St. Matthew seventh graders help their schoolmates ‘journey with Jesus’

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

Students and faculty at St. Matthew the Apostle in River Ridge have been able to literally “walk” through Holy Week this past Lent, thanks to a stunning and highly detailed visual timeline created by the school’s seventh graders.

During their religion classes earlier in the Lenten season, each of St. Matthew’s 41 seventh graders was assigned a meaningful moment or scriptural reference from Christ’s final days to illustrate in his or her own way. The resulting works of art were then suspended from the ceiling of a well-traveled middle school hallway – in chronological order – to remind all who walked beneath them of the important events of Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday.

“I wanted to do something different with the seventh graders this year, so, I thought, 'What if we start with Palm Sunday and finish with Easter?‘” said Sue Guidry, a 41-year teaching veteran at St. Matthew the Apostle who currently teaches middle school religion. “I was amazed by their creativity,” Guidry marveled. "For example, the student who was assigned “Jesus is nailed to the cross” chose to draw a closeup of Jesus’ hand – and not (the traditional) whole picture of Jesus being crucified.”

Teaching moments abound in the hanging hallway display. For example, there are four drawings devoted to Palm Sunday alone, highlighting details such as “Jesus enters Jerusalem as a hero”; “People spreading cloaks on the ground”; “Waving palm branches; and “Shouting, ‘Hosanna.’”

A pair of student drawings related to the Monday of Holy Week recall how Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple and foretold its destruction.
Walking on, viewers of the hanging display learn that the Wednesday of Holy Week is sometimes called “Spy Wednesday” – the day we remember Judas’ plot with the Sanhedrin to turn over Jesus to the authorities.

The relevance of Holy Thursday is covered in numerous artworks, including those that capture the preparation of the Passover meal, the washing of the apostles’ feet by Jesus, and the institution of the Eucharist (two separate artworks convey the latter – “This is my Body” and “This is my Blood”)

The Holy Thursday portion of the timeline includes a depiction of  the Last Supper, entitled “Do this in remembrance of me,” and reminds viewers of the other sacrament instituted by Christ at that meal – Holy Orders.

The aftermath of the Last Supper is also covered in four subsequent works of art: “Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray”; “Judas betrays Judas with a kiss”; “Peter denies knowing Jesus”; and “The apostles run away.”

Timeline drawings related to Good Friday not only recall each stage of Christ’s passion and death – the well-known Stations of the Cross scenes – but the events that preceded his walk to Calvary: Jesus’ being put on trial before Pilate; his being mocked and scourged; his being forced to wear a crown of thorns and a royal robe; and the moment Pilate finds “no guilt” in Jesus but “washes his hands” of all responsibility for his sentence of death.

The display winds down with the seventh graders’ illustrations of famous words uttered by Jesus as he suffers on the cross. For the assigned theme of “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” the seventh-grade artist drew an exterior view of Jesus’ head resting against the cross and gazing out to the lightning storm that followed his crucifixion.

Other Good Friday-related artworks depict Jesus telling the good thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise”; Jesus telling John and the Blessed Mother, “Mother, behold your son; son, behold your mother;” and his his cries of “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”; “I thirst”; “It is finished”; and “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

The timeline’s three final drawings convey the hope and joy of Easter Sunday: “The women go to the tomb”; “The angel tells them, ‘He is not here’”; and “HE IS RISEN.”

(Photos by Beth Donze, Clarion Herald; to view additional photos of the timeline, please visit the Clarion Herald’s Facebook page)