NOT CONDEMNATION BUT FORGIVENESS

Forgiveness
is not the legitimation of evil,
thus leaving free rein to its power,
but the condition for its delegitimization and defeat.

C. De Sante

A great art historian like Heinrich Wólfflin at last brings us to understand how the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque was a slow but inexorable progress, from rigidity to freedom, from closed to open forms, from absolute clarity to chiaroscuro. With the Baroque, the forms will become fluctuating, and the contours more blurred and this in an attempt to refer to infinity. In short, the Baroque is an ars inquieta that always tends towards the beyond and then pushes in all directions; it expresses the inquietum cor – of Augustinian memory – that characterizes the man of the seventeenth century, intent on overcoming all borders. Let us think of the geographical border, with ever new discoveries, the cosmic border with the invention of Galileo’s telescope that expands the gaze into sidereal spaces. Hence that sense of emptiness, of vertigo that so characterized Pascal for example and that had to be overcome. The seventeenth century had some leading figures. Let us think of Shakespeare, the Jesuit Signeri, Racine, Cervantes. In Italy Bernini, Borromini, Caravaggio and the Carraccis stand out. Among the Carraccis, this Sunday, we draw attention to a canvas by Agostino (1557-1602), commissioned by Abbot Sampieri, which describes the Master of Nazareth’s encounter with an adulterous woman. The painting is part of three canvases entrusted to the Carraccis depicting Jesus’ encounter with three women: the Canaanite woman (painted by his cousin Ludovico), the Samaritan woman (painted by his brother Annibale) and the adulteress (entrusted to Agostino, as we said). What does our author highlight? Forgiveness, which has its eloquent sign in Jesus’ raised and blessing hand. In John’s account, Jesus does not raise his hands but lowers them. In fact, he writes on the ground. The result, however, is the same: “Neither do I condemn you,” he says to the woman, “go and sin no more” (Jn 8:11). Forgiving, in our experience, is neither easy nor immediate; forgiving as Christians and as Christians, we must say immediately, seems impossible. To reach the measure of Christ, we need his Spirit. Yes, because how does a Christian forgive? We must look at the Crucifix. What happened on the cross? Jesus fully accepted the hatred of his enemies and responded with an extreme degree of love. This extreme degree was manifested in love for the enemy. We must never forget that Jesus also loved his executioner. And the reason why Jesus extended his forgiving love to those who killed him is this: in a world where violence is innate in the heart of man, forgiveness is the only power capable of resurrecting him, of transforming the heart of stone into a heart of flesh. There, this makes the Christian difference. If we enter into this feeling, the other is no longer as Sartre said, our hell, but our paradise. Are we convinced of this?

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey