Art: The Extravagant Gesture

I get an email newsletter from Image magazine, a publication that addresses Christianity and the arts. This letter arrived today, and I thought it shared an important perspective on the value of art, as well as goals for all artists who have a relationship with Jesus. It follows:

Dear Friends of Image:
“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” We've heard the opening words of Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities so often that they've become a cliché. But my guess is that most of us can relate to those words after the year we've just gone through. Whatever good news we have to celebrate has to be set against the spectacle of a world battered by hurricanes, inundated by floods, and shaken by earthquakes. The human cost has been beyond comprehension.
At times like this, those of us who work in the arts have every reason to do a fair amount of soul-searching. What can a poem or a painting do for the bereaved and the homeless?
But then I think of Mary Magdalene anointing the feet of Jesus. Judas reproves her for wasting a precious substance. Jesus, however, commends her. In some mysterious way, the beauty and extravagance of Mary's gesture is seen by Christ as an icon of compassion. What she does demonstrates God's prodigal love for his children—and in that sense it becomes a sacramental sign that has the power to move human hearts.
Art, like that precious oil, can be the extravagant gesture that moves us to understanding and charity. All the more so when in the case of Image the writing and art we feature provide glimpses of the human solidarity that only God's grace can underwrite.
And so we hope that you will help us continue the mission of Image: to deepen the imaginative life of the church, to make faith credible in the mainstream culture, and to nurture the writers and artists who are striving to renew that faith.
Cordially,
Gregory Wolfe