A year in the company of the Good Samaritan. Indeed, it is the icon of mercy – which refers to the famous passage from the gospel narrated by Luke – that forms the background to the celebrations that have been organised by the community of Taizé for the year 2015, the seventy-fifth anniversary of its foundation, with the further commemoration of Frère Roger, its founder, a hundred years after his birth and ten years after his departure for eternal life.

As the theme for meditation this year is ‘Towards a New solidarity’, the community decided to have an icon painted which tells the story of the Good Samaritan. This Biblical text from chapter 10 of the Gospel according to St. Luke provides a concrete example of what practised solidarity really is.

Description

The principal character of the icon is Christ who is at the foot of the painting in the centre. He is lying down and dressed in white with a tinge of green. His fine welcoming face is the most important part of his body. With his right hand he is engaged in a gesture of blessing and in his left hand he is holding the open Gospel with the Greek letters alpha and omega.

Christ is surrounded by an almond shape with dark blue strata and white, gold and red stripes which animate the surface of the almond shape in an undulating way. A thick white band forms the edge of the almond shape. This band does not only follow his outline – from it come lines that make up six circles which are located regularly around the almond shape. Within each circle the parable of the Good Samaritan is depicted in six episodes.

From left to right, from the top to the bottom, the images thus narrate, on both sides of Christ, the text of the gospel. The first image portrays the two robbers who have attacked their victim. In the second we see the victim lying on the ground: the priest and the Levite pass by praying but leave him at the side of the road. The Good Samaritan then arrives on his donkey, he bends down before the man and raises him up. He tends to his wounds. In the inn the wounded men is in bed and the Good Samaritan is at his side. Lastly, there is another image: the victim, the Good Samaritan and the innkeeper are sitting down and sharing a meal around the table.

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Above and beneath the almond shape with Christ at its centre, four angels are portrayed who are worshipping God. Three are in red and the last is in blue-green. In the upper part of the icon behind the angels there is a red band which has an undulating movement and beneath this, behind the angels, there is a green band. On these bands there is written: ‘Whenever you do this to one of my brethren, you did it to me’ (Mt 25:40).

Meaning

The white Christ is the heavenly Christ, transfigured as he will be at the end of the world. With his presence he blesses us and tells us the story of the Good Samaritan. The almond shape represents the mystery of God that we cannot understand. But dressed in white like a newly-born child, Christ comes to us and reveals God to us.

In the images that narrate the parable of the Good Samaritan, the victim is also depicted in white clothes: Christ is present in the wounded human being who needs our help. In some of the images, the position of the victim reminds us of the Passion of Christ (the scouring, being taken down from the Cross). The Good Samaritan is dressed in green, the colour that symbolises the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is true that it is not easy to help those who are in need, but if we begin to do this the Holy Spirit comes to us and acts through us.

     In the first image we see three people: the two robbers who have attacked their victim. The image depicts a disfigured trinity. Referring to the story of the murder of Abel by Cain at the beginning of the Bible, the story begins by portraying harmony broken by sin. Man, even if created in the image of God, is not in His likeness. In the last image we again see three people. They are sitting around a table on which there is a chalice – as in the icon of the Most Holy Trinity: the triune harmony has been restored. Whereas a form of piety that forgets about one’s neighbour, that of the Levite and the priest who pass by the victim, is only a form of idolatry, it is love, the work of charity engaged in by the Good Samaritan, that re-establishes humanity in its likeness to God.