The Tragedy was painted by Pablo Picasso during his Blue Period from 1901-1904.  This period reflects Picasso’s unbearable, seismic sadness after the suicide of his friend, Carlos Casagemas. This monochromatic composition captures the drained, caved-in feeling of deep grief. The loss these subjects have experienced and we cannot know is written on and in them from head to toe.

We can think of this time in our history as a blue period. Many of us are skilled at denying this. We are great at compartmentalizing our awareness and crafting a crisis-over narrative. But the gospel calls us to suffer with those who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus; to those who have lost loved ones to gun violence, racial wrongs and police brutality; to those who despair hunger, unemployment and eviction; to those who suffer the state of our nation and the challenges we face.

This painting beckons us to feel our deep and zagged feelings of loss and lament for others even when compassion fatigue creeps into our hearts. Our faith beckons us also asking us not to forget the woman and the man pictured here and the child seemingly needing words the couple cannot form. Rumi said the deeper sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.  Many are having large spaces carved out now.

We believe that life moves on.  We believe that the sorrow of the people pictured by Picasso will someday lessen and that joy will be renamed in their lives. We believe this for all who suffer now. We believe in the comfort and strength of God and in our call to join and hold others in person and in prayer. May we not forget them and may we believe in the horizon for them when they cannot.

In hope and faith,

Sandy Prouty