| Notes: | PLEASE USE THIS BRIEF CREDIT INFORMATION FOR FREE, NON-COMMERCIAL CONGREGATIONAL PRINTING: Cara B. Hochhalter, As a Hen Gathers. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58926
FOR OTHER USES: Full credit information can be found below in the Copyright Source field.
COMMENTARY BY THE ARTIST:
As a Hen Gathers
Luke 13:31-34
"It is said that Jesus looked down from a hill above Jerusalem before he entered in his last days. He was filled with sadness over the oppression and injustice imposed on the people by Roman rule. In spite of the violence, Jesus tenderly expresses the desire to gather them all as a hen gathers her brood. There is a beautiful chapel on this hill today called “the Church of Dominus Flevit” (where Jesus wept). The dome of the church is shaped like a tear drop. I believe Jesus longed for the people to come together peacefully within the love of an inclusive God. And yet they were not willing. I stood on that hill outside of Jerusalem a few years ago and thought about the conflict there today. There is such fear on all sides: Israelis, of Palestinian uprising; and Palestinians, of the ongoing oppression and destruction of their homes and livelihood. Jesus, a Palestinian Jew himself, would weep even today. And yet there are those on both sides who long for and are working towards peace..." 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 |
|---|
