{"id":196,"date":"2015-04-03T17:23:51","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T17:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/?p=196"},"modified":"2015-04-03T17:31:52","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T17:31:52","slug":"ecce-homo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/2015\/04\/03\/ecce-homo\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecce Homo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEcce Homo\u201d is from the Latinized version of the Passion narrative in the Gospel of John. \u00a0\u201cBehold the man\u201d cries Pilate to the crowd, as Jesus is on trial for his life. \u00a0As most know, he was crucified very soon afterward. \u00a0This scripture is often said or sung as part of the liturgical celebration of Good Friday. \u00a0Of course God has the last laugh, so to speak, as Jesus comes back from the dead on the third day.<\/p>\n

I was led to the following fascinating story. \u00a0In the village of Borja, Spain, in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church is a fresco entitled \u201cEcce homo\u201d. \u00a0It was painted in 1930 by a local artist and by 2012 was in a serious state of decay. \u00a0Cecilia Gim\u00e9nez, an 80-year-old amateur artist living locally, painted over the fresco in an attempt to restore it. \u00a0Critics hooted at the result:\u00a0BBC Europe correspondent Christian Fraser says the delicate brush strokes of Elias Garcia Martinez have been buried under a haphazard splattering of paint.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a>\u201cThe once-dignified portrait now resembles a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic, he says.\u201d <\/em>\u00a0You can read more at\u00a0BBC News<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cShe had good intentions\u201d stated the city councilor patronizingly as he prepared to meet to discuss the future of the fresco.<\/p>\n

Well, it appears that God honors good intentions, and had the last laugh in this situation. \u00a0The fresco became an Internet sensation and pop icon. \u00a0The fame garnered by the painting allowed the church to charge admission for the opportunity to view it, and the church has raised 50,000 pounds for charitable causes. \u00a0See article at The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On a small scale, God took the foolishness of a \u201cbotched\u201d painting to accomplish great things, just as on Good Friday 2 centuries ago God used the \u201cfoolishness\u201d of the cross to perform a great work of atonement and our redemption.<\/p>\n

(Full disclosure here: I don\u2019t especially like the new version of the fresco).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/body><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEcce Homo\u201d is from the Latinized version of the Passion narrative in the Gospel of John. \u00a0\u201cBehold the man\u201d cries Pilate to the crowd, as Jesus is on trial for his life. \u00a0As most know, he was crucified very soon afterward. \u00a0This scripture is often said or sung as part of the liturgical celebration of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,4],"tags":[115,114,113,116],"class_list":["post-196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-inspirational-stories","tag-borja","tag-cecilia-gimenez","tag-ecce-homo","tag-spain"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions\/206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}