When Jesus reached the culmination of His ministry, in His Passion and death as He had foretold repeatedly, none but one of His chosen twelve were there with Him to see it. They were scattered, afraid, behind locked doors. Useless. Even after Jesus rose from the dead - as He promised - and appeared repeatedly to them, they still did not understand His work and their mission. Remember that question:"Lord wilt Thou now get about making our country great again?" If any of us had been Jesus, we would have blotted them off the face of the earth for being so obtuse and useless.
He, though, said He would send them the Counselor, the One to shed some light and insight on the truths they needed to know to be useful for the work for which they were chosen.
Then came Pentecost. Then came the Holy Spirit. Then came wisdom and boldness. Then they were useful for the Lord's Kingdom.
Today we celebrate the great gift given to us - our faith in the truths of salvation. Now we too can be useful in the Lord's kingdom, and not expect the "restoring of Israel," or America, to be the thing for which we look for the betterment of our lives. Now we know that the world will hate all things connected to our Saviour, but that we tell the Good News anyway, and live as light in the world, as did the Apostles after Pentecost.
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| The windows of the church in Gruyere - here: Pentecost. |
More travel pictures to come.
Thanks for this, Sarah. Blessed day to you and yours also.
ReplyDeleteI was looking for images of Pentecostal paintings and the overwhelming majority of them had Mary as the central figure! I finally found one by Giotto from the fourteenth century that did not. Does that go along with what we observed in the many churches we visited in Italy, that one had to go into the very early churches (my favorite being in Ravenna) to find Christ as the central figure instead of Mary? But I found it odd that she was central in Pentecost paintings. Do the RCs teach specifically that she received the Holy Ghost that day too?
I think it is quite safe to say that Mary was among those who received the Spirit on Pentecost. See Acts 1:14 and 2:1, so the depiction is not unBibical.The "all" could refer to the eleven apostles only, but becuase the "the women and Mary" are specifically mentioned among those gathered together, I see no reason to think they wouldbe excluded as "witnesses" who received the Holy Spirit. The emphasis on Mary as center might not be our preference, but artistically a female figure among the males is a nice counterpoint and catches the eye.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, we did notice the differences by time period in the churches central figures in Italy. Churches do show the history of theology's changes.
Anyway, I wouldn't say it is wrong to have her in the picture. Jesus did honor and care for His mother.
oops.. Make that "Because" and excuse other typos and spacing.
ReplyDeleteoops again. Make that Twelve Apostles, because they had just chosen a replacement for Judas immediately previous.
ReplyDeleteAlso of note, in the lands/languages listed, there are at least sixteen, so more than the Twelve Apostles must have been moved by the Holy Spirit that day, assuming each spoke one new language.
ReplyDelete