To illustrate the theme of the Body of Christ, I would like to show you a painting by the Japanese painter Soichi Watanabe.
He has depicted Jesus as the cornerstone, reconciling Jews and non-Jews through his cross, but also all the divided people of our world.
To live together and bear witness in unity, we must constantly look to Christ crucified, the cornerstone or keystone.
But the Crucified One is also the Risen One: the yellow color expresses the light of his resurrection.
It is in him that the Church, represented by the stones, is built up. The green that surrounds the building symbolizes the Holy Spirit who carries the Church, the dwelling place of God, the body of Christ, the home of the Spirit.
The crucified and risen Christ is the ‘cornerstone’ (2:20). The reference to Jesus is therefore essential to the unity and growth of the Church through mission and evangelization. Unless it is constantly and firmly attached to Jesus Christ, the Church will cease to grow, or will develop in a disorderly manner, or even disintegrate.
This work is a meditation on this great text from the letter to the Ephesians. Through the cross, Christ brought unity between Jews and non-Jews and gathered them into one body. We must always return to this fundamental text.
‘But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. In his flesh he broke down the law with its commandments and regulations, to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and he reconciled both with God through the cross, thus killing hostility through it. (Ephesians 2:13-16)
Great hostility reigned between Jews and pagans. The separation wall of the temple in Jerusalem symbolized it: a pagan was not allowed to enter on pain of death. He had to remain in the pagan forecourt.
Jesus destroyed this enmity: he reconciles us with God and with one another. He destroys the separation wall, alienation and hatred. He creates a new, reconciled society.
He creates a ‘New Man’ who represents the Christian community. This new humanity characterized by communion between Jews and pagans is realized and developed through personal union with Christ. In him, Jews and pagans form a ‘single New Man’.
A reality that, today, has taken on a new dimension with the unprecedented rise of Jews who recognize Jesus as their Messiah. How do we welcome them into the Church? How do we live out Paul’s call to Jews and non-Jews to ‘welcome one another, as Christ welcomed us, for the glory of God’ (Rom 15:20)
This new unity through and in Christ does not stop at bridging the gap between Jews and pagans. Elsewhere, Paul applies it to all other social divisions (Col 3:11; Gal 3:28).
Soichi Watanabe, whom I know personally, had sent me a photo of his work after he received the various reports of my participation in the week of prayer for Christian unity in Jerusalem in January 2016.[1]
This was as part of the ‘Montées de Jérusalem’ (Ascents of Jerusalem), a movement that for 40 years travelled to Jerusalem every year to meet Christians from all Churches, as well as Jews who believe in Jesus. This year we had prayed with both. And on one occasion together!
He told me how happy he was: what we experienced corresponded to what he wanted to express in this painting, based on a meditation on this text from the letter to the Ephesians.
What a joy to have been able to pray together with each other and to experience a little of this reality of the ‘new man’ and the Body of Christ!
Only one is capable of ‘destroying the wall of separation’, of ‘killing hatred’ and of enabling us to truly meet one another: the risen Jesus who slips into our midst if we are ready to live his cross, renouncing ourselves.
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[1] See my column ‘Praying for unity in Jerusalem’. https://www.hoegger.org/article/prier-pour-l-unite-a-jerusalem/
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