What is Christian art?

From the middle of July through the end of September last year, I had been to the ER 3 times with excruciating pains in my chest and stomach. All 3 times, the doctors told me that it wasn’t a heart issue and itwas probably just severe heart burn.  The3^rd time I was there, they finally agreed to give me some pain medication, but it wore off several hours later and I woke up the next day in pain again.  I just happened to have a doctor’s appointment the next day at the same hospital.  By the time I arrived at that appointment, the pain was so excruciating that the doctor just sent me directly to the ER again.  I don’t remember a time when I was in so much pain. When I arrived at the ER, the doctors and nurses did the exact same tests they had done less than 24 hours later, except for one thing.  There was a different doctor on call that afternoon and she decided to test for something completely different than what had been tested before.  She ordered the test and she was right.  So the one doctor on call, that one shift on that one afternoon tested for something different and it was divine intervention that she was there because it is very possible that she saved my life that night.

The test confirmed that I had pancreatitis and I was admitted into the hospital for 4 days. Since I have recovered from it, I have been asking myself those questions above, among many others.  The experience led to a life-changing perspective shift on all aspects of my life, not just the physical part.  It helped me clarify my priorities and life goals.

In today’s volatile cultural climate it’s hard sometimes to know what is true or false, what is real and what is fake.  For the last 2,000 years, Catholics andChristians have used art as a powerful tool to teach the Truth of the Gospel ofJesus Christ.  Millions of people throughout the ages have experienced God in a powerful way through the art thatChristians have created. And during the middle and renaissance ages, artists we recommissioned specifically to portray a certain person or story from the Bible so that those who couldn’t read could understand and experience God in those stories for themselves.

But it feels like that kind of powerful art has either goneunnoticed or ignored over the last century due to the rise of modern media and entertainment. When was the last time you saw a powerful piece of art that helped you understand the life and stories of Jesus in deeper way?   We have lost the concept and power ofbeauty, particularly expressed in visual art, because we have lost the sense ofa powerful, compassionate God who is beautiful and takes great pleasure increating beautiful things.