Gospel in Art: I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, by Salvador Dali © Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 11 May 2026
John 15:26-16:4a

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, 'But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

'I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.'

Reflection on the painting

At the end of the prayer Jesus taught us, we ask: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." And the deepest temptation is not simply moral failure: it is the temptation to drift, to lose faith, to quietly step away from Christ. Jesus knew this. He knew His disciples would live in a world that would not always understand them, not always support them. And so, on the night of the Last Supper, He speaks with great tenderness and urgency: "I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away." Because faith can indeed be shaken. It can tremble under pressure, under doubt, under the subtle weight of a world that often seems to move in a different direction.

And we all know that experience. In our own time, in a deeply secular culture, faith can feel fragile. Not always attacked openly, but quietly eroded: by indifference, by distraction, by the sense that Christian faith no longer quite fits. We can feel unsettled, unsure, even shaken. But Jesus does not leave us there. Knowing our vulnerability, He promises a companion in today's reading: the Holy Spirit. The Spirit who steadies us when we waver, who strengthens us when we feel weak, who gently holds our hand when everything else seems uncertain.

Today's reading makes me think of Saint Anthony the Great who withdrew into the desert seeking God alone. But there, in the silence, his faith was fiercely tested. Tradition tells us he was assailed by terrifying visions: wild beasts, grotesque demons, and overwhelming temptations that shook him to the core. It was not a gentle struggle; it was a battle that left him exhausted, even wounded. And yet, Anthony did not flee. He remained. When at last the storm passed, he asked Christ, "Where were You?" And the answer came: "I was here all along, watching your struggle." In that moment, Anthony understood: his faith had been shaken, but not broken!

As a child, I was fascinated by this painting by Salvador Dalí... those strange elephants on impossibly long, spindly legs, almost floating through the air, stayed with me. Painted in 1946, The Temptation of Saint Anthony is both dreamlike and unsettling. In a barren desert landscape, Saint Anthony stands small and vulnerable, holding up a simple cross as his only defence. Before him advances a surreal procession: a rearing horse symbolising brute desire, followed by towering elephants carrying temptations on their backs: nude figures, golden buildings, symbols of wealth, power, and pleasure. Everything is elongated, distorted, unstable, as if the very ground beneath reality is shifting, shaking. Dalí captures something deeply true however: temptation does not always come in obvious forms, but often in beautiful, seductive disguises. And yet, at the centre of it all, Anthony remains, fragile, shaken perhaps, but standing firm, clinging to the Cross.

LINKS

Christian Art: https://christian.art/
Today's reading: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/john-15-26-16-4a-2026/