Hidden and Revealed

Hidden and Revealed Comparative commentary by Clementine Kane Cite Share Show Bible Passage The Apostle Paul contends with the preachers of his day to teach salvation through the self-sacrificial death of Jesus. Though his message is simple, it is not simplistic. Paul expertly weaves together threads that anticipate what would later be formalised in trinitarian theology, seeking to articulate the subtleties of the wisdom that is imparted to spiritually maturing believers. The trinitarian implication of his reasoning is this: We have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) so that we will understand the gifts bestowed on us by God the Father, and taught by the Holy Spirit (vv.12–13). None of the images in this exhibition is simplistic either. Each is replete with its own complexities. Whether its author is known or unknown, each is the result of rich contemplation over centuries as forms developed and were passed from the minds and hands of one artist to another, changed in subtle ways and given to a new context and audience. Every line of Graham Sutherland’s crucifixion is carefully calculated to convey in the barest terms an image of suffering for the twentieth century. As any artist knows, paring one’s work down to its essence is often more difficult than adding in everything one could say. Initially, Paul focuses on the paradoxical display of power that is the cross of Christ—‘power made perfect in weakness’ (2 Corinthians 12:9). This is the point when God is simultaneously most present to and most absent from humanity. For Sutherland—an artist of faith working in a time that must often have felt similarly spiritually abandoned—an image of God ‘suffering with’ was an appropriate response to the incomprehensibility of a second world war. The belief that the cross is ultimately a symbol of triumph can only reside ‘not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God’ (1 Corinthians 2:5). Long the source of debate, confusion, and multiple meanings in Christian tradition, the icon of Sophia stands as a symbol of the mystery of God, and of the wisdom that is inherent in the triune life of God and also its gift through the Spirit. The divine Sophia, personified in this icon, is perhaps something of God’s self which is imparted to us through the Holy Spirit, yet still inaccessible in its fullness. Though we may have the mind of Christ, only the Spirit can penetrate the depths of God. We are given wisdom not to ‘[know] the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him’ (2:16) but to ‘understand the gifts bestowed on us by God’ (v.12). Christians believe that these gifts, first given at Pentecost, are what birthed the Church, and continue to give life to each person within it who has been reborn in water and the Spirit (John 3:5). That the gifts of the Spirit are given of God in Christ is more vividly shown in this small manuscript painting than in almost any other depiction of Pentecost. In his poem cycle dedicated to Sophia, Thomas Merton writes: ‘Thus Wisdom cries out to all who will hear (Sapientia clamitat in plateis) and she cries out particularly to the little, to the ignorant and the helpless’ (Merton 1977). Had Paul read these words, he might have thought they were written directly to him. The simplicity of his foundational belief in Christ’s death, held in fear and trembling, flowered into a rich theological meditation. The first two artworks in this exhibition contain a sense of the hidden divine: redemption hidden in the apparent defeat of a crucifixion, and the hidden wisdom of God which theologians and artists endeavour to articulate. In the third painting, the divine is revealed. The corollary of the cross is the risen and ascended Christ; the wisdom of God is revealed through the gift of the Spirit. Like Paul’s words, these artworks communicate both with complexity and directness. What was once hidden is now made manifest. But to understand it requires maturity. References Kovacs, Judith L. 2005. 1 Corinthians (CB): Interpreted by Early Christian Commentators (Grand Rapids: W. B. Eerdmans) Merton, Thomas. 1977. The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton (New York: New Directions)