c. Door (Jesus the Door,Oil on Canvas.1992.Part of the series on the Seven Acts of Mercy. In the collection of the Missions Prokura sj, Nuerenberg)
Of the numerous other key texts in John by which Jesus identifies his distinctive being, one says: ‘I am the Door’. This is very similar to his saying, ‘I am the Way’. In the first case the door is the entrance to the sheep-fold. Not only is he the Good Shepherd guiding, leading the faithful. The fourth Gospel’s vision of Christian discipleship (a vision so beloved of many earlier Indian Christian thinkers) is not just of faithful following; it is a sharing in his love, an entering into his very life, his mind, his spirit. ‘I no longer call you servants; you are friends (for you know my mind)’. He is the Door, the Way, through which they pass in intimacy and mutual love.
Muslim Sufi mystics - with their dancing, their sense of God as the Door around which they turn in dance, through which they pass in the harmony of mystic love - made a great impression on large numbers of Hindu people over a thousand years ago. A Darveshi (the once denigratory ‘whirling dervisher’ refers to these ecstatic dancers) literally means a Door-person, one who through the whirling dance passed through the door.
Jyoti here attempts to convey the mystery of Christ as both coming through a door (the door from eternity to our world) and inviting those who would enter into relationship with him to pass through this door, to discover with him the true meaning and goal of life here on earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment