Today's Gospel in Art: Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida!

The Disappointed Souls by Ferdinand Hodler © Guggenheim Museum, NY/Kunstmuseum Bern/Alamy

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 1st October 2021 - Luke 10:13-16

Jesus said to his disciples:

'Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. And still, it will not go as hard with Tyre and Sidon at the Judgement as with you. And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be exalted high as heaven? You shall be thrown down to hell.

'Anyone who listens to you listens to me; anyone who rejects you rejects me, and those who reject me reject the one who sent me.'

Reflection on the Painting

Our Gospel reading today describes Jesus' reaction to seeing a lack of faith in places where He was expecting to see great faith. Jesus had travelled to the towns in Galilee where He had worked most of His healings and miracles. The names of three of them are mentioned in our short reading: Capernaum is where Jesus often preached; Bethsaida was the home of some of His disciples, such as Peter and Andrew, James and John; Chorazin, close to Capernaum, is mentioned nowhere else in the Gospel. Jesus was disappointed with the lack of faith shown by the people in these places. He says that they were no better than the pagan cities of Tyre, Sidon and Sodom. Whereas Jesus expressed disappointment in places where He would have expected to see good displays of faith, He often was confronted with amazing faith from completely unexpected people. Think, for example, of the Roman centurion, the Syro-Phoenician woman, or the Samaritan woman, all of them 'pagans' but displaying amazing faith.

We all experience disappointments and surprises on our journeys. Today's reading shows that they were very much a part of Jesus' ministry, too. However well we plan our lives, they can bring disappointments, but also some beautiful surprises that may make us even happier than we had expected to be. In order not to get too disappointed in life, we should maybe go forward with fewer expectations but with more explorations: exploring more and delving more deeply, mainly in the realm of our faith, will help handle disappointments more easily.

Our painting from 1892 by Ferdinand Hodler titled The Disappointed Souls conveys this sense of grief and melancholy. Painted towards the closing of the 19th century, it portrays very well the fin-de-siècle anxiety, conveying uncertainty about the future and what the next century might hold. We see five weathered, barefoot men staring, the outer figures looking inward, and the middle man with a semi-naked, emaciated upper body. Though they are seated next to one another, they are not interacting. Each of them is alone, isolated…

LINKS

Today's story - https://christian.art/en/daily-gospel-reading/946
Christian Art - www.christian.art/