The second reflection about the painting of Saint Leonard at the Żabbar Sanctuary Museum

Learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
defend the fatherless,
plead for the widow.
“Come now, let us reason together,
says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.

Isaiah 1:17-18

There are three elements in the painting that attempt to answer the question about justice and mercy: first, the scales of Saint Michael positioned on the ground; second, the image of Saint Leonard clasping the chains; third, the apple in Jesus’ hand. In one way or another, all three objects are related to justice in the broad sense of the word. Saint Michael is usually depicted holding the scales in which he weighs good and evil, but here we see that the scales are lying on the ground. In this painting it’s as if Saint Michael, contrary to the eminent German philosopher Nietzsche who did away with the distinctions of good and evil, perhaps understood good and evil through the eyes of grace, that is, “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Is 1:18), and that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they should turn from their ways and live (Ezek 18: 23).

The context is crucial to comprehension. Next to Saint Michael we see the figure of Saint Leonard, renowned as the liberator of prisoners who used to obtain their freedom through his intercession. According to the Legenda Aurea, Saint Leonard even refused a bishopric and chose to live as a hermit, but requested King Clovis for the prerogative to release prisoners. Of course, here we must keep in mind that the first account of the saint’s life was written around five hundred years after his birth. This raises the prospect that the authors may have embellished the biography and did not give us the complete narrative. Nevertheless, these legendary snippets infer that those prisoners requesting to be released from captivity would go on pilgrimage to the abbey every day, with those who were freed converting and living an honest life. In time, women in labour also became devotees of Saint Leonard. The orders propagated veneration towards the saint among many people and even to this day in Bavaria he is honoured with pilgrimages.

Some people wince when they hear about captivity and slavery, as though such discourse belongs to a bygone age. But if we look around us, we realise that in one way or another they are still evident on every street corner, but in a contemporary manner: From the neglect of our elderly relatives to countless children whose parents use work as an excuse for being away for many hours. Slave markets may have disappeared, but there are financial markets that are enslaving many. Add to all this the new technological regime engendering in minds a total dependency on technology, to the extent that from the early years of childhood, children are permitted to access this technology freely and without limitations. The huge risks of modern slavery can appear to be more alluring but are very similar to the ones of old, such that we immediately realise that slavery is not as old as we think.

Do you feel trapped in invisible slavery? At the same time, is your burden pressing on the scales of justice? The rainbow of grace can lift the burden off the scales and break chains, not by our own merit but by that of God’s saving beauty.

Photo courtesy of Manuel Ciantar u Suzanne Ciantar Ferrito o.b.o. Amy Sciberras Conservators.