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Today's Gospel in Art - The wise and foolish virgins

  • Patrick van der Vorst

The Ten Virgins,  by Jorge Cocco Santãngelo,  2012  © Jorge Cocco Santãngelo artist

The Ten Virgins, by Jorge Cocco Santãngelo, 2012 © Jorge Cocco Santãngelo artist

Gospel of 28th August 2020 - Matthew 25:1-13

Jesus told this parable to his disciples: 'The kingdom of heaven will be like this: Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were sensible: the foolish ones did take their lamps, but they brought no oil, whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps. The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a cry, "The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him." At this, all those bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, "Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out." But they replied, "There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves." They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed. The other bridesmaids arrived later. "Lord, Lord," they said "open the door for us." But he replied, "I tell you solemnly, I do not know you." So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.'

Reflection on the Sacrocubist Painting

The artist we are looking at today, Jorge Cocco, was born in Argentina in 1936. He calls his own style of painting sacro-cubism, because of the sacred subject matter he paints and because he borrows some stylistic elements from Cubism. Cocco reduces his subjects to simple, geometric shapes which allows us as viewers to focus our attention on the essential and most holy subject matter, rather than an elaborate style of painting distracting us. We see the group of the foolish virgins on the left. Their expression is passive and they look rather bored. The group of the five wise virgins is in the foreground on the right. They are lively, interacting with each other and joyfully expectant. The bridegroom is painted in the background, walking towards the virgins in rays of sunlight.

The parable today comes after the readings we had so far this week, all touching on a similar theme: that of being watchful as we wait for the return of the Messiah. Weddings are great occasions, but as we all know, there is a lot of waiting to do: both parties waited a lifetime to find a partner, the planning of the wedding takes time, on the day itself guests wait for the bride and groom to arrive, etc… So Jesus uses the context of a wedding to make his point about 'waiting'. The preparation Jesus wants us to do during our own time of waiting for His second coming, is one of spiritual preparation. Waiting is hard though. Especially in our society which emphasises the instant. All ten bridesmaids were waiting. They all had the same opportunity and same oil lamps. They all could have gathered the oils in time. They all were preparing and waiting for the same wedding. They all had the same bridegroom coming to them… but only five of them were taking the long-term view and came fully prepared…

LINKS

Today's story - https://christian.art/en/daily-gospel-reading/527

Christian Art - www.christian.art

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