The logo and the motto together provide a fitting summary of
what the Jubilee Year is all about. The motto Merciful
Like the Father(taken from the Gospel of Luke, 6:36) serves as an
invitation to follow the merciful example of the Father who asks us not to
judge or condemn but to forgive and to give love and forgiveness without
measure (cfr. Lk 6:37-38). The logo – the work of Jesuit Father Marko I. Rupnik
– presents a small summa
theologiae of the theme of
mercy. In fact, it represents an image quite important to the early Church:
that of the Son having taken upon his shoulders the lost soul demonstrating
that it is the love of Christ that brings to completion the mystery of his
incarnation culminating in redemption. The logo has been designed in such a way
so as to express the profound way in which the Good Shepherd touches the flesh
of humanity and does so with a love with the power to change one’s life. One
particular feature worthy of note is that while the Good Shepherd, in his great
mercy, takes humanity upon himself, his eyes are merged with those of man.
Christ sees with the eyes of Adam, and Adam with the eyes of Christ. Every
person discovers in Christ, the new Adam, one’s own humanity and the future
that lies ahead, contemplating, in his gaze, the love of the Father.
The
scene is captured within the so called mandorla (the shape of an almond), a figure
quite important in early and medieval iconography, for it calls to mind the two
natures of Christ, divine and human. The three concentric ovals, with colors
progressively lighter as we move outward, suggest the movement of Christ who
carries humanity out of the night of sin and death. Conversely, the depth of
the darker color suggests the impenetrability of the love of the Father who
forgives all.
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