![]() ![]() Touching another enacts (actualises or brings into reality) a relationship, an association. Faith comes through the wound of Christ more than that it comes through feeling ourselves feel His wound. Caravaggio’s painting suggests that it was possibly not enough to feel the hands of the Saviour or even to see him eat. The way we are simultaneously both united with and radically separated from that other person in our very physicality. Much has been said about the act of touching, the way that we feel ourselves feeling another. These most homely of men (with their torn clothing, calloused hands and worn faces) are in the presence of their God, their Saviour, and He invites them to feel His wounded body. No Angelic choirs and no everlasting burnings here just a fisherman touching another man. This is the risen Christ, the glorified Messiah and the King of Kings assisting one of his disciples to tangibly feel the fleshy hole in His side. For those of us who are Christians this is a disconcerting interpretation of this encounter. ![]() Yet, this is more than just a scar, this is an open wound and Thomas has his finger partially inside the son of God. In one sense, Caravaggio captures the humanity of the scene. Just the other night, one of my co-bloggers and I exchanged scar-stories while driving back from a local Church meeting (he admittedly won by a long way). Most of us have experienced that strange fascination with scars and wounds. It is both invasive and a little mundane yet these qualities suggest something profound about our relationship with Christ. The ragged apostles, perhaps even a little ugly, are crudely observing Thomas put his finger inside the wound of Jesus. Michaelango Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), Doubting Thomas, Oil on canvas, (1602-3).Įven today there is something quite shocking about Caravaggio’s ‘Doubting Thomas’. ![]()
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