Matthew 5:20-26 | Gian Lorenzo Bernini | Anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it

Matthew 5:20-26   Anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it

Anima Dannata (‘Damned Soul’), Sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), Sculpted in 1619, White sculpted marble © Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, Rome Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. ‘You have learnt how it was said to our ancestors: You must not kill; and if anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court. But I say this to you: anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court; if a man calls his brother “Fool” he will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and if a man calls him “Renegade” he will answer for it in hell fire. So then, if you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering. Come to terms with your opponent in good time while you are still on the way to the court with him, or he may hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. I tell you solemnly, you will not get out till you have paid the last penny.’   READ MORE     Reflection on the Sculptural Bust In today’s Gospel reading we read that whoever kills, will be liable to judgment. But Jesus dials it up a notch saying that anyone who is angry with his brother will have to face justice. I think that we can all agree that killing is very wrong, but getting angry with someone also incurring judgement is quite a step further. Why is Jesus so strong on this point of having to control our anger? He knows that letting anger live inside us is dangerous as it can lead to resentment of the other, resentment of oneself and even of society. Living with anger makes one bitter and uncompassionate. Ultimately anger blocks love and therefore… blocks God out of our lives. Staying with the greats in Art History, having looked at Leonardo da Vinci yesterday, let’s look at this sculpture of an angry man by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He made two sculptures reflecting the soul: the Anima Beata (‘Blessed Soul’) contemplates the beauty and love of the soul destined for Heaven; the Anima Dannata ("Damned Soul"), our sculpture of today, expresses all the terror of hell as a man consumed by anger, destined for Hell. Some academics think that our sculpture is even a self portrait of the artist. The realism of the face is quite confrontational to someone standing in front of it. Bernini was only twenty when he carved this. Always pushing himself, he set himself the seemingly impossible challenge of carving the human soul in marble. The main thing I like about this sculpture, which is hard to convey in photographs, is its highly shiny, polished finish… It intensifies that feeling of anger, to the point of breaking out in sweat… Looking at the eyes, they are deeply hollowed out. The sculpture was standing in front of the fireplace in the Spanish Embassy in Rome which commissioned the artwork. Bernini, to evoke the soul's internal anger and destination for Hell, deeply carved out the eye sockets and polished them intensely, so their shiny surface would capture and reflect the flames of the fire opposite the sculpture… Stunning! Patrick