30 Tabernacles for Jesus

13/02/2025

In May of the year 2024, Sister M. Josefina Hurtado, from the Ursuline Community of Santiago de Chile, was asked by the Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, Fernando Chomalí G., with another 30 artists, to participate in a precious challenge: to paint a Tabernacle, destined for a Chapel in a sector of the periphery of our city of Santiago.

The instructions were simple and very few:
- That the painting should express something sacred
- To use a symbolic and eloquent language for the faithful.
- Concepts such as: bread, grape, water, fire, fish, Holy Spirit, Paschal Lamb, or anything related to the Eucharist could be used.

The material was a wooden box, the same for all artists, and they could use any technique they wanted, as long this Tabernacle can pray, can meet Jesus.

Reflection and work of Sr Josefina:

That was all we received as instruction, and in that “all” we had to contain the ALL, the greatest, the one who is ALL for all.

In that empty and very rustic box, the “most beautiful of all people” was to be contained, the Creator of all creation. The Prologue of St. John quickly came to my mind and heart: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jhn 1,17). Jesus Christ, in the tabernacle, lives in the midst of his people, in our midst, and from there, he wants to communicate with us.

My intention was that this Tabernacle expresses in some way the work of God the Creator, and that through this work people could enter into the mystery of Love contained here.

It will be Christ himself who will reveal and give us his salvation through the Eucharist.

The Tabernacle was handed over in January 2025 to the parish priest Raul Bascuñán of the Chapel "María Santísima de la Florida" in Santiago de Chile.