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Writer's pictureSarah Raad

Painting

And he could express it as the beautiful love of the Mother for her Son and the beautiful love of the angels for their Lord.

Pieta (William-Adolphe Bouguereau)

There is a painting that I love to look at called “Pieta”.  It was painted by the academic artist of the 19th century, whose name was William-Adolphe Bouguereau.  The painting is notable for the artist’s technical skill in articulating it and also for the strong emotions that it conveys.

 

In the image the Blessed Virgin cradles the body of her dead Son.  And her face conveys her grief and acceptance of the Holy Will of God.

 

The pair are surrounded by angels and on the floor in front of them are the jar of vinegar and crown of thorns…

 

I recently read an article about this painting and in it I learned that this was painted two years after the artist had lost his own son to an early death.  And the artist painted this painting as a way to convey his grief and his own experience of losing his son.

 

And when I discovered this, the painting had so much more significance to me.  You see, when I realised that the artwork was created as an expression of grief, it showed me that God turns everything to the good.

 

And this is not to say that a beautiful artwork could in any way replace or compensate for the Earthly life of a loved one, just as a little blog like this could in no way compensate me for the loss of my youngest child before he was even born…

 

However, the beauty in it is that the soul of the artist could find beauty in grief.  And he could express it as the beautiful love of the Mother for her Son and the beautiful love of the angels for their Lord.

 

And I suppose that the feeling of grief that the artist felt a few hundred years ago was possibly the same as the grief that I felt less than a decade ago when my child went to Heaven before he was even born.  And that feeling was perhaps the same feeling of Eve on the day that Cain killed Abel.  And the Blessed Virgin – who being sinless had no reason to bear the effects of sin, which include grief – felt grief more terrible than the world could ever understand, twenty centuries ago…

 

For grief is an outward expression of love.  And the capacity of the human soul to love is as large as is the capacity to grieve.  And I thought of that as I looked at this painting today.  Because it seems to me that there is such a terrible grief to be found in the hearts of those who love.

 

And since we are made in the Image and Likeness of God, it seems that we have only a thimble-full of grief compared with the Grief of God.  For who loves more than God loves?  And by extension, who grieves more than Him…

 

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.

 

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