, fully incarnate, standing in the midst of a contemporary representation of hell.
The Church is the sacramental presence of Christ in the world. Just as Satan and the forces of evil tried in vain to eliminate Christ by death, they attempt, also in vain, to eradicate those baptized in Jesus’ name by the same means. Christ’s words to Peter, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18) is the guarantee that sin and death have long failed in subverting God’s ultimate plan of redemption.
Historians agree that we are in a period of Christian persecution greater in scope than the Church has ever before faced, even greater than the persecutions under ancient Rome. The faith and hope etched on the face of current martyrs, such as the Coptic Christians on the beach in Libya just before ISIS beheaded them, is proof that the gates of Hades (Hell) will not “prevail against it” (Mt 16:18). In Pope Francis’ recent homily celebrating the feasts of Peter and Paul, he commended these martyrs for their supreme witness as they died with Jesus’ name on their lips. Additionally Pope Francis implored that those of us, who are fortunate to experience peace and prosperity, continue to witness to Christ as well as set aside time to pray to God, who does not abandon his children. How else might you stand in solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters undergoing persecution?
Rev. Michael Patella, OSB, SSD is professor of New Testament at the School of Theology and Seminary at Saint John’s University, Collegeville, MN where he also serves as seminary rector. He served as chair of the Committee on Illumination and Text for The Saint John’s Bible. He is author of Word and Image: The Hermeneutics of The Saint John’s Bible (Liturgical Press, 2013).