The Catholic Weekly 31 May 2020

8 31, May, 2020 F rom the archbishop catholicweekly.com.au Help of Christians She’s God’s mum, she’s God’s gift to us and we couldn’t ask for a better intercessor in life’s quest Y ears ago I saw a very beautiful image of The Virgin at Prayer in the Dominican church of St Clement near the Colosseum in Rome. When I got back home, I discov- ered the same painting in the National Gallery of Victo- ria in Melbourne. Was I see- ing double? Had I stolen the A statue of Our Lady Help of Christians stands inside St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney. The statue is one of the most well-known features of the cathedral. Right back to the Wedding of Cana, pictured above, people have sought Mary’s intercession. PHOTO: DENNIS JARVIS/FLICKR, CC BY-SA 2.0 painting and brought it back with me to Australia? No, both were painted by Sassoferrato (Giovanni-Bat- tista Salvi 1609-1685), a great baroque artist but also a copy- cat, even a cheat. He’d do al- most identical images for dif- ferent patrons and tell them all that theirs was the original! It turns out there’s a third version of the same work in Santa Maria della Salute in Venice. And another in the Auckland Art Gallery. Another ‘original’ is one of the most popular paintings in the National Gallery in Lon- don. You can also get it as a coffee mug, T-shirt or, oddly, as a beach towel! In all these images, Mary is a young Italian beauty with a perfect complexion and hands together in prayer. Over her red tunic is a cloak of striking ultramarine, made from grinding the semi-pre- cious stone lapis lazuli. She is holy yet human, and she’s unique – except that there are lots just like her... …which captures, I think, something of the heart of Mary, Help of Christians. We know she never sinned, was full of grace, received Christ into her womb, was over- shadowed by the Holy Spirit, brought Jesus up. Such ho- liness might have made her seem aloof and distant. Yet, she’s very much one of us, and so in the Sassoferrato paintings she wears ordinary clothes (for those days), prays like we do, and has no halo. Her story is that of a human mother, who in the words of our first reading “brings up her sons and cares for those who seek her” (Sir 4:11-18). Throughout history, right back to the Wedding Feast of Cana, people in difficulty have sought her intercession. Because she’s one of us, a mother to us, we turn to her in our need; but she’s the best of us, mother to Our Lord, she gets those prayers answered. So Mary is holy yet human, and attracts our devotion as ‘Help of Christians’. She is also unique. After Adam and Eve and Je- sus, she’s the only human be- ing made without original sin. As our first reading put it, she’s loved and honoured and held close by all who love God. She’s an original, yet there are potentially many like her: for every one of you is called to be a saint too. If one of us could remain sinless all her life it means we too can choose, each time we choose, what is good and true and beautiful, like she did. And when you fail, when your painting has cracks and flaky bits, you can return to her Son, the Master Painter, to Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP