New Advent has a nice run down on nearly everything you might want to know about our new Pope. One interesting tidbit is his favorite painting. It’s one of mine also, and it’s a curious one:
White Crucifixion (1938, Art Institute of Chicago).
It’s by Marc Chagall, a French painter of Russian and orthodox Jewish origins. A mid-20th Century artist, he has a modernist style, painting many biblical scenes.
This piece is a unique and lively presentation of Christ’s crucifixion, set in contemporary times amongst an expression of the reasons our Lord went to the cross. We sent him there and he went willingly and lovingly to redeem each of us from our own sin and rebellion. It is a wonderful piece for us to consider as we enter the tragedy of Good Friday and anticipate the glory Resurrection Sunday.
“He forgave us not by ignoring our trespasses but by assuming our trespasses… God became what by right he was not, so that we might become what by right we are not.”
-Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon, p. 31.
That is precisely what this wonderful painting is about.
