Gospel in Art: The woman was bent double and quite unable to stand upright

Painting 304 x 181 cm, 9 December 2007, by Pierre Soulages (born 1919) Acrylic paint on four canvases © Tate Modern, London

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 24 October 2022
Luke 13:10-17

One sabbath day Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who for eighteen years had been possessed by a spirit that left her enfeebled; she was bent double and quite unable to stand upright. When Jesus saw her he called her over and said, 'Woman, you are rid of your infirmity' and he laid his hands on her. And at once she straightened up, and she glorified God.

But the synagogue official was indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, and he addressed the people present. 'There are six days' he said 'when work is to be done. Come and be healed on one of those days and not on the sabbath.' But the Lord answered him. 'Hypocrites!' he said 'Is there one of you who does not untie his ox or his donkey from the manger on the sabbath and take it out for watering? And this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has held bound these eighteen years - was it not right to untie her bonds on the sabbath day?' When he said this, all his adversaries were covered with confusion, and all the people were overjoyed at all the wonders he worked.

Reflection on the painting

In our Gospel reading today we read of Jesus healing a suffering, deformed woman before even being asked. Having endured a crippling disease for over eighteen years, she was no longer able to stand up. Jesus saw this and immediately cured her... with his touch.

We probably all have moments in our lives where we can think of God intervening or giving us a special grace, even before we asked him. Or maybe this has happened and we failed to recognise God's healing touch?

The world around us can sometimes feel as though it is much like the woman in today's Gospel, bent over from illness and not standing upright. It is in need of God's healing touch and light. We are called to be that light in the midst of so much darkness around us. A painting which conveys darkness is our work by Pierre Soulages.

At the start of his career, French painter Pierre Soulages determined that he would title each of his works by size and day of completion. This is true of 'Painting 304 x 181 cm, 9 December 2007' which we are looking at today. It is part of a series of 'outrenoir' (literally 'beyond black') works that he created. To me these canvasses evoke darkness. The colour black has been the main theme and colour throughout Soulages' career. But when his work is hung in a museum or gallery, the black catches the light and somehow the darkness is broken. Quoting the artist, historian Isabelle Ewig has remarked: 'The canvasses catch the light, refuse and modulate it; black is stripped of darkness to become a source of light "born from the canvas".' (Isabelle Ewig, 'L'outrenoir ou le fonctionnement de la peinture', in Pierre Encrevé and Alfred Pacquement, Soulages, exhibition catalogue, Centre Pompidou, Paris 2009, p.95).

LINKS

Gospel in Art: https://christian.art/

Today's reflection: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/luke-13-10-17-2022/