The Paintings in Rachol Seminary: Imaging Heaven on Earth

Rachol  Seminary has almost an iconic  value in the semiotic  sphere of our society.  As we mark the fourth centenary of this great institution, it is in the best of our tradition to capture its life and being in a  textual chronotope.  While I cannot make a claim  of any formal  expertise  in Art and Aesthetics , I simply cannot resist  the deep imperative  that I feel  within me as I stand  in  awe at the majestic  paintings  adorning its ancient walls.

Any person entering the portals of Rachol  is offered  a delicious banquet of highly creative Christian Art.  The royal walls of the seminary present a comingling of the East and the West. One can find the paintings of Renaissance masters like  Ruben,  Raphael, and Albertinelli  alongside  the works of our very own Angelo Fonseca.  The sacred art enshrined in the paintings lead every person who takes time to experience them to an intense, blissful and celestial encounter.  The  spiritual energy of these paintings holds its bewitching grip on us and we are taken to an experience that  seems to  place us somewhere  between heaven and earth.  As one feels that  time  stops and intensifies at Rachol,  one is drawn to  see eternity in a single moment and take a sip of the paradise in the creative work of art.

While almost all the paintings have a power of immediacy that can at once  give us a soul enriching  experience, I am impelled and spellbound by the artistically brilliant and creatively  inspiring painting  of the debate on the real presence of Christ  in the Eucharist. It somehow artfully blurs the separation of heaven and earth as the most Holy Trinity is portrayed  as watching the said fierce debate from the portals of heaven.  Thus, Raphael skillfully intertwines all that is heavenly with all that is earthly. This incarnational imaging of heaven within the images of earth also emanates from every other  painting in Rachol.

The incarnational expression of the paintings in Rachol offers a spiritually explosive experience of the encounter of the divine in human art.  Consequently, one is given an opportunity to taste a slice of heaven through a simple and ordinary glimpse of the paintings. This glimpse reduces the distance between the divine and the human and effectively divinizes the human. This meeting of the human and the divine is powerfully depicted by a painting where the holy Spirit is portrayed as a human being along with the Father and the Son.  This anthropomorphic presentation of the most Holy Trinity is indeed unique and takes what we have called incarnational expression to its logical end.

The incarnational expression of the paintings anticipates heaven and somehow offers us its foretaste. This anticipatory feature of the paintings somehow brings the heavenly  future into our living present. But this future comes on the wings of the alphabets of the images of this life. The alphabetization of the paradisiacal future in the images of this life reached its climax for Goa in the creative oeuvre of Angelo Fonseca,   who took upon himself the noble task of communicating an authentic Indian experience to our faith. His pioneering of indianized Christian art bestowed on him the honor of being the dean of Indian Christian Art.

Often I stand in great admiration of Fonseca’s work and am moved by his sheer  courage, artistic acumen and theological insight . Indeed, our admiration for him will reach greater heights if we consider how he amazingly anticipated what we came to understand as incultration in the post-Vatican II Church. Credit to this great son of Goa!  He selflessly gave his talent to make Christ become all to all. His indianized Christian Art spoke in the language we Indians could easily understand. The paintings in Rachol seminary effectively shrink our time, as we are enabled to anticipate the heavenly future in the alphabets of this world. If you wish to have a taste of heaven on earth, come to Rachol and take in a glimpse of heaven through the images of earth. 

Fr. Victor Ferrao