Today's Gospel in Art - Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple, by Titian1534-38 © Galleria dell'Accademia, Venice

Gospel of 21st November 2020 - Luke 20:27-40

Some Sadducees - those who say that there is no resurrection - approached Jesus and they put this question to him, 'Master, we have it from Moses in writing, that if a man's married brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Well then, there were seven brothers. The first, having married a wife, died childless. The second and then the third married the widow. And the same with all seven, they died leaving no children. Finally the woman herself died. Now, at the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife since she had been married to all seven?'

Jesus replied, 'The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are sons of God. And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive.'

Some scribes then spoke up. 'Well put, Master' they said - because they would not dare to ask him any more questions.

Reflection on the Wall Painting

The Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary which we celebrate today commemorates the presentation of the Our Lady as a child by her parents in the temple in Jerusalem. Before Mary's birth, her parents received a heavenly message that they would bear a child. In thanksgiving for this gift from God, they brought Mary to the Temple to consecrate their only daughter to the Lord. The celebration of today's feast is first documented in the 11th century within the Byzantine Catholic Church.

One of the most endearing representations of the Presentation of Our Lady is Titian's wall-painting at the Galleria dell'Accademia in Venice. It depicts the three-year-old Mary walking up the steps into the temple. We see a little girl, painted full of confidence. She has just walked up some steps and she looks tiny in a vast world around her filled with officials in lavish dress. The fragile, diminutive figure of Mary walks up the steps, her right hand managing her skirt while her left hand returns the greeting of the High Priest. Another lovely detail is that Mary is given a full-size aura around her whole figure, rather than just a halo.

What we celebrate on this day is the fact that God chose to dwell in Mary in a very special, beautiful way. Mary, in response, dedicated her whole self to the service of God. We too, since our baptism, have been invited by God in our own unique, special way. On this feast we hear this invitation with renewed freshness to dedicate ourselves to Him, just as Mary did.

LINKS

Today's story - https://christian.art/en/daily-gospel-reading/613

Christian Art - www.christian.art