Signed Giclee Print
8x10in. , 11x14in.
“God’s love does not depend on what we do or what we are like. He doesn’t care whether we are sinners or not. It makes no difference to him. He is just waiting to welcome us with joy and love. Sin doesn’t alter God’s attitude to us; it alters our attitude to him, so that we change him from the God who is simply love and nothing else into this punitive ogre, this Satan. Sin matters enormously to us if we are sinners; it does not matter at all to God. In a fairly literal sense, he doesn’t give a damn about our sin. It is we who give damns. We damn ourselves because we would rather justify and excuse ourselves, and look on our self-flattering images of ourselves, than be taken out of ourselves by the infinite love of God…” -Herbert McCabe, “Faith Within Reason” (p. 157)
Fr. Herbert McCabe OP was an Irish Dominican priest and theologian. One of my first icons I painted, it has been sitting on my shelf for the last 15 years and I finally wanted to share. Although I doubt McCabe would have liked being depicted in this way, he is among the many “Communion of Saints” in my studio. His words have been a constant companion.” Born in 1927, McCabe lived and taught at Oxford University until his death in 2001. For those who knew him well, he was full of whit and quite funny. “The reason I have a hard time envisaging a coke and a hotdog becoming the body of Christ is that I have a difficulty imagining them as food in the first place.” When he was not preaching our teaching, he was often more comfortable talking theology and telling stories at the local pub. I paint him in his Dominican habit preaching with a little smirk and gleam in his eye.