'God Is Love': in Benedict XVI and in Art
Contemplative Nun Comments on New Encyclical
ROME, JAN. 27, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est,” suggests numerous poetic images.
To reflect on its poetic aspects in greater depth, ZENIT interviewed art critic Sister Maria Gloria Riva, a contemplative religious of the Perpetual Adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Sister Riva has just published the book in Italian entitled “Nell’arte lo stupore di una Presenza” (The Wonder of a Presence in Art), published by St. Paul’s, and the DVD “Il Codice dell’Amore” (The Code of Love), published by MIMEP, in which she refutes some of the inventions of “The Da Vinci Code.”
Q: What does the encyclical letter “Deus Caritas Est” suggest?
Sister Riva: That light and love are one thing. In his first encyclical the Pope traces, from Aristotle to Dante, the itinerary of love, from “eros” to that divine “caritas” that Christ revealed in full, an attractive subject which has always conquered man, including our time which, though it has abused it, as the Pope observes, feels the fascination of love and needs to rediscover this primordial sentiment in its entirety; it needs to purify it.
Q: Among the innumerable artistic representations of love, which one would you choose to explain this encyclical?
Sister Riva: In art, the mystery of the “love that moves the sun” and of the eternal light that finds its perfect manifestation in the human face of Christ, has been masterfully represented by Blessed Angelico, who, precisely following Dante’s lesson, painted the blessed in “The Last Judgment” as elegant and dancing figures …
The beauty of their movement contrasts with the heaviness of the condemned who, on the opposite side of the scene, flee from the claws of the infernal spirits.
It contrasts even more with the immobility of those who, having administered badly the gift of “eros,” embrace in the infernal circles.