A Holy Life

A Holy Life Commentary by Jonathan Evens Cite Share Show Bible Passage The multi-faceted forms of Cubism and the expressive colours of Fauvism were brought together by Orphism. John Reilly seems to use the techniques of Orphism and the facetted approach of stained glass to depict the way in which the presence of God permeates the world and connects its disparate peoples, creatures, and activities in a reconciled unity. Reilly frequently based his works on a central circle (often, the sun) from which facets of colour emanate, like ripples on the surface of a stream. The painting’s imagery is then set within these facets, each figure or object being embedded in the overall patterning of the painting and related to the environmental whole that Reilly has created. By these means, fragments of form and colour (the facets of the painting’s patterning) and the images that they contain are united and can be read as circling harmoniously around and within God, the central life and intelligence which is the light of the world. In Holy Family, the ripples of the circle seem to begin with the face of the young Jesus, together in his simple home with his mother Mary and earthly father Joseph. These ripples appear to hold together the surrounding landscape, with its creatures, figures, plants, and angels. The rays of the sun, which also serves as the halo of the young Jesus, illuminate each element of the image, in a way that seems to make the different facets which form them shine with the light of Christ. Encouraged by this painting, we can perhaps imagine how every aspect of everyday family life, as it extends beyond the home into the wider world, might be illuminated by God; its manifold aspects reconciled in a harmonious whole, which is holy. The holy life that Paul encourages the Christians in Thessalonica to live is one through which the glory and joy of the presence of Christ can be seen (1 Thessalonians 2:19–20). Reilly’s vision, in my reading of it, has much in common with Celtic Christianity, which had a sense of the heavenly being found in the earthly, particularly in the ordinary tasks of home and work. These tasks can be blessed if we see God in them and undertake them as an act of worship offered to God (Adam 1992: xii). References Adam, David. 1992. Power Lines: Celtic Prayers about Work (London: SPCK)