Continuing
our meditation on the crucifixion by Mathias Grünewald, we focus today on the
hands and feet of Jesus, pierced mercilessly by atrocious nails. One can see
the contortions of the muscles in one of his hands. Those were the same hands
that helped his father in the carpenter’s shop in Nazareth, the same hands that
helped his mother Mary in daily domestic chores. Those were the same hands that
changed the water into wine, that healed many sick people, that raised Lazarus
and others. Those were the hands that fed the five thousand men, that changed
the bread and wine into His own Body and Blood. And now those same hands are
being tortured. These same hands were shown to Thomas after the Resurrection,
and later on blessed the apostles before Jesus ascended into heaven.
The
feet of Jesus too are depicted in a most gruesome way. They too were nailed to
the wood of the cross, pierced most probably through the navicular or cuneiform
bones. These were the same feet that trod the hills of Galilee, that climbed
the Mount of the Beatitudes, Mount Tabor and finally the Mount of Olives. These
were the same feet that walked on water. The same feet that as a little child
ran and jumped and played with his friends. These were the feet that
climbed the hill of Calvary, that fell three times on the way there. Grünewald
paints the feet as if resting temporarily on a horizontal piece of wood, so
that the crucified can rest his feet and still be able to breathe, prolonging
the painful death.
(tomorrow - the body of Jesus)
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