A reflection on the mural ‘At the Ecological Dinner in the Kingdom’ in which Christ sits outside with 12 disciples: male and female, child and adult. And where everyone is equal and equally important in building God’s kingdom today.
Fr Maximino Cerezo Barredo, CMF was born in Villaviciosa, Spain in 1932 and was ordained a Claretian priest in 1957. He is an artist known for his powerful murals who has worked and travelled throughout Latin America, the Philippines and lived in Peru, Brazil, Nicaragua, and Panama. While ministering under various political regimes and wide-scale poverty he realised that: “My weapons, my trenches were not those of a guerrilla fighter. I used the message of the Word, colour and painting… And so, I sought to rescue the people from their oppression.”
In his mural, ‘At the Ecological Dinner in the Kingdom’ Christ sits outside with 12 disciples: male and female, child and adult. This scene celebrates the diversity and harmony of people and planet. The title implies an image of a heavenly banquet. Here, humanity is living in communion with creation from sunrise on our left to sunset on our right; nature flourishes, flowers bloom, dead tree stumps offer new shoots; and the wisdom of the people keeps the community grounded. Men and women of all walks of life offer their experience as they sit gathered around a white tablecloth with local bread, water, wine and plantains.
Christ, dressed like the people he serves, warmly draws the community together. He honours the dignity of each person with one hand in praise and blessing, the other in friendship around the shoulder of the person beside him. Everything is in balance, there is no tension in this vision despite the wounds of Christ still visible in his hands and feet. Here, redemption is complete when God, creation and humanity are at ease with each other.
Jesus’ declaration that all food was clean (Mark: 7:19) was radical by any standards of religious practice and still is today. His associating himself with every category of people considered outsiders was proof that Jesus understood God’s will in direct contrast to other teachers and faiths of his time. His willingness to eat with ‘publicans and sinners’ (Mark 2:15-17) was the clearest statement that traditional religious views of purity and contamination were now over. This new kind of table-fellowship was the essence of the kingdom (Luke 22:15-16). It demonstrated that religious discrimination was finally abolished. To reinforce this new thinking, Jesus actively touched and sought to be touched physically by those considered unclean.
In this mural, touch is a consistent theme. We see it in the various gestures and body language of the circle’s discussion; the touch of fellowship; the holding of a cup, a pot, a book; and in the care of the child. The reality of this new gathering around the risen Christ contradicts every division between people based on their birth. Jesus went out of his way to model this community cohesion and he expects his followers to do the same.
Paul, using different language, affirms this same model when he states that the consequences of being in Christ must be the end of all distinctions based on ethnic differences, religious, political or financial privilege, gender, education or culture (e.g. Romans 10:12; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Colossians 3:11). If we go on behaving as if these distinctions were still relevant and important today, we deny Christ’s work of reconciliation and the ultimate value and significance of his death. (Ephesians 2:14-19).
As Christians, we are first united through a common baptism. Our common redemption in Christ is what transcends every other aspect of our humanity. It does not minimise the rich diversity of our humanity but draws us together as God’s creation. Whichever parish we belong to, whoever we are, Fr Cerezo Barredo’s work proclaims that everyone is equal and equally important in building God’s kingdom today.
Fleur Dorrell
Fleur Dorrell looks at how we can build community using the Bible as our guide and key Catholic Social Teaching principles.
