I have a little story about the basilica. I have been there several times, usually a part of our diocesan choir when on pilgrimage (it is amazing to sing from the loft but we also sang in the sanctuary). Anyway, while I recognized the artistic beauty of the mosaic of Christ in Majesty on the back wall, I always found it very disturbing and not the Christ that I knew. He looked mean and angry and I felt like he was condemning all those in the church.
Move forward a few years. I was taking a grad course in art and theology and had to write a research paper on a piece of religious art. Since I was an art major as an undergrad I had a lot of experience writing about art, but this was different. I had to look at the spiritual and theological basis of the work. I loved the old Byzantine mosaics, especially the Pantocrator or Christ in Majesty. So I really should like the one in the basilica in DC, but I didn’t. So I decided to use it as the topic of my paper, basically with the aim of showing how a poor representation of the subject it was. I researched the medium, the subject, the artist and the scripture verse that motivated the artist. Then I further researched the passage. What I found was that the image of Jesus was not what I thought it was based on scripture. It was not Christ judging those in the basilica, but those outside who were a threat against those in the basilica. His piercing and angry stare was directed at them that would destroy His people. Now when I see the mosaic I love it. It goes a bit deeper than that, and I concluded that it also made a political statement, but that was my opinion, which the prof. said was an interesting conclusion that was worth exploring.
