Conscience and Conversion at the Spiritual Life Center

If my blogging lately has been pretty light, I have an excuse: I've been working on three presentations for next month. One is on the depiction of conscience in a Pre-Raphaelite painting; another on St. Thomas More and Conscience, and third on Blessed John Henry Newman and Conscience. More information, including registration, here:

The Spiritual Life Center will host a three-day Symposium on Conversion and Conscience July 13-15 for adult faith formation, prayer, celebration, and intellectual exchange. The theme is “Conversion and Conscience: Freedom, Will, and Truth in the Human Quest for Meaning.”

The faculty for the 2017 symposium consists of Dr. James Madden, professor of philosophy at Benedictine College; Fr. Thomas Hoisington, priest in residence at St. Mary’s Parish in Garden Plain; Fr. Joshua Lollar, priest at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Lawrence; and Stephanie Mann, local author of “Supremacy and Survival: How Catholics Endured the English Reformation.”

The symposium begins with a keynote banquet Thursday evening, July 13, and continues all day Friday and Saturday with a schedule consisting of morning prayer, Mass, and lectures in four pillar content areas.

The symposium will discuss how the life of Christ provides us with a model for obedience. In the person of Jesus, human will was perfectly aligned with divine will. But with lives filled with distraction and cross-pressures, and minds filled with confusion and doubt, how are we to follow in his example? How can we overcome the dissenting voices around us, and the sinful impulses within us, which tempt us to follow the example of the world, rather than the example of our Lord?

Utilizing Christological, philosophical, and historical perspectives, the symposium will provide insights into ways our forebears have pursued authentic human liberty by focusing on the transcendent, even in the midst of persecution.

The painting chosen for the program is the Call of St. Matthew by Caravaggio. Whom to you think Jesus is pointing to when He gestures to the future St. Matthew? The man with the beard or the young man counting coins? Do you think that Caravaggio wanted us to wonder?

An Obscure Masterpiece

Willard Spiegelman, Hughes Professor of English at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, describes Caravaggio's masterpiece, "The Taking of Christ" for The Wall Street Journal:

Seven figures, one barely noticeable, are tightly bound within the confines of a small space. On the left, John the Evangelist turns his back on the others, his hands lifted in shock, surprise or exclamation. Next to him, Christ is dressed in red and blue garments. His eyes, hooded to the point of invisibility, look down, and he clasps his hands in resignation. Judas, having just kissed the Savior, grips Jesus with his left hand. Both men—typical of Caravaggio—have dirty nails. Their brows are furrowed. John, Jesus and Judas look like parts of one person, their three heads all in a line, with John's seemingly joined Siamese-fashion to Christ's, and Judas's mouth having just separated from the man he has sold to the enemy.

Dead center in the picture is the arresting officer, of whose face we can see only a nose and the outline of an upper lip. Otherwise, he is a study in metal. His left arm clasps Christ and his hand extends from the shiny, steel-colored armor of his arm and breastplate. His helmet completes the image. He is all exoskeleton, barely a man at all. The painter has offered an allegory of the way the State—hard, metallic and unyielding—comes to overwhelm compliant, beleaguered, passive humanity. Beside the main officer another, older, soldier reveals more flesh—nose and moustache—but in neither of these figures can we see eyes. In the rear we can make out only the outline of yet one more soldier.

This leaves us with the most mysterious figure of all, neither Roman nor Jew. Dark-headed, handsome, with eyes fully revealed and looking intently at the scene in front of him, this man holds in his right hand a lantern, which offers illumination from behind and to the right of Jesus and Judas. Who is he? The consensus among the experts is that Caravaggio has produced a self-portrait.

This is one of "Ireland's Favorite Paintings" at the National Gallery of Ireland, which displays it on indefinite loan from the Irish Jesuits.

Image Credit: Public Domain.