While searching for paintings of the Emmaus story (see Lk 24:13-35) in the internet, I chanced on a very different artistic rendering of this Easter narrative, by the Spanish painter Diego Velazquez.In the painting, we almost fail to notice the figure of Christ and the disciples in the background. Instead it is the servant girl at the foreground, amid pots and pans, who catches our attention. Yet, our gaze does not stop there since her eyes carry us obliquely to the “event” taking place in the other room!
What a beautiful way of suggesting the hidden significance of the Easter story in the daily grind of life. Here’s one attempt of deepening this interpretation: “(In the painting) the fact that it is hard—even for those who are open to the divine— to see and understand things directly is underscored. No matter how important (even when framed) events are, it is only in a de-centered and marginal fashion that truth becomes suddenly—and, perhaps, only temporarily—manifest. Not by chance, both a servant and a kitchen are, respectively, socially marginal and, in general, logistically de-centered."
For more on this, you can read Cristina Giorcelli’s article.
My Easter journey this year is quite a special one since I’m trying to come to terms with some very significant events in my personal life (deaths of precious persons in the year past, etc). Like the servant girl in this story-painting, it is only “obliquely” that I am seeing the meaning of all these and perceiving the saving presence of our Lord in my life and in the lives of those I care for.
I know I need to pray for a more purified vision, a way of seeing that is strengthened by love. Daniel O’Leary, one of my favorite writers, inspires me: Love fills in the gaps and heals the flaws. It sees perfection from within, the beauty already there.
May the Lord grant us all this Easter grace of seeing his saving grace and experiencing “joy in the world as it is, in life as it is, in every hour of life in this world, as that hour is.” (Buber, Tales of Hasidism)
