Rembrandt – Witnesses to Hope

from Christoph Cardinal Schönborn’s We Have Found Mercy:

The Divine Mercy is a profound, total devotion that is committed, lasting, faithful, and quite personal for the one to whom it is addressed. Nothing could be more foreign to it than a vague feeling of ‘goodwill’ toward the whole world. The one on whom God bestows his mercy is intended, addressed and loved as an unrepeatable person. Mercy does not turn the one to whom it is shown into an object but rather touches the person in his center, in his dignity.

Jesus is, so to speak, the incarnation of God’s Mercy. In him, God cares, not about mankind as an abstract entity, but rather about every individual person. He has shown me mercy. Through Christ I become the recipient of God’s care, and, on the other hand, I am addressed personally.

The poem for this Sunday describes the experience of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus:

Companion

When first He joined us, coming, it seemed from nowhere,
and yet, somehow, as if he had followed us a long, long time,
immediately, He was one of us, no stranger, but
a close companion, speaking softly, familiar with our lives,
these days, the answers to our doubts.

And when we moved Him to at least partake of food,
he stood there at the table, not as guest, but host,
and broke the bread to portions, one for each,
then poured the wine, His dark-marked hands
blessing the wine and us. Was it that act,

His broken hands raised up against the wooden walls,
the prayer-bowed head, the gently spoken word
or some reflection trembling in the wine,
a thickening of air, a luminosity not of wavering light,
that pierced our hearts with joy,

that filled our mouths with praise? O praise!
O joy! Then suddenly the light withdrawn,
no longer form and lifted hands above the bread.
Stumbling, we found the road to town,
knowing that never, never would we walk alone again.

~Marie J. Post (all rights reserved)

Category: Rembrandt

You are unrepeatable

“He was one of us, no stranger . . .”

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