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Commissioned to create a huge mosaic that would cover the walls of the whole sanctuary of St. Joachim's church, artist Alberto Garcia Alvarez from Mallorca, Spain, set out to depict the history of our Redemption.
With bold, vivid, stark simplicity, God's intervention in the history of mankind is presented in its most dramatic moments and its most essential elements: The annunciation, the death of the Son of God made man, and His glorious resurrection and ascention into heaven. Victory over sin and death has been achieved!
At first Mr. Garcia Alvarez wanted to represent the Resurrection of Christ also as the resurrection of all mankind. by adding to the figure of the Risen Christ five other figures symbolizing the souls who were released from Limbo by His death and resurrection. After due consideration, he decided to omit these five. "Since the altar is the most important spot on which the attention of the congregation should be direction, I believe we have to simplify the representation of the theme on the huge walls is Redemption, I think the resurrection of the dead does not have to be included in an explanation of the Redemption. The resurrection of the dead is a consequence and the final result of the Redemption but not the fact. If we have Christ only in resurrection, as High Priest offering His own sacrifice to the Father, then all attention comes to this central figure and to the altar just beneath it."
The gigantic figure of Christ, resurrected and ascending into heaven, expresses the mysterious and unfathomable power of the God-Man, two natures, human and divine, united in one Person, that of the only begotten Son of God. It was only after His resurrection that the Apostles perceived Christ as He really was, as the Son of God who had become man. Even then Jesus was, and is, superior to anything that they or we could ever imagine.
The darker spot on the right, below the Risen Christ, represents His empty tomb. The rectangular form on the left represents the open tombs of the people whom Christ took with him into paradise at the moment of His ascension into Heaven. The huge "V" stands for "Victory," victory over sin and death, and points downward to the tabernacle and to the altar where Christ is still alive among us.
The Annunciation
The Virgin Mary is represented at the most sublime moment of the annunciation: having received the message from the Angel Gabriel the she is to become the Mother of God, she is "overshadowed" by the Holy Spirit, symbolized by the dove above her head. The red curved lines in front of Mary symbolize the words spoken by the Angel to Mary. The red background in the whole scene, as well as in the entire sanctuary mosaic, represents the Blood shed by Christ in the whole work of redemption. Mary, too, will be pierced by the sword of suffering and sacrifice, even as she was forewarned by Simeon's prophecy to her.
The Crucifixion
Mr. Garcia Alvarez would have liked to represent the scene of the crucifixion at the moment when the soldier pierced Jesus' heart with his lance and water, the symbol of Life that comes from His death, flowed from Jesus' wound. However, the artist chose " to represent that moment with all the loneliness and solemnity that this scene requires."
The contorted, ugly figure of a dying Christ is presented in a realistic dramatization of the infinite suffering of the Son of Man, suffering that amply mertited the forgiveness of all the sins of mankind. The distorted, repulsive features of Christ on the Cross, "the ugliest of all deaths," do intend to represent Him according to Old Testament's prophecies: "But I am a worm, not a man, the scorn of men, despised by the people..." (Psalm 22:7)
The inscription "INRI" over the head of Jesus stands for "Jesus the Nazarean, King of the Jews." It was written by Pilate in Greek, Latin and Hebrew (John 19:19).
The Ceiling
"The first idea I had, wrote Mr. Garcia Alvarez, was to have on top of the whole composition the Holy Spirit. After trying several ways to represent it, I arrived at the conclusion that the best solution was to represent it as a cloud. A cloud is a symbol of water to come, and water is the symbol of the eternal life promised us by Christ. A cloud, therefore, is here the symbol of all the graces that will rain on all mankind after Christ has presented His own sacrifice to the Father. Several are the instances, both in the Old and New Testaments, of a cloud as a symbol of God. It is from a cloud, for example, that the voice of God is heard at the transfiguration. 'This is my beloved Son...' I repeat that this was my first idea; but afterwards I wanted also to symbolize God, Heaven, eternity. ...In a way I felt something mysterious about it all, and I related this feeling with a blue hole on a white sheet in the sky..."
The triangular lines framing the cloud are symbols that God, although One, is also three Persons. Note that the triangle is not made up of straight lines... The true nature and essence of God escapes and defies any human definition.