Today's Gospel in Art - Husband and wife are no longer two, but one body

Hollow Form with White Interior, Sculpture by Barbara Hepworth 1963 © Tate Gallery, London

Gospel of 14th August 2020 - Matthew 19:3-12

Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and to test him they said, 'Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever?' He answered, 'Have you not read that the creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said: This is why a man must leave father and mother, and cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.'

They said to him, 'Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be given in cases of divorce?' 'It was because you were so unteachable' he said 'that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning. Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife - I am not speaking of fornication - and marries another, is guilty of adultery.'

The disciples said to him, 'If that is how things are between husband and wife, it is not advisable to marry.'

But he replied, 'It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted. There are eunuchs born that way from their mother's womb, there are eunuchs made so by men and there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.'

Reflection on the Sculpture

In our Gospel reading today Jesus says that 'husband and wife are no longer two, but one body'. Our sculpture today (photo showing Barbara Hepworth at work in her studio sculpting our work), shows this oneness that is the sculpture. It is one piece, one material, but it has two holes, two interiors, that are each different. Hepworth always made these sculptures featuring holes. The holes are almost like gaping wounds; they are openings to the world that lies behind the sculpture; the absence of the wood in those holes, accentuates the presence of what is there. I do think this sculpture, without it being intended to, illustrates marriage. Two people each with their hurts, their holes, their shortcomings, are part of the one sacrament. One union, one sculpture or 'one body' as Jesus tells us... both people are part of the same work of art...

In 2014 when talking about the Sacrament of Marriage, Pope Francis said the following: "We were created to love, as a reflection of God and his love. And in matrimonial union the man and woman realise this vocation, as a sign of reciprocity and the full and definitive communion of life". When a man and a woman receive the Sacrament of Marriage, "God is, so to say, 'mirrored' in them, he imprints in them the features and indelible nature of His love. Marriage is the icon of God's love for us. Indeed, God too is communion: the three Persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have always lived and live for ever in perfect unity. And this is the mystery of marriage: God makes married couples into one existence."

LINKS

Today's story - https://christian.art/en/daily-gospel-reading/513

Christian Art - www.christian.art