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James Tissot, Gentiles Ask to See Jesus

 

Two perceptive paintings by James Tissot might summarize what the Gospel means for some Christians. The first, Gentiles Ask to See Jesus (above), portrays a familiar scene from John’s Gospel. The second, Jesus Looks Through a Lattice (below), is to my knowledge utterly unique in the history of painting. In these two images, we get a glimpse of something that is reported to have happened, as well as an impression of what it may begin to mean.

James Tissot, Jesus Looks Through a Lattice

We want to see Jesus. Gandhi is an example of someone who showed this curiosity, as well as a Japanese Zen Buddhist priest who befriended my parents. Christian believers go further, and say that He already sees us, even when we are unaware of his loving and knowing gaze.

Or, as John puts it in a NT letter, “We love because he first loved us.”

People often say they are ‘looking for God,’ or that they are ‘trying to find God.’ Yet, of course – as I like to say facetiously – God is not lost! What I think we are really trying to find is the experience of having been found – at least by others, if not also by the divine. Christians say that the good news is that we have been found, for we were the ones who were ‘lost.’

Divinity may seem hidden from us. But then, we are so often hidden from ourselves. One strategy we employ to try and deal with this is to seek ourselves in the eyes of others, as others might see and perceive who we are (Sartre). Given how disappointing this turns out to be – because others usually don’t know us any better than we know ourselves – we might then look elsewhere.

I – as a typical human being – like being ‘a finder,’ someone who finds things, discovers their meaning, and then who seeks to name and describe them. But if and when I feel lonlely, I wish to be found by others whose attention and company I value. This is a clue. Yet, if the view others have of me can seem incomplete and inaccurate, some or even much of the time, I may be looking in the wrong place. I do better when I focus on enjoying the gaze, and even the embrace, of the One who knows me better than I know myself.

I accept that I have been ‘found.’ And I experience this reality more often when I set aside my wholly (holy?) appropriate absorption with being a finder. For that – in part – was what I was created to be. And in the wonder and beauty of this world I find joy and much delight.

Christians believe that the Creator came into the Creation to engage and embrace human beings, and to share with us the fullness of divine love. Christians also believe that God so loved the cosmos (the actual Greek word in the text) that God did the unthinkable, surrendering divine prerogative by giving self unto a death at human hands, and by this overcoming our overestimated powers. All to bring us toward fulfilling our largely unexplored potential within this beautiful world, which the Creator has made and put into our hands.

This is what our observance of Holy Week is all about.

 

These reflections are based on themes in my homily for Sunday, March 17, 2024, which may be found by clicking here.

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