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The cost of sustaing a precious pearl Print E-mail
Written by Fr. Tarcisius Maina, imc   
Tuesday, 01 July 2008
A Priest’s call

To live in the midst of the world without wishing its pleasures; to be a member of each family, yet belonging to none; to share all sufferings, to penetrate all secrets; to heal all wounds; to go from men to God and offer Him their prayers; to return from God to men to bring pardon and hope; to have a heart of fire for charity and a heart of bronze for chastity; to teach and to pardon, console and bless always.

This was the challenge that was accepted by eight (8) Consolata young men twenty five years ago. Consolata Missionaries in Kenya made history in 1983 by having the highest number of priests ordained in one year. After this historical moment, they were dispatched to various countries of the world. Some went to Colombia, Zaire (DRC), Tanzania and the rest remained in Kenya. This group of missionaries is in this year, celebrating its Silver Jubilee (25 years) as priests.

For a missionary to live and enjoy celebrating his life well, I believe strongly that he must be an artist and good in it.

What is art?

I see art as a great window into life, through which I can see and understand God, my community, myself and all that surrounds me. I see art as life itself, God’s creative power working in man. And as artists we have no other choice but to obey this inevitable creative urge which God continually generates in us.

What is art? Art is a visual or tangible expression of God’s living presence in man and his community. I believe in art for every man and woman. True art permeates every part of our lives.

A good and beautiful experience of a missionary life is as much a work of art as a good painting or sculpture

When we are not painting we are making good homes, making beautiful gardens or parks. When we are not carving sculpture, we are designing furniture, houses, utensils or dresses. When we are not building a house, we are choosing artistic things from shops or art galleries for our own use at home. Art is indeed an enrichment of all the aspects of human life. Art develops one’s taste in healthy, creative living.

What is art, you may still ask. I see art as a language of self-expression. For me, art is a celebration of life through my limbs of creativity. And as my limbs vibrate, they can’t help being like me. Instead of using words to express my soul, I use paint, clay, cement or wood. I simply express myself! I do not paint, through art, I talk to people.

Let us express ourselves not just verbally and in writing. Let us paint, model, sculpt, and construct, using whatever we find in the way of materials in our surroundings. We must encourage ourselves, our brothers and sisters towards free self-expression through the various art media. Who knows? Some of us are potential designers, gardeners, dramatists or musicians. We must give ourselves a chance while there is still time.

We cannot have real art if we do not have real people. And what makes a person real? It is one’s emotions, thoughts and faith working together in response to life. Many of us are afraid of our emotions, yet these are our wealth and the greatest source of energy here in Africa.

The relationship between the missionary and the work of art: art as an expression of truth and beauty

Art is one way of expressing truth. The path of truth demands our totality, our wholeness and our complete intensity of life. You cannot put your money into two bags and be sure of it. You put it all in one bag and there it is. “Don’t put all your eggs into one basket,” is the saying. But God says no: “put all your eggs in one basket.” That is the opposite. Because then you have the focus, you have that intensity. A lot depends upon how much we have allowed ourselves to be vehicles of that truth. Then it really catches every part of us and we give ourselves wholly and totally.

However, the test of the artist depends on how creatively he uses whatever he finds in his immediate surroundings to beautify the life of the community. The real artist digs into life day by day – until he comes face to face with God, the Master of Creativeness.

It is a privilege for an artist to be an avenue of truth, to serve the truth, to serve beauty and to create a demand for it.

The relationship between the artist and society

The society is the mirror of the artist. When the image in the mirror is blurred, unclear, the artist will protest. This may be the result of the artist having been denied love, of the myopia stemming from poor education, or lack of faith in, or harmony with God.

The artist should look upon himself as the instrument of truth and beauty. He is no better than other people but he has the advantage of being a witness to truth and beauty. That’s how he can introduce doubt when other people are too sure, or bring certainty when, on the contrary, the society is plagued with doubt. To achieve this, the artist must be like a little child, simple and innocent.

There are those artists, especially actors, who are capable of suspending their own reality, their own being. They can absent themselves from their own bodies and act the part of other people. And sometimes they sacrifice their own personality for the sake of being able to mirror others and then other people are able to see themselves through that mirror. But now and again they have to return to themselves so that they may become whole and strong again.
Self-criticism is very important for the artist. When you look at yourself through the mirror, you must trim yourself like you trim the grass so that wrong things don’t harbor there. The same is true of your language, your expression. It’s really what you hear with your inner voice, how you want to put it across through the gifts God has given you or the limitations society has imposed on you.

Very often you think of limitations because you look at the scale of what lies before you and you feel so poor, so limited, you feel so frustrated. So you spend much time struggling for words. Sometimes it is our limitation which God turns to blessings. Sometimes you may just have two colors, you may just have a pencil, but if you have a real message and if it is strong enough in you and you have that inner urge to share it and pass it on to those who care enough to receive it, then that life which you put through the pencil makes people forget about the pencil you have used.

I feel that, very often, truth does not need too much assistance, if you are there with it. But if you are old, you are not always there. You have to be, that’s why you have to keep in touch all the time with the pool of knowledge. That’s why you read the Bible all the time, then you are closer to the faith. If you are an artist, you should keep working all the time so that your material and your style do not become a handicap, that people notice your style and your material more than the message you are trying to get across. If you notice my style more easily than what I am trying to portray it is an indication of my limitation as a messenger of truth, except perhaps in a situation where there are symbols and expressions that one uses that have become kind of landmarks.


N.B. The author of this article is one of those celebrating his silver jubilee this year and this article is a contribution to all those celebrating this jubilee with him in the Consolata Missionary society.
Last Updated ( Monday, 30 June 2008 )