I was impelled to paint it and capture the cry that still rings out through the ages.
Like everyone else, an artist is bombarded by visual images, sounds, impulses, impressions of all that goes on around oneself, right from early childhood. An artist, perhaps, would tend to file away some of these images, that affect one’s deepest self in the inner recesses of one’s mind, heart and soul and draw upon them at the opportune moment.
One such image to me, as an artist, has been that of the Cross. As a seven year old, when I was preparing to receive my First Holy Communion, I recall that the story of the Passion of Jesus Christ, left a deep impression on me. An aunt of mine had presented me with an illustrated copy of the New Testament for my First Communion. I read that book with avid interest. As young as I was, I recall my complete identification, particularly with the account of the Passion of Jesus, and as I looked at the pictures, the whole scene came so alive to me, that I wept, inconsolably. Around this time, we travelled as a family on holiday from Calcutta to Mangalore in South India, where we come from, and my Dad took us to visit the beautiful Catholic Church of St. Aloysius, famous for its frescoes, in that part of the world. As I gazed at those frescoes in wonder, depicting the life of Christ, I remember distinctly telling the Lord that one day I was going to paint Him. I do not know what prompted me to say that, but I do know that the Lord took me seriously and years later, while I was going through a trial of faith, I actually felt called to paint the Holy Face of the Shroud of Turin. In was that painting that did more for me than anything I could have given to it, every stroke of the brush, helped me realize more deeply than ever before that “by His wounds we are healed”.
The image of the Cross towers above us all, the source of our life, our strength and protection. The Cross speaks to us of God’s infinite love for us and the offer of His Divine mercy as it stretches down vertically from heaven to earth and horizontally to embrace all of mankind, all of creation. I was impelled to paint it and capture the cry that still rings out through the ages “… and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself”. As we behold the Cross, we can recall the words of St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men”.
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