| Notes: | PLEASE USE THIS BRIEF CREDIT INFORMATION FOR FREE, NON-COMMERCIAL CONGREGATIONAL PRINTING: Cara B. Hochhalter, Feeding the Multitudes. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57553
FOR OTHER USES: Full credit information can be found below in the Copyright Source field.
COMMENTARY BY THE ARTIST:
Feeding the Multitudes
Matthew 14:13-21
"...This story is told in all four gospels, giving it significance and describing a situation to which we can all relate. It is late, people are hungry and there is seemingly not enough food. The disciples want to send the crowd away to buy food in the villages, but Jesus says something that seems impossible. He tells them to feed the people themselves. In this metaphorical miracle, Jesus takes the five loaves and two fish, he blesses them—giving thanks to God, breaks the bread, and then gives them to the disciples to feed the people. After all are fed, there are twelve baskets of broken pieces left...It is heartbreaking to think of the amount of hunger in the world when we are told that there is enough. We see so much waste. Perhaps Jesus wanted us to recognize the miracle of sharing and our own abilities to help other—focusing on abundance and not scarcity..." The Rev. Cara B. Hochhalter is a United Church of Christ (UCC) minister. She received her Masters of Divinity from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, where she studied the intersections of art, theology and justice. She served the Charlemont Federated Church in Massachusetts for ten years and now lives in Hyde Park, New York.
“Over the last thirty years, through my work as a Christian Educator, a seminary student and UCC minister, I have created images that interpret the powerful stories around the life of Jesus. These stories hold universal truths not limited to Christianity but relevant for all our lives and times. I find that art provides a very special means to break into these texts.”
The images in her book, A Challenging Peace in the Life and Stories of Jesus were created through the simple print-making process of carving out a block, applying ink and pulling a print. Cara says, “The interaction of light and dark is important in each image as we cannot have one without the other. The dark defines the light, and vice versa. I find this to be theological as we look to the whole—the light and the dark, the joy and the despair, the peace and the conflict—all under an umbrella of Divine Love that yearns for wholeness.”
Using her book, Cara also offers three online discussion groups: Jesus and Justice, Parables and Peace-making, and The Paradox of Humility in the Stories of Jesus.
To contact Cara B. Hochhalter for information about her art, to purchase signed prints of the images, or her book, A Challenging Peace in the Life and Stories of Jesus, please email: hochhalter.cara@gmail.com |
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