VATICAN: Vatican Unveils Official Image of Tenth World Meeting of Families
Image for 10th World Meeting of Families
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
In preparation for the upcoming 10th World meeting of families to be held in Rome next year 2022, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life which will host the event June 22-26, unveiled the official image for the meeting Wednesday, July 28.
The image painted by Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik, a Slovenian Jesuit who is an artist, theologian and director of Centro Aletti Center in Rome is entitled “This Mystery is Great,” an inspiration from the letter of St. Paul the Apostle to Ephesians.
In a video clip narrating the meaning of the image, the Jesuit cleric highlights how the “sacramental love between man and woman is a reflection of the indissoluble love and unity between Christ and the Church (that) Jesus sheds His blood for her.”
“For us Christians, the family is the expression of a Sacrament, which is Marriage. This changes its meaning completely because a sacrament always implies transformation,” Fr. Rupnik underscored in the video clip published Wednesday, July 28 and continued, “I felt it was important to show the novelty of the family according to the Church, according to baptism, according to life in Christ and according to the new man.”
According to Fr. Rupnik, the image depicts the Wedding at Cana where the bride and the groom are visible at the background of the image covered by a veil then Jesus and Mary are painted united.
“In transforming water into wine, the horizons of the Sacrament are revealed, that is, of the passage from wine to the blood of Christ. (St.) Paul is in fact pouring out the same blood that the Bride collects in the chalice,” the cleric explains the foreground image narrating that, “It is Saint Paul “who removes the veil with his hand, and referring to the wedding, exclaims, “This mystery is great; but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church.”
The author of the image explains further, “It is within natural life that the Holy Spirit brings about the transformation of the way of existence. And he does so by transfiguring natural life, not by denying it, but by embracing it and transforming it, because the primacy is no longer of nature, but of the relation.”
“I hope that through this small image we can understand that for us Christians, the family is the expression of the Sacrament of Matrimony (and) this totally changes its meaning, because a sacrament always implies transformation,” he said.
The 10th World meeting of families will take place on the sixth anniversary of Pope Francis’ Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia encyclical
(DISCLAIMER: For the use of the image, please cite the author with the following: Work of Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik, 2021)
