A new poster for Holy Week in Seville, Spain has caused an uproar. My first impression when I saw a close-up of its face and eyes was that it was beautiful and that in many ways, this is the Christ I know from prayer and the Scriptures. It represents a Risen Christ who is, perhaps, too young, and too European still, but the heart of this Jesus is very much the heart of the One who has accompanied me throughout my life. It is gentle, strong, receptive, and speaks of mercy. This Christ is marked with the signs of the cross, as any credible representation must be, but he is no longer overwhelmed by them. This is a courageous figure then, and an unassuming one. One can truly imagine that in him and in his abject and obedient helplessness before a brutal world of imperial and religious power, God has overpowered sin and death and brought a new life (which I think implies a new youthfulness) to the world.
At the same time, one can begin to imagine what it will mean for God to re-embody us in what the book of Revelations calls a "new heaven and a new earth". What we should know is that we don't really have any clear idea what that will be like. Today, because we are baptized into Christ's death, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, We know what Mary Coloe, in one of her books on John, calls "Eternity Life" --- a share in what one day will be eternal life where we will be re-embodied as part of God's new creation. In this case, the newness and, for many people, the strangeness of this portrait will challenge them because it witnesses to a Christ not devoid of strength or masculinity, but certainly empty of machismo. And some of us will find a Christ with a significantly feminine strength as well --- the femininity of the One who listens deeply, comforts, and mothers us in our need.
I will not likely use this image of Christ any more than I use any other image of Christ in my prayer or reflection. Even so, neither will I look at such a figure as "blasphemous", "repulsive", or an insult to God. The artist used his own Son, Horacio, as a model. The portrait is as true and filled with love as he could make it. It is certainly a good reflection of some major dimensions of the Christ Event. Some of the critics decry the poster as effeminate or homoerotic. Others look at this work and compare it to "pictures in books" they have seen representing Christ; they judge it because it does not match these with some believing that these traditional portraits are accurate or even photographic images of Jesus or the Risen Christ; these folks also hold that the artist has betrayed them and offended God in veering from these "traditional" portrayals!!!
During this season of Lent, it is important to remember that our God is one of surprises. He has willed from the beginning of time to dwell with us and to reconcile us to Himself so that we live as part of his very life. We do not know what Jesus of Nazareth looked like except that he was a Middle Eastern Jew, and in that sense unlike our Medieval European portraits convey. As for the Risen Christ, the Gospel portrayals are clear that he is radically unfamiliar and escapes recognition; neither ghost nor revivified corpse, nor mere spirit, he is beyond all of the categories known to describe the dead or the living up to that point. Humility in all of this is marked by our openness to surprise and a strong sense of how God and his Christ always escape and transcend our limited intellects and imaginations. At the same time, humility is found in our willingness to allow God to reveal himself in whomever and whatever way he wishes to do that. It seems to me that the inability to see Emmanuel in this portrait (or in the groups of people some see it representing) is the true blasphemy, sacrilege, or obscenity.
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