"God's style has three aspects: closeness, compassion and tenderness. This is how he draws closer to each one of us." Pope Francis
I've lost count — these wooden chairs around the table appear in so many von Uhde paintings. It's the rustic, un-upholstered chair of the poor. We see an oil lamp from the ceiling which won't offer much light when it's lit. The walls of the house are soot covered; the tile floor is old and worn. There's a room beyond. A cat is scooting under a side table. Are there mice in the house?
The children's dishes are lined up. The boy in the center at the far side of the table looks on. The littlest girl is watching her mother who is about to serve. We see the mother in profile. Her hair is up for her working in the kitchen. She's putting the serving bowl down, but her eyes are on Jesus. The devout grandparents are on the far side of the table. The young father, wearing heavy wooden shoes, bows humbly without taking his eyes off Jesus. He hospitable gesture for Jesus to sit is very lovely.
This is a remarkable painting—full of heart. Why did the Catholic hierarchy call it sacrilegious? Maybe they condemned it simply because a Protestant created it. I can't think of anything to say except I wish churches would stop labeling and condemning other people. Do you remember the Easter-night words of Jesus to the two apostles he met on the road to Emmaus: "Oh, how foolish you are, how slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have said!" Luke 24:25. The only thing that really matters is your response and mine — that I would not be slow of heart.
Notice there's a bread roll at the place where Jesus will sit. I expect it is an image of the Eucharist. No one owns the Eucharist, so of course, Fritz von Uhde had his own understandings about Communion—surely so deep and personal that he went to the trouble of putting the bread on the table in the first place. Let's be sure to stop all talk of other peoples' understanding of the Eucharist to be deficient or false, because lots of people around the world (and not just Catholics and the Greeks) take seriously the words of Jesus, "This is my body, do this in remembrance of me."
"I never expected much of the bishops...In all history popes and bishops and abbots seem to have been blind and power-loving and greedy. I never expected leadership from them. It is the saints who keep appearing all through history who keep things going. What I do expect is the Bread of Life and down through the ages there is that continuity." The Servant of God Dorothy Day ~ 1968
