Gospel in Art: He who is not with me is against me

Melancholy, by Constance-Marie Charpentier, 1801 © Musée de Picardie, Amiens

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 16 March 2023
Luke 11:14-22

Jesus was casting out a devil and it was dumb; but when the devil had gone out the dumb man spoke, and the people were amazed. But some of them said, 'It is through Beelzebul, the prince of devils, that he casts out devils.' Others asked him, as a test, for a sign from heaven; but, knowing what they were thinking, he said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin, and a household divided against itself collapses. So too with Satan: if he is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? - since you assert that it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils. Now if it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils, through whom do your own experts cast them out? Let them be your judges then. But if it is through the finger of God that I cast out devils, then know that the kingdom of God has overtaken you. So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are undisturbed; but when someone stronger than he is attacks and defeats him, the stronger man takes away all the weapons he relied on and shares out his spoil.

'He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters.'

Reflection on the painting

'He who is not with me is against me' we read in today's Gospel. We are challenged to examine which side of the battle we are fighting on: are we with Jesus or against Him? Of course we would all say that we are on His side, but our actions often reveal the contrary. There is a constant tension in our faith, where in our heart we feel we are on Jesus' side, but in our actions we prove the opposite. We feel that division and frustration within us, especially during Lent, when we are looking more closely at ourselves. Are we really on Jesus' side? That's the question our Gospel reading puts to us today.

Lent is this beautiful time of year when we are asked to spend quality time alone with God, to reflect more deeply. Maybe like the woman in our painting having a quiet moment, we may get a bit saddened by the fact we are not closer to Jesus.

Whilst the painting by Constance-Marie Charpentier beautifully conveys the aloneness of the woman and her state of reflection, the background to this painting is sad, yet powerful. The toll of young men in the French Revolution, and in the ensuing wars, was immense. While loss afflicted both sexes and all ages, its consequences for women were more immediate. Many women were left widowed. Survival and responsibility created new opportunities. One of those new opportunities was for women to pursue careers as artists. While women artists were not a new phenomenon, there certainly was a big rise in new talent emerging in the late 18th/early19th century. They had a unique gift to project the grief of an abandoned generation in terms of poetic allegory such as is the case in our painting. But far from asserting independence, their pictures actually tended to reinforce male stereotypes of female attachment. Here we see a girl seated alone and despondent in a woody landscape, meditating on her lost husband. At the time this was painted, it perpetuated the sense that women seem to have nothing to do but remember their lost husbands, and that without them there was little life to live.

LINKS

Gospel in Art: https://christian.art/
Today's reflection: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/luke-11-14-22-2023/