3210 Via Crucis-Via Lucis: Happy Easter!
austraLasia #3210

 


Via Crucis-Via Lucis: Happy Easter!


ROME: 27 March 2013
--  Holy Week is well under way, with the Maundy Thursday Mass and agape but a few hours away. it seems an appropriate moment to take a leaf out of the New Zealand Liturgy Commission Journal (which in turn took man leafs out of Salesian sources in Rome and Colle Don Bosco!) and wish everyone a fruitful journey through the Way of the Cross to the Way of Light. That is the only way we can make sense of out many of life's events - and it is Jesus' Way.

For those who are only seeing this 1st panel of the Colle Don Bosco 'Via Lucis' (see above as an insert on the front cover of the magazine) for the first time, the artist, Giovanni Dragoni, puts his explanation this way:

At the centre is Jesus, his gaze looking upwards. He is presented as conquering death; in his right hand he holds a standard, symbol of victory. The left arm is lightly bent, but the open hand gives a spatial dimension, a solemn one at that, which is a testimony to his real presence.
There is a radiance emanting from Jesus; the energy that he has released through his resurrection, and it also indicates the space of the entire panel.
Jesus' face is seren, luminous, radiating light and hope.

At the centre (either side of Jesus) there are two lines - grooves, really - that xtend upwards and outwards from the empty tomb; those too generates a sense of open space from which the Risen Lord emerges.

Two figures either side in the upper part of the panel are touched by wrapped up by the energy emanating from Jesus - they symbolise the slow but sure release from the sleep of death, to take part in the Great Resurrection.

In the lower part of the panel there are two completely different figures. On one side the angel seated on the stone that blocked the tomb. The angel's hnds too, are facing upwards. On the other side is the soldier, symbolising those who had to guard the tomb, keep people away; but he has been pushed back by a much stronger force than a lance, the power of the Risen Lord. Weapons are powerless in the great plan of Redemption.