Madonna of Kiko Arguello and the New Evangelization

by Fr Eric Skruzny

1) Introduction

The original art piece that I am about to

present can can found in the side chapel of the

Almudena Cathedral of Madrid. The original size is

rather small being approximately an A3 dimension.

The Madonna has guided and changed the life

of many of us and so it seemed only right and fitting

for me to offer this brief paper on the occasion of the

ten year anniversary of Notre Dame University in

Sydney . I am not a practicing academic, though a qualified one, a bit perhaps like many

Catholics today; the paperwork is right but not the practice, so please excuse my

somewhat lay approach.

Francisco (Kiko) Arguello himself was born in Leon, Spain in 1939 in an upper

middle class family. He was identified as a gifted artist at a very young age by his lawyer

father who ensured his son made the most of his artistic talent leading him to study at the

Fine Arts Academy di San Fernando in Madrid. In 1959 in Madrid he won an Extraordinary

National Prize for Painting. He was sought after by the media and the art-world but

despite all this human success, he still ended up questioning his reality, asking himself,

“Does God exist?” to the point of seriously doubting the worth of his life. Having

abandoned his bourgeois way of life, he went to live alone amongst the poorest of the

poor in the shanty towns on the outskirt of Madrid in the line of Blessed Charles de

Foucauld who sought to live as a silent witness amongst the most impoverished in the

Sahara area. Having also listened to Pope John XXIII speak of the closeness of Christ to the
 poor, Kiko was confirmed in his resolve to live alone and to meet Christ by sharing the

conditions of the most broken of society in the slums of Madrid. There he discovered that

man can dream, plan and even initiate some action but unless the Lord gives his blessing,

these remain but a project. In other words his plans fell apart.

Maybe he wanted to live alone, but not so the poor, who soon came to surround

him. They quickly took refuge in his presence, in his tiny shack, where they insisted he

announce them the Good News of Jesus Christ. What he transmitted to them was as an

inspiration of God. He announced that God loves the poor as they are, (prostitutes,

thieves, murderers) without placing any moralistic demands upon them. To the

amazement of all, including the church authorities and even Kiko himself, the

announcement of the Word soon resulted in the formation of a “community”, and I mean

a body of the most unlikely types whose only reason to be there was the Good News they

heard. The aspect of this “community” was such that when it was presented to the local

parish, the local parishioners suddenly disappeared. (them or us you could imagine was

heard).Hence was born the need for an ‘Intensive Care Unit’ within parishes where those

little ones wanting to be initiated to adult faith could be cared for; a mother womb where

the gestation process, often terminated prematurely, could proceed.

2) Rediscovery of Christian Initiation and the role of the Christian Community as a womb

As part of his amazing adventure discovering the Lord’s plan, Kiko was inspired

to discover the parallel between the life of the Virgin Mary and the faith life of every

Christian. In brief, this is the synthesis he now tells us. The Virgin, perhaps in the most

inopportune moment of her life, when her plans for marriage we imagine were taking

shape, received an announcement (Annunciation) that was to change her life forever;

2
 not to forget that of Joseph too. Her “Fiat” began a movement deep inside of her, a time

of gestation, in which the baby Jesus, “just” lived and grew within her womb until the

appointed time came for him to be born and to commence his experience of life within

the Family of Nazareth. His ultimate mission is fulfilled with his crucifixion, revealing

love in a new dimension, that of the cross, a love even for enemies, that is without any

limits.

The parallel to us is impressive. Mary was not born with the child Jesus inside

of her. Nobody is born with faith. Every human being needs an announcement which

the Church calls the “Kerygma”, the sperm of the Holy Spirit which can lead to

conception should there be an “Amen”. Within the womb of the catechumenate, the

growing baby has no obligations other than to receive life through listening until the

moment is right for a new birth or rebirth (depending on the case) in baptism. As a

newly born, there is no expectations made of the infant other than it live in obedience

whilst growing in maturity within its “family”. Only once matured in faith, comes the

saving mission to live as a servant of the other, giving life by dying to oneself.

3) Details of the Icon known as the Madonna of Kiko

One of the distinguishing features of an icon is its tradition. Behind every

authentic icon is an history and a canon. An icon can never be an invention made at the

whim of an artist. In every icon one can see both the old and new merged as a living

tradition. This too is the case of the Madonna of Kiko.

Traditionally and perhaps more frequently, icons of Mary and child, depict the two

as facing each other. In this icon we see a novelty. The gaze of both Mother and Child are

rather oriented towards the onlooker (inverted perspective) and in the same direction,

and not toward one another as would be more common. Let us now examine why.

3
 According to the author, he was inspired by the famous icon known as the

“Kykkotissa” which some traditions claim was painted by St Luke, located at the

Monastery of Kykko on Mount Troodos in Cyprus. This Monastery managed to acquire the

work through the sanctity and holy connivance of the monk known as Isaiah who as

promised payment for the cure of the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I in the

1100s requested that he build him a Monastery and furthermore hand over this famous

icon. And this was done reluctantly. Kiko had become familiar with a black and white

version of this piece from a Russian book of Icons he happened to come across. He does

not read Russian and so did not understand the accompanying explanatory text describing

its origins and significance. Only later after his own piece gained renowned fame did he

discover the much closer link that existed between the two. For example both are now

called “Mary of the Way” though for different reasons.

As mentioned above, in this work the gaze of the two figures of Madonna and Child

is out towards a focal point to the left of the infant. Kiko explains that this is based on

Matthew’s Gospel where it says that as the shepherd separates the goats (symbolic of

sinners) from the sheep (followers) so too the Son of Man will separate the doers of the

Word placing them to the right and the ignorers of the Word by placing them to the left.

(Matt 25: 31-46)

Both Christ and the Church love the sinners and have their eyes on them. We know

full well that Christ has come for the sick and the broken, that they may be cured and

mended. Jesus is the “Misericordiae Vultus”, the merciful face of the Father, as Pope

Francis declares in his Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. Mary is

depicted as the disciple, being behind Jesus and seems to be following him in his gaze

towards the sinners. She too does not condemn though no doubts recalls the prophecy

4
 that a sword would pierce her heart. Pope Francis has decreed a Holy Year dedicated to

Mercy. So many boundaries, so many obstacles, so many sins separate us, and yet the

Virgin inspires us to love, and through the help of her Son, to love beyond the

comprehensible.

4) The New Evangelization

St John Paul II may very well have coined the term “New Evangelization” but we

know that already Pope John XXIII had prophesied its need: “Today the Church is

witnessing a crisis under way within society. While humanity is on the edge of a new era,

tasks of immense gravity and amplitude await the Church, as in the most tragic periods of

its history. It is a question in fact of bringing the modern world into contact with the

vivifying and perennial energies of the Gospel”. (Humanae Salutis 1961). We also know

that Vatican II comes from a history permitted, molded and guided by the action of the

Holy Spirit. It has always been the mission of the Church and the mission of each and every

Christian faithful to be missionary. So the question must be asked, in light of the crisis of

faith, the ever diminishing attendances in our parish churches and the continuous divorce

between the faith and the life of the people, what has happened to the missionary spirit

within the Church. We are all talking about Evangelization, but what is really happening.

We are living what could be termed a period of hysterical pregnancy. Everybody thinks

that they have something inside of them, whilst in fact often they are empty. There does

seem to be an absence of divine life within the souls of the faithful. For this reason it is

important to meditate the figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary as we seek to understand

what St John Paul II preached with so much passion.

It was St John Paul II who had declared, "I recognize the Neocatechumenal Way as

an itinerary of Catholic Formation, valid for our society and for our times." What Vatican II

5
 declared was the need for a catechumenate and this was seen by St John Paul II who

witnessed a world of atheism and the secularization of Christians in his home country and

abroad. The Virgin Mary needed time to prepare this child. The child within her womb

needed to be gestated before it could come out into the light. We too are living in a time

when the embryonic nature of our faith needs urgent nourishment in order for it to

mature, before it is capable of giving any credible witness in a world where the enemy is

ever present ready to devour any signs of hope, of joy, of peace of the Christ child.

5) Fruits of the Neocatechumenal Way attributed to the Blessed Virgin Mary

The final and not less significant component of the icon of the Virgin of Kiko to

discuss is the inscription we find written in the lower centre and right of the work. Kiko

had received in some form, which has remained quite vague to us, an inspiration by the

Blessed Virgin Mary. This inspiration he understood to be: “To form communities like the

Holy Family of Nazareth, which live in simplicity, humility and praise, where the other is

Christ”. When this icon was completed in 1973, there were already a number of

Neocatechumenal parish based communities, especially around Europe and the Americas.

This Charism had not reached Australia as yet. As mentioned earlier, Kiko had never

sought to form a community or anything of the sought. All he wanted was to meet and to

get to know Christ through his experience of life in the shanty town. What he discovered

however was the immediate response of the simple and the humble to praise God when

confronted by the announcement of the Good News. What happened however when this

experience was brought to the bourgeois parishes of Madrid was a rather unenthusiastic

reception. How difficult it is for those without simplicity and humility to praise God from

the depths of their being. The other, the neighbour remains more an “enemy” rather than

6
 the presence of Christ. Sartre had said that hell is to be perpetually confronted with the

faults and defects of the other.

Despite all the difficulties of seminating the work of the New Evangelization, the

Virgin Mary still goes on surprising. What we can perhaps say is the latest inspiration of

the Virgin is a four part symphonic musical piece which Kiko composed entitled; “ The

Suffering of the Innocent”. It was intended as a homage to the Virgin Mary who suffered

under the cross as she watched on whilst her only son underwent the passion and died.

The fruit of this work is almost unbelievable. What was intended to be a Christian

piece was adopted by the Jewish community as an expression of solidarity with them for

what they underwent in the ‘Shoah’. This symphony has now been repeated several times

in places such: Domus Galilee, Jerusalem, Avery Lincoln Centre New York, Budapest and at

the gates of Auschwitz. The Virgin Mary is still very much alive and active and never seems

to stop mystifying us in her efforts to unify humanity through the saving action of her Son.

6) Conclusion

Jesus spends over thirty years growing in every aspect within the family of

Nazareth in preparation for his mission. The responsibility of Mary as mother, did not

cease with the birth of her son. As any good mum she would have kept her loving gaze

upon him, and he would have kept his eyes on mum. There comes a moment however

when the eyes of the infant wonder off from the mother and begins to focus on a world

beyond mum. Soon the eyes of the mother cannot resist but follow the gaze of the child.

Mary has become a disciple of Jesus looking where Jesus looks and loving what he loves.

We know that for Mary it was a greater gift, a greater blessing to be disciple than to be

mother! (St Augustine)

7
 The Good News is that in this Year of Mercy, the merciful gaze of Mother and Child

is still very much alive and active searching out those wanting to be loved and forgiven. It

is possible to come to recognize this gaze and be healed. There is available a place, a

womb, an intensive care unit, a community where one can be prepared to face life with all

its hardships and difficulties. We can learn to recognise Church as mother, who like Mary

really is interested in us. Her loving gaze continues, though perhaps too often filled with

tears, as she watches her children look for life in all the wrong places. We have a mother,

Our Lady, Notre Dame, who loves us and prepares us in this season of Lent to be

regenerated once again in the Paschal Vigil, the night of nights, a special night where faith

can be generated and transmitted to the next generation as the Shema instructs us:

“Listen, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with

all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that

I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children”(Dt 6:4).

To conclude, let us give Pope Francis the last words: “Along our path, which is

often difficult, we are not alone. We are so many, we are a people, and the gaze of Our

Lady helps us to look at one another as brothers and sisters. Let us look upon one another

in a more fraternal way! Mary teaches us to have that gaze which strives to welcome, to

accompany and to protect. Let us learn to look at one another beneath Mary's maternal

gaze!” (Pope Francis 22/09/2013, Cagliari).

8
References

Kiko Arguello, The Kerygma, St Pauls Publications, 2014.

Ricardo Blazquez , Neocatechumenal Communities – a theological discernment, St Paul

Publications, 1988.

Ezekiel Pasotti (editor), The Neocatechumenal Way according to Paul VI and John Paul II, St
Pauls, 1996.

Antonio (Toto) Piccolo, The Neocatechumenal Way, The Australasian Catholic Record, April
2012, Volume 89, No.2.

Awarding the Doctorate Honoris Causa to Kiko Arguello, Pontifical Institute John Paul II,
Vatican City 2009.

9
10