To the Band of Brothers: November 1, 2023

Hopefully, by now, you have visited the Saladrigas Art Gallery and perused the beautiful paintings of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. This collection is one of a kind in South Florida and it is right in your backyard. The exhibition is titled Faith, Beauty, and Devotion because the pieces are not only inspired by our Catholic faith, but also reflect the religious experience of the artist with the hope of stimulating the same in the viewer.  

That’s what most artists try to do. In their own way, they paint, draw, sculpt, or compose in order to outwardly express what is internally happening. All of it with the desire to spark some kind of feeling or reaction in the viewer or hearer. Those feelings may not always be warm and fuzzy, but they touch a nerve. That’s what good art should do… touch a nerve. It reminds us we’re alive on the inside. And, what’s most spectacular about art, is when it hits you unexpectedly.

Here's an example.

I was in New York a couple of years ago visiting our alumni. I took advantage one afternoon and visited one of the museums I never went to when I was a student at Fordham University. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is located in the heart of Manhattan and boasts a huge collection of art from some of the most important and well-known artists of the modern era. I must admit, I’m not much of a fan of modern art, but I figure it would help me pass the time. 

As I made my way through the different galleries, I was particularly struck by two pieces hung side by side on the fifth floor of the museum. One of the pieces was called “Three Women at the Spring” and the other, “Three Musicians.” The first was a fairly realistic portrait of three plump women chatting away near a spring of water. The second one, on the other hand, was completely abstract depicting, what I believe, are three musicians with their instruments and a dog sleeping at their feet. 

I must have stood there for about 45 minutes marveling at the contrast between both paintings. One seemed to be from Venus, the other from Mars. Here’s the catch, both paintings, drastically different, were painted by the same artist, Pablo Picasso, in the summer of 1921. While I recognize the guy is an important artist, I confess never being a big fan of the little Spaniard. I don’t think women were ever meant to have three breasts. But I do confess that one experience at the MoMA helped me appreciate how radically creative he was. In the summer of 1921, the same man was able to produce something so powerful, so powerfully different. What a genius!

Today, our Church celebrates the feast of All Saints. The celebration recognizes the tens of thousands of men, women, and children who throughout the history of the Catholic Church lived their lives giving witness to the gospel by what they said and did. Most impressive is how powerful their lives were and how powerfully different they are. Think of someone like St. Francis Xavier, S.J. who traveled the world preaching the gospel. From India to Japan to China, he labored tirelessly day and night, baptizing hundreds of thousands, so others could know Jesus. 

Then, there’s St. Theresa of Lisieux, the Little Flower. She entered the convent in France at a very young age and never ventured outside its walls. She spent her life praying, washing floors, and serving the other nuns in her community. With practically no access to people or the outside world, she somehow continues to be one of the most popular saints in the world.

Here you have two saints, drastically different, one from the other, yet both of them creations of the same, radically creative God. The same radically creative God who designed the heavens and the earth, who scripted the history of our salvation, who continues to sustain us. It is this radically creative God who, to this very day, produces such powerful work that is so powerfully different. What a genius!

So here’s a suggestion: with such a variety of saints of all shapes and sizes, why not choose a couple for special devotion? If you run cross country, pray to St. Sebastian, patron saint of runners. If you want to be a doctor, pray to St. Luke, patron saint of physicians. If you want to one day walk on the moon, pray to St. Joseph of Cupertino, patron saint of astronauts. Whatever it is, God’s saints are different. Spend some time marveling at their lives and, especially, at the Artist of such creative genius that made them.

Auspice Maria