According to the witness of the New Testament, on this Thursday Jesus ate the last supper with his disciples, and during this meal he instituted the practice of Holy Communion.
The painting shows a depiction of the Last Supper in the interpretation of the Polish artist Bohdan Piasecki.
The painting “Last Supper” was created in 1998. In order to challenge the powerful image of the Last Supper created by Leonardo da Vinci as inconsistent with the Jewish Passover meal tradition, the Irish Catholic organization B.A.S.I.C. (Brothers and Sisters in Christ), which advocates for the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church through prayer and action, commissioned the painting from the famous Polish artist. In it, unlike in da Vinci’s version, women also take part in the depicted Holy Supper. The Jewish Passover meal is enjoyed together with the whole family, that is, including women, together with children, because they could ask questions and learn about the meaning of Passover, and together with the disciples, who had prepared the meal. The presence of women at the meal cannot be proven, but it is more than likely that they were there.
Theologians who study Christianity’s early close connection with Judaism (let us not forget that Jesus of Nazareth was a Hebrew and a Jew, as were all his disciples, who were of Hebrew origin) by no means rule out the participation of women in the Maundy Thursday meal. The main argument for this is that the fundamental value of ancient Hebrew society was the family and family relationships. A group of exclusively 13 unmarried men would have been regarded as an anomalous phenomenon. The authors of the Gospels remind us, for example, of Peter’s mother-in-law, whom Jesus healed of a fever. In addition, it is the woman at the well who hears the deepest theological revelation of Christ about worship, and Mary Magdalene is the first, in the account of the Gospel of John, to meet the risen Lord.
Bohdan Piasecki – Secretary of the Polish Academy of Arts, has worked in Italy, France and Canada, and lives in Poland near Warsaw.
More about this work of art http://wearechurchireland.ie/last-supper/
Source: http://www.iol.ie/~duacon/piasecki.htm
Commentary: National Catholic Reporter http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/1999b/040299/040299b.htm
The above material is reprinted from the “Why this website” section and supplemented
Aļesja Lavrinoviča