The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-04-21
THE PICTURE OF OUR SAVIOR.

the New York Herald of leaders in va
rious religious denominations. The
Catholic representative was Rev. ]. F.
y. O'Connor, S. j., and his reply to the
question was as follows:
When we attempt to place before our
minds the picture of Christ our Lord,
the most beautiful of the children of
men, we know that the utmost power
OF our imagination will fail to reach
the beauty of the divine original. He
is the infinite God, perfect in beauty,
IN majesty, in power and glory, in holi-
ness and gentleness, in sweetness and
III goodness. in all that could claim
the love of the human heart.
TO paint true picture of Christ the
artist must study Him in the pictures
given by the prophets. the gospels, his
tory and tradition. No other will be a
true picture One may draw on his
imagination of how Christ might ap-
pear to him, but the true picture will
give the characteristics, the features
of Christ, drawn from authentic
sources, which alone can represent
Him.
From prophecy, scripture, history and
tradition the artists of all ages and
nations have drawn types of the Re
deemer. From Giotto, in the fourteenth
century, to Schaeffer, Ittenbach. Bou-
guerau, in the nineteenth, in full paint
ings, as in outline, from the days Of
the catacombs to the thirteenth cen
tury, in Rome and in London in Mu-
Mich and in New York. painters of the
Italian, German, Spanish, French and
English schools of art have placed be-
fore US portraits of Christ.
We shall take the Old Testament as
prophetic history, symbolic and fig
urative, giving the elements Of His
! character. The New Testament is one
| long record of His miracles. The his
! tory of the church is an unassailabie
witness of the power of Christ through
all ages. and profane history reliable,
although reluctant, witness of the truth
of the history of the church. Each
gives it's portion of His divine history
During centuries Christ the Messiah
had been anxiously looked for, and at
the coming of the appointed time there
was a general movement of expectation
among the Jews and among the en-
lightened intellects of progression.
1t is said that a painter among the
Jews, wishing to make a picture of
Christ, had stood in the multitude to
watch His features. But so great was
the supernatural beauty of that divine
countenance, so holy the supernatural
light which beamed from that sweet
est of all faces of the most beautiful
Of the children of men, that his heart
was lifted in rapture and his eyes
drank in the glorious vision, but he
forgot the work he designed to do and
his hand remained motionless and
dared not trace the outlines lest one
moment of that vision would be lost.
Such was the divine grace Of Jesus
Christ, says one writer, that none but
a divine hand should paint it, and if
we look in prophecy for what Christ
should be we read there only what
Christ really was at the time He lived
among men.
The Jewish historian Josephus says:
Now, there was about this time Jesus,
a wise man, if it is lawful to call Him
a man, for He was doer of wonderful
works, a teacher of such men as re-
ceive the truth with pleasure. He drew
over to Him both many of the Jews
and many of the Gentiles. He was
the Christ, but when Plate, at the sug-
gestion of the principal men among us,
had condemned Him to the cross, those
that loved Him at the first did not for
sake Him, for He appeared to them
alive again on the third day, as the
divine prophets had foretold these and
10000 other wonderful things concern
ing Him. And the tribe of Christians,
so named for Him, are not extinct at
this day" This gives us the historical
fact of the life, death and resurrection
of Christ. The testimony is from one
whose interest it was to deny the ex-
istence of Christ.
Next to this picture in history we
look at the picture of Christ in the Cos
pels. When Caesar Augustus wished
to enroll the Roman conquered world
the mother of Christ journeyed to
Bethlehem. and He was born in sta
BILE and laid in a manager. This is the |
sign given by angels to the shepherds, |
who, rising in haste, adored Him.
When the hour came to preach to the |
world we learn the sublime beauty of |
His life. His birth in the stable, His |
hidden life of thirty years, was dis |
to the world No great |
king would enter on his reign in such |
fashion. And we look in wonder and I
at that beautiful figure in |
the past, the center of the worlds hope
and the worlds joy. Wherever His
steps bore Him He brought joy and
deeds of gladness, and health to the
sick and suffering, and peace to the
sinner, and His passing was
like the passing of gladness, for He
left after Him the brightness of glad
dened hearts.
And as we go down the tide of ages
we find the name and the memory and
the spirit and the love of Christ the
foremost object in the worlds history.
Who is the Christ foretold in pro-
ohecy, recorded in history? This Christ
s the Man God, the Son of God made
man for US. The mystery of the in
;drHdlion ny WHICH the seconu person
If the Blessed Trinity united to Him
self our human nature is SO wonderful
In act of Gods love that it could never
nave entered into mans mind to i'm
lEiRe it.
Christ is true God and true man, hav-
ng human body and a humane soul. |
lie has two natures, the divine and the
human nature, which the one person of
Ntr;ct ca ,1Di+od In IJirDSoIf tbo+ +bo |