The Teacher of His Heart

Chapter One. Christ — Lord and Servant

Part One IMAGES of CHRIST "Let us, therefore, hold onto the words, the life, and the teaching and the Holy Gospel of Him Who humbled Himself to ask His Father for us and to make His name known to us." (RegNB XXII 41) Chapter One Christ — Lord and Servant In 1224, two years before his death, Francis received the stigmata or marks of Christ's passion on Mount LaVerna. From then on his body resembled that of his Lord. It was the first time in the history of the Church that such a thing had happened. Thus it is easy to understand the great amazement of Francis’ contemporaries. Thomas of Celano can only describe the people's admiration when he says: The new man, Francis, became famous through a new and stupendous miracle when he appeared marked with a singular privilege, never granted in previous ages, when he was decorated with the sacred stigmata and made similar in this mortal body to the body of the Crucified.1 By then the image of Christ crucified had become intimately linked to the spirituality of Francis. Jacques de Vitry refers to the Franciscans as "the order of the true poor men of the Crucified."2 Such a new and stupendous miracle can so capture our attention that we run the risk of narrowing the dimensions of Francis’ picture of Christ. While it certainly gave strong emphasis to the image of the Crucified, did 13Cel 2. In his encyclical letter announcing the death of Francis, Brother Elias had written: "I take this occasion also to communicate to you very joyful news—a new miracle. Never yet has anyone heard of such wondrous signs except in the case of the Son of God, who is Christ the Lord. For, a long time before his death, our Brother and Father Francis was visibly crucified; he bore on his body the five wounds, the genuine stigmata of Christ." Analecta Franciscana X, 523-528. 2Jacques de Vitry, Historia Occidentalis II, ed. Franciscus Moschus (Douai: ex Officina Typographica B. Belleri, 1597) 32. 20 / Norbert Nguyên–Van–Khanh, O.F.M. not Francis' vision of Christ perhaps also include other images? Does not the divine lordship of the most high Son of God hold a place in Franciscan contemplation of equal importance to that of His suffering humanity? Before analyzing the images and expressions used by Francis to represent Christ as God and man, Lord and servant, it is important to consider briefly the historical context. We would like to know what was the image of Christ in the popular piety of the high Middle Ages. This will allow us to emphasize the continuity as well as the originality of Francis in the context of his time. I. The Image of Christ in the Popular Piety of the High Middle Ages A. The Romanesque Church and Its Tympanum The tympanums found in Romanesque churches are eloquent witnesses for our better understanding and grasp of the meaning of the image of Christ as pictured by the people of the high Middle Ages. Religious art and especially monumental art was conceived by the Middle Ages as an instrument for teaching the faith. The simple and ignorant, all who were called sancta plebs Dei learned through their eyes almost everything they knew about their faith.... It was as if the countless statues, arranged according to an established plan, were an image of the marvelous order imposed upon the world of ideas by St. Thomas Aquinas; thanks to art, the most elevated theological and scientific conceptions reached the humblest minds, even if in vague form.3 1. The Christ of the Apocalypse The Romanesque tympanums offer us the image of Christ as an allpowerful God, a King of glory seated on the throne of majesty, in the act of receiving the homage of the entire universe. The tympanum of Moissac, a masterpiece whose influence on the monumental sculpture of the era was 3Émile Mâle, L'art religieux du XIIIe siècle en France (Paris : A. Colin, 1902) 1. Here we limit ourselves to examples from France. In reality the religious art of the age possessed a universal character: "At Burgos, Toledo, Siena, Orvieto, Bamberg, Fribourg, and Canterbury, the great subjects favored by medieval art were conceived as they were at Paris or Reims" (Mâle, 5). On the other hand, medieval Christian thought found a fuller and richer expression in France than elsewhere. [18.220.106.241] Project MUSE (2024...