“When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Fritz Eichenberg loved God, he loved his neighbor, and he loved art. Born October 24, 1901 in Cologne Germany, Fritz expressed his love of his neighbors through his art. He worked across mediums and included in his expressions, cartoons, specifically anti-Hitler cartoons during Nazism’s early days. Hitler and his soldiers targeted neighboring Gypsies, Jews, and union workers with intimidation, paramilitary terror, and ongoing street violence. “I was on the staff (of newspapers). But the (newspaper’s) high command, was scared. They didn’t go along with me. After a while, whenever I presented to (bosses) an anti-Hitler cartoon, they said, “We just can’t do that. We can’t do that. We get into trouble.” This prompted my exit (from Germany). It was 1932… I never think that what I’m doing is I’m turning a tide. I follow my conscience.” Fritz, his wife Mary, and 2-year-old child settled in New York. He worked as a teacher of art at The New School for Social Research in New York and began to concentrate his art work in wood engraving. He illustrated publications of the Bronte sisters, Dostoevsky, Poe, Swift, and Tolstoy. “I get emotionally involved in what I’m doing. The Gandhi face that I have cut on wood—and I did the same with Abe Lincoln—is prompted by the love I have for these people.” While in New York he met Dorothy Day who, along with Peter Maurin founded the Catholic Worker. “When I met Dorothy Day, I fell for her, hook, line, and sinker. She’s a great woman… a very human person, and she has a great sense of humor, and she loves art.” “It’s devotion to each other. I would do anything for her. And so I worked for the Catholic Worker because—initially, because I worked for Dorothy Day. There’s no money changing hands, which is the great thing.” Fritz began doing illustrations for the penny-a-copy Catholic Worker newspaper that was founded in a love for God and a love for neighbor. “What I did for her was… for those who could not read… she had seen clippings of my work in the hovels of coal miners and so on, people in all parts of the world… (who) understood my very simple images of saints… I studied up on them. I learned something, and I tried to make these drawings as simple as I could so that people would understand them right off the bat, you know.” Among his many memorable works of art for the Catholic Worker is Christ of the Breadlines. “With my salary as a (teacher)… I was able to do things for nothing for lots of organizations who could not pay and from which I wouldn’t expect or accept any pay.” The organizations included groups like Fellowship of Reconciliation,” an interfaith peace group that includes Quakers. Upon the early sudden death of his wife Mary, Fritz mourned deeply and found his faith home in the Quaker community. He was inspired throughout his long life by the Quaker belief that God can be found everywhere and in everyone.
“If you love someone, if you love anything, it works. If there’s no love in what you’re doing, it doesn’t work. Not consciously as sort of these things, but looking back, I know this is what it is – love.
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, guide me in loving my neighbor, especially in dangerous times.
Question: Who are the people who inspire me in a love of God and neighbor?
October 25, 2026 Gospel Matthew 22:34-40 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Leave a Reply