Releasing the Divine Image
I love the legendary story that has emerged with regard to Michelangelo’s Pieta (a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture that depicts Jesus being held by his mother Mary after being taken down from the cross). According to the legend, Michelangelo was too poor to purchase new marble for his work, so he went out among the stones deemed unworkable and discarded by other artists. As he made his way through this graveyard of rejected stones, a particular stone captured his attention. As he studied it, he could see the figures of Jesus and Mary just waiting to be released. Does God see in us an image just waiting to be released? Of course, the archetypal image for Christians is the Christ image. We are called to follow Jesus, to reflect his love, his grace, his compassion for the downtrodden and his passion for a just world. What needs to be chiseled away for us to become like Christ? Does God need to chip away at our anger, our indifference, our apathy, our resentment, our gree...