CHICAGO — When word came that Illinois residents were being asked
to stay home and the Archdiocese of Chicago suspended public Masses in
mid-March, Chicago-based iconographer Joseph Malham was at loose ends, like so
many others.
He decided to use the time to create, and the result is a
3-foot-by-4-foot icon of Christ the Healer, an image he completed in just about
three weeks.
"Like the rest of the world, I thought, 'I can sit around
listening to my own fears and anxieties and uncertainties or I can do something
creative,'" said Malham, whose studio is at St. Gregory Parish in Chicago.
"That's when I came up with doing this for the sufferers of COVID-19."
The icon is intended to comfort not just those who are ill or who
have loved ones who are ill or have died. It's also for all those suffering
financially or emotionally, those isolated from friends and family members and
those who put their own health at risk to care for those who are sick, Malham
said.
He counts himself among that number, as the work he does creating
icons for parishes and other institutions has dried up and the art restoration
jobs are all gone.
"Then I think about the parishes, and whether they'll have
the wherewithal to commission something when they come out of this,"
Malham said.
At the same time, it's become impossible to get some of the
materials he usually uses, so everything in the icon comes from supplies he had
on hand. The board that forms the base is a piece of oak he found while
cleaning out the parish garage. Because he could not get the gesso he usually
uses, he coated the board in plain white paint. Since he had no gold leaf, the
icon is highlighted with gold paint.
"I'm not striving for anything that is perfect or beautiful
in a technical sense," Malham said. "I think it's the most genuine
icon I've ever done."
Its message, he said, is a plea for help, but a plea made to
Jesus in hope rather than fear. That's also the tone of a prayer that
accompanies the icon that was composed by Auxiliary Bishop Mark A. Bartosic of
Chicago.
The first half of the prayer calls on Jesus who sees what we
cannot.
"It's the idea that Christ sees to the bottom of
everything," Bishop Bartosic said. "Something that seems so opaque
and dark to us is not opaque and dark to Jesus. It's to trust that we don't
have to see to the bottom of it because he does. Day by day, we have to do what
they tell us: Wash our hands, maintain social distance, take care of the poor
and the sick. But we have to trust in Christ to see the bigger picture."
Part of that trust is understanding that the nature of human
existence hasn't changed from six months ago, Bishop Bartosic said. People
depended on God for everything then, and people depend on God now.
"We always stand in need of healing," Bishop Bartosic
said. "Even when we're not in a pandemic. We don't always realize it until
there's a crisis. What we're asking for now is what we should ask for every day
of our life."
Malham said he hopes people contemplate the icon and pray the
prayer during the Easter season, noting that it can be one more thing that is
drawing Catholics together in a time when everyone is staying apart.
"All my friends are talking about watching daily Mass and
Sunday Mass and commenting on the homilies," Malham said. "This has
made us feel like a wider family beyond our parish."
Martin is a staff writer for the Chicago Catholic,
newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago.