Today's Gospel in Art - Your hearts will be coarsened with drunkenness and the cares of life

Untitled (Bacchus), by Cy Twombly 2008 © Tate Modern, London & the Cy Twombly Foundation

Gospel of 28th November 2020 - Luke 21:34-36

Jesus said to his disciples:

'Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will be sprung on you suddenly, like a trap. For it will come down on every living man on the face of the earth. Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.'

Reflection on the Canvas

'Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with drunkenness and the cares of life', Jesus says in today's reading. Jesus is talking about watchfulness, about alertness, about being ready. We have to remember that we are in Chapter 21 of Luke. Jesus is now in Jerusalem and in the last week of his life, surrounded by the love of his disciples. He noticed how enthralled they and the people of Jerusalem were with the material things of this world, or with honour, pride…. So the readings in this chapter of Luke all prompt us as Christians to be vigilant. And how well Jesus knows us. He gives the examples of 'drunkenness' and being overwhelmed with the 'cares of this life'. We can become so focused on our daily to-do lists, our work responsibilities or even simple things such as what is left to do around the house, that our attention to God is given only second priority.

One of the world's most renowned 20th-century artists, Cy Twombly, made this giant (approx. 3 x 5 metres; 9ft x 15ft) canvas three years before his death in 2011. It features a series of hectic, soaring, swooping loops of vermilion acrylic paint. Almost like blood dripping off the canvas. Called 'Bacchus Painting', it evokes the bacchanalian pleasures of wine and drunkenness. Twombly's intense brush strokes of bloody red paint also evoke violence and death, recalling the year this was painted, at the height of the Iraq and Middle Eastern wars.

Often we get stuck in the loops of daily chores, over and over again stuck in circles, repetitive, as one day rolls into the next. Jesus tells us to be on our guard. Vigilance leads to holiness, to which we are all called.

LINKS

Today's story - https://christian.art/en/daily-gospel-reading/620

Christian Art - www.christian.art/index.php