Almost two-thirds of the Pauline Year decreed by Pope Benedict is over. Do you think we, in Malta, have derived from it the benefits which the Pope intended?
Some interesting events are still underway such as the exhibition of Pauline Art in Gozo. Long before Joseph Ratzinger became Pope, he had said that in the last analysis there are only two cogent arguments for Christianity: the saints in the Church and the art that grows in her womb. It is therefore a good sign that more of us are helped to understand Paul a little more deeply through the images of him that great artists have given us.
Incidentally, since there is undoubtedly a deep Pauline imprint on our Maltese identity, the more we understand Paul in his multiple imagery, the more we will be understanding ourselves.
No-one has contributed more to this deeper self-understanding through the study of the Maltese iconography of St Paul than Mgr John Azzopardi. He will soon organise another exhibition of Pauline imagery in Rabat. The National Feast that we will be celebrating on Tuesday provides us all with an excellent occasion to reflect on the two key Pauline images that we have.
Mgr Azzopardi has shown that most Maltese images of the Shipwreck are modelled on the masterpiece by Perez d'Aleccio at the church in Valletta. In it the artist highlights the political significance of Paul's journey to Rome probably with reference to the tension between the Grandmaster and the Bishop, Gargallo, who had commissioned the painting.
Likewise, most statues of St Paul on our island are modelled on the masterpiece by Melchiorre Cafa' donated by the Testaferrata family to the same Valletta Church. Fortunately, it has become possible to decipher better the significance of this, perhaps the finest work of sculpture by world standards in Malta, thanks to the beautifully produced monograph on Cafa' by Keith Sciberras.
His research clarified why Cafa' was regarded in his day at Rome as the counterpart of Bernini. It was not just because Cafa' was deemed to have comparable artistic genius. It was also because Cafa', who was closely associated from his Birgu days with the Dominicans, expressed in his work the traditional Thomist world-vision. Thus, his style was in many ways similar to that of his great innovative contemporaries, but with personal nuances which created a contrast with the new, more 'mystically' inclined post-Reformation theology of the new religious orders that flourished with the Council of Trent and which found sublime expression in Bernini.
For instance, both Bernini and Cafa' use sinuous, almost serpentine configurations even when depicting human figures, as is very striking in Cafa's St Paul. However, in Bernini the motif essentially evokes continuity between mystical experiences in this world and heavenly experiences in the next, while in Cafa' it rather suggests the dramatic conflict between the forces of darkness and the grace of God that Aquinas places at the heart of his pre-individualist world vision.
According to what you are saying, both Perez d'Aleccio and Cafa' expressed an image of St Paul that was very much a response to the concerns of the post-Reformation age in which they lived. Is there any particular way in which the many new studies of St Paul that have come out recently make him particularly relevant to our times?
Many writers have been developing the model of the Church that was presented by Hans Urs von Balthassar. He had noted that in its early days, the Church had regarded as its pillars not just Peter, but alongside him also Paul, and indeed others such as John.
In fact, in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, different roles are attributed to the apostles corresponding more or less to their character. Peter is pictured essentially as the pastor in charge of a settled flock. Paul is rather at the head of the missionary movement of the Church. John, with Mary, represents the contemplative dimension that is equally essential for the spiritual life of the Christian community.
An Anglican theologian, David Brown, has developed the idea that the existence of a certain amount of tension and even conflict between Peter and Paul was beneficial to the Church and its balanced growth. He has pointed out that Balthassar's ecclesiology is prefigured in some great art-works.
For instance, Durer painted one of the earliest Reformation images of Paul in his Four Apostles (Paul and John, Peter and Mark). The four are taken to represent the four basic types of human character with St Paul embodying the melancholic, and thus according to the theories of the time, the one most disposed to genius. Brown is not at all enthusiastic for this picture of Paul with his fiery look signifying individual, romantic heroism!
Rembrandt, although also a Protestant, produced many times a quite different image of Paul (once a self-portrait). He is quietly reflective, not arrogant in the least, but a man of meditation and prayer. Brown thinks that this is a much truer picture of Paul. There would be a lot to say about Caravaggio's portrait of Paul eclipsed by the horse in the conversion scene, but that deserves an essay to itself.
Clearly, Brown focused on the positive conflictuality between Peter and Paul because, in his view, the tension in the Church between conservatives and progressives should not be viewed negatively, provided the two sides follow the example of Peter and Paul and realise that the Church on earth should resemble heaven at least in having many mansions and different lifestyles within the gospel parameters of reciprocal love and respect.
Which omission do you regret most in the way we are living the Pauline Year?
The failure to restore San Pawl Milqi in the manner it deserves.
Fr Peter Serracino Inglott was talking to Miriam Vincenti