Art and Faith come together

Painter, sculptor, glassmaker, Belgian artist Jan Goris created an iconoclastic Stations of the Cross.

House Home
of the Assumption

17 Rue de l'Assomption, 75016 Paris, France

Via Crucis, 14 Stations of the cross

On one panel , paintings of different sizes, of different emotions are presented like some important event we are witnessing . You can stop at any station, start a dialogue. Go on to another. Come backwards. It’s a journey with Jesus going to be crucified because he dared to speak the truth. Because he dared to promote love instead of violent rules and laws. It’s a journey into our lives, accompanied by Jesus.

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Jesus takes up his cross. The wood of the cross still has its roots. It is so difficult to lift our cross, take it away from its roots and habits. Our cross, our mission: to bring our cross up the mountain, into the light.
Jesus is stripped of his clothes; Jesus is naked. He suddenly feels alone, and seems abandoned by men and God. Men would quickly tend to despair. Abandonment is a terrible experience for us. However, Jesus in his nudity is transparent with light: the more they strip him, the more the essential light is there. The closer it is to nature, the more he is connected to the Whole.
Pieta, Jesus is laid in the arms of his mother Mary who puts her hand on his wounded chest. Maria who is listening, trying to hear his heart. Is he still alive? Well yes, he is; but differently: light comes down from heaven, sign of life coming back.
Jesus falls for the first time. The cross is heavy, his mission is so difficult. Helping people to live a better peaceful life. He's like holding a building on his shoulders, so as to help children and women to come out of bombed houses?
Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem. In a society where women had no place Jesus always defended women. Even when a group of men were throwing stones at an adultery wife, he held on, and stopped them. The church, the world, should give them the better place they deserve.
Maria meets her son (4). Their look is a look of people who love each other. She even looks younger. It's as if she's seeing her loving angel again, the one of the Announciation. Fingers touch each other on the cross.
Jesus is nailed to the cross. The nail is almost invisible. The white sleeve symbolises resurrection.
Veronica (6) is so imbued by her meeting with Jesus that she herself becomes the reflection of his face. We can see that even the color of her skin looks like that of Jesus. We even discover a little of the crown of Jesus, but also the serenity and love of her Savior .Veronica wipes the face of Jesus. She's touched by him.
Jesus falls for the third time.(9) Again Jesus experiences the human reality of falling, but he connects it to the Creator. The cross is at the bottom and then we see it in the light at the top of the painting; as if it were freed from gravity, finding the path to eternal life. This painting is starting from below and is rising towards the light, towards God. We must connect our human experience to the ultimate goal: that He becomes for us “the only light” so that we too arrive at the eternal joy.

Jesus needs Simon (5), One of the rare times when we see that God needs a man to help him! He invites us to help him and to love him. Love doesn’t just go one way, even if it seems incredible. Jesus tells us: No false humility, He needs us, our love, our creativity, our openness and our awakened senses, our goodness to make better our world.

Very near of his head, there is a horizontal painting (12), representing the right crossbar of the cross: there are Mary, John, Mary Magdalene - They would have liked to be, not at the foot of the cross, but all very close to Him at the moment of his death, as when we are at the bedside of a person in great difficulty, helping him to pass away, listening to his last living words. Thé fourth person, that I added, is ... Marie-Eugénie, perhaps a little embarrassed to be placed so high, and yet proud, happy and in her place, representing her sisters near Jesus, representing humanity.

For the second time, Jesus falls. He finds himself under his cross, (7) as if he were crushed by it. But this is not the case: this is the moment where he is connected to the soil, to the ground, to the earth. Jesus kisses the earth, to thank the earth which welcomed him and which made him grow. Doing so, he takes the opportunity to thank all its inhabitants, to forgive them, to send them once again his love.

A black rain falls on this man and his child. Bombs, gas, injustices, violence, genocides. Human justice is not divine justice. Pilate sees no reason for condemnation, and yet delivers Jesus to his executioners (1).

 

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