Friday, Oct. 21, 2016
The Property Administrator of USJ-R met with Pope Francis and gifted the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church with a framed painting, an output of collaborative work between him and his protégé.
Bro. Jaazeal Jakosalem, OAR personally handed Francis his painting entitled “Embracing Mercy” at the Sala Clementina, a hall in the Apostolic Palace near St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Rome, after the special papal audience granted to the Order of the Augustinian Recollects last October 20.
“Beautiful, I like it. Please pray for me, young man,” Bro. Jakosalem quoted Pope Francis as telling him in reaction to the painting.
The framed artwork, an oil on canvass measuring 20 x 30 inches, is an output of collaborative work between Bro. Jakosalem, a liturgical artist, and USJ-R working scholar Melvin Lañas, a second-year financial management student.
The painting shows the image of Pope Francis embracing the Christ-child, after the image of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year old Syrian refugee who drowned along with his mother and brother in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach safety in Europe and the West.
He bore the stigmata, the marks corresponding to those left on Jesus’ body by the crucifixion.
Catholic TV news agency Rome Reports called the painting a “heart-wrenching depiction of Jesus as Aylan Kurdi.”
“‘Embracing Mercy’” symbolizes the Church’s ‘motherly’ attitude on the plight of the refugees,” Bro. Jakosalem wrote at the back of the painting, “and Pope Francis personally lives it as his own advocacy.”
“In the face of this global crisis, the Church embraces the many faces of injustice brought about by poverty, neglect and indifference of rich nations,” he added.
Lañas, a 20-years-old artist from Consolacion, northern Cebu, said of his work being presented to the pope: “Choy kaayo, maka-proud.” (It’s very cool, I feel proud.)
Exactly a month ago, Bro Jakosalem was commissioned by Fr. Miguel Miro, OAR, Prior General of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, to create a work of art to be given to Pope Francis on the scheduled special audience.
“Much fitted to the concluding celebration of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, the artwork shows a deliberate message of the Church’s utmost care for migrant children,” Bro. Jakosalem wrote in an article published in the Recollect website.
In a message intended for the 2017 World Day Message of Migrants and Refugees, Pope Francis said: “I feel compelled to draw attention to the reality of child migrants, especially the ones who are alone.”
“In doing so, I ask everyone to take care of the young, who in a threefold way are defenseless: they are children, they are foreigners, and they have no means to protect themselves. I ask everyone to help those who, for various reasons, are forced to live far from their homeland and are separated from their families.”
The framed artwork, an oil on canvass measuring 20 x 30 inches, is an output of collaborative work between Bro. Jaazeal Jakosalem, OAR and USJ-R working scholar Melvin Lañas, a second-year financial management student.
55th General Chapter
The Augustinian Recollects from all over the world are convening in Rome for their 55th General Chapter where for three weeks, they have been reflecting on the challenges the Order faces and working out ways to make the Order more efficient.
The General Chapter of the Augustinian Recollects is the supreme authority within the Order. It takes place every six years and it examines the status of the Order. The Prior General and his counselors are also elected in it, and these then prepare a plan to put into operation the decisions taken by the members of the Chapter over the subsequent six years.
During the papal audience, Francis reminded them that in the Church, reinventing oneself means coming even closer to God.
“When, in a community, there is love, like the pope has told us, there is vitality, strength, and enthusiasm to communicate the Gospel,” Fr. Miro told Rome Reports. “But if the community is divided, we cannot do much. We have to give testimony in a broken society, that is crumbling, fragmented.”
“We need to give a testimony of communion, just as St. Augustine asked in his time,” he added.
The Order of Augustinian Recollects is more than 400 years old. Today, they are more than 1,000 religious men that work in missions, parishes, schools and colleges in 19 countries. They are in the United States, Mexico, and Spain, but also in China, and Sierra Leone, among others.
In the Philippines, they run schools like USJ-R, University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos and San Sebastian College-Recoletos, among other schools.
Bro. Jakosalem has been promoting community art projects with young people. This artwork is the third piece of his art team to be presented to Pope Francis.
During Pope Francis’ January 2015 papal visit to the Philippines, he blessed the “pilgrim” art “Jesus of the Poor” and the “Laudato Si’” icon was given to him last September 2016.
Pope Francis receives the painting “Embracing Mercy” from Bro. Jaazeal Jakosalem, OAR, Property Administrator of USJ-R.
Text by Ioannes P. Arong; photos courtesy of Bro. Jakosalem
