I fell in love with Caravaggio's art on a trip to Rome thirty years ago. 

And my favorite painting of his is The Calling of St. Matthew, pictured with this article, a knock-off of which hangs in my house.

When i first encountered this painting in the San Luigi dei Francesi church where it hangs, I must have poured a hundred dollars into the light box to be able to continue to view it.

I recently learned my taste in art is in good company. 

A NYTimes article indicated that Caravaggio was also the favorite painter of the late Pope Francis, who said ..."his paintings speak to me."  

Every time Francis came to Rome, when he was still the archbishop of Buenos Aires,  he would stay near San Luigi dei Francesi and visit one painting in particular...the “The Calling of St. Matthew.” 

[NB: all comments in this article about Caravaggio and his art are either quotes or paraphrases of Jason Farago's article in the NYTimes. An art historian I am not.]

The majestic Michelangelo is, of course, the artist most identified with the Vatican.

Which makes it particularly interesting that the head of the Church would gravitate towards Caravaggio, a painter whose behavior was far from saintly and who ushered in, to say the least, a very different aesthetic.

It was such a shift that a contemporary of Caravaggio called his work anti-Michelangelo, "lowering the Holy Family to the Roman swamp, by using models from the streets...prostitutes, of both sexes, depicted as saints or gods." Unwashed brows, unwashed feet, Caravaggio favored paintings of poverty and plainness.

Farago speculates that Pope Francis "gravitated to the realism, even the populism, of Caravaggio because it aligned with is vision of a 'poor church'."

For Pope Francis, ostentatious displays of sanctity were “osteoporosis of the soul."

Pope Francis: "The Pope of the Last"

Obituaries of the late-Pope have brought his background and vision for the church into graphic relief.

Pope Francis was born in a very humble, immigrant neighborhood in Buenos Aires.  Growing up there opened his eyes to people trying to make it and this bottom-up point of view imbued him with an empathy that became his guiding light.

He was nicknamed the “Slum Bishop” in Buenos Aires for insisting that he and his priests should go out in the streets, on the margins of society, to serve, minister, and preach. "'Good shepherds, he said, should get their hands dirty'." The saint whose name he had taken, Francis of Assisi, had said the same." [Pope Francis Obituary in The Economist]

Following the example of St. Francis, he opened up his heart and hands to the travails of the poor and after becoming Pope, he made it his mission to move the Church in that direction in symbol and in deed.

"There would be no papal cape or red slippers, just a plain white cassock and his ordinary black shoes. No crest-embellished dinner plates, no new pectoral cross; he kept the iron-plated one he had worn as archbishop. No 12-room apartment in the Vatican, but a two-room suite in the guests’ hostel. For him, ostentatious displays of sanctity were “osteoporosis of the soul." (quoted from previously cited obituary in The Economist).

He would regularly dispense with his bulletproof "Pope-mobile" to sneak out of his hostel, turning up at hospitals, prisons and hospices to the huge surprise of inmates and workers. On Holy Thursday he visited such places to kneel before people in trouble, wash their feet, towel them dry and kiss them. (Economist obituary).

Shortly before his death, he used nearly all the money he had left, some €200,000 ($225,000), to pay down the mortgage on a pasta factory that operates in a juvenile prison in Rome. 

That he was known as "the Pope of the Last" should come as no surprise.

"I think coaches get caught up in the illusion that the session is the point.  And the session for me is not the point, and we're not the point, coaching is not even the point.  The point is a human being that is on a journey of discovery or change or pursuits or whatever they are after.  My job is to equip them to be successful on their journey."  ~David Drake

Transformational Coaching

What on Earth does a 17th century "bad boy" painter and the recently deceased "Pope of the Last" have to do with Transformational Coaching?

Many coaches like to crow about their transformational work.  They pontificate about their Adult Development models and how they shepherd people through the stages, with transformed humans in their wake as far as the eye can see.

When I certified as a coach, some of my own instructors would wear their claim, almost like a badge, that they did not do horizontal coaching (skill development and coaching around more situational and tactical challenges).  They only did vertical coaching..."whole" person, focused on Being, and, of course, transformation.

Look, there is nothing wrong with carving out your niche and being clear on the work you do and the work you don't do. 

But it never sat well with me.  The scientist in me wanted the word "transformation" defined.  Is it enough if only some of my behavior in certain situations changes for it to be called a transformation? Is one man's transformational ceiling, another man's transformational floor?  And what about the parts of us that fail to transform?  If what Joni Mitchell called the Tireless Watcher doesn't change and my Enneagram type doesn't change, what exactly is transformed?

Moreover, something about it just seems so aloof, almost contemptuous.  I don't know about you but that is not an attitude I want from a coach I am seeking help from.

I am questioning whether we should let those solid approaches be the answers to questions that aren't being asked.

When the topic of transformational coaching came up on a recent Coaches Rising podcast, I braced for more pretension, but the host Joel Monk and his guest took the topic in a refreshing direction.

Joel kicked off the inquiry:  "We are being invited in our times to clarify what the transformational practitioner is.  It is beyond being caught in any more limited definition of being a coach or therapist or guide.  It is arising in the moment of what is most needed."

His guest was Dr. David Drake, a pioneer in the coaching space for 25 years, who has taught his approach to over 20,000 practitioners in over 40 countries. Dr. Drake echoed the importance of working with the immediate need.

"Our core phrase is that "this moment is your curriculum."  So what is this moment asking of you?  What is it trying to teach you?  What is it evoking in you?  We want to be able to show up with whatever is called for." 

He went on to describe how he once spent an entire coaching session with a high powered CEO planning her mother's funeral because she was devastated and did not know where to begin. "This is how we bring this work into their lives as people actually live them."

Drake continued, "I think coaches get caught up in the illusion that the session is the point.  And the session for me is not the point, and we're not the point, coaching is not even the point.  The point is a human being that is on a journey of discovery or change or pursuits or whatever they are after.  My job is to equip them to be successful on their journey."  

I am not saying self-proclaimed transformational coaches should not help clients 1) see through their stories or 2) unstick emotions by feeling them all the way with gratitude or 3) help clients unfold physical symptoms to learn the lessons they might be carrying.  This is powerful work, with a proven track record of affecting lives. 

I am questioning whether we should let those solid approaches be the answers to questions that aren't being asked. Drake adds, "I'm only interested in: Is what we are doing serving what the person needs from us right now?"  

As the interview went on, imagine my resonance when i heard Dr. Drake articulate the same struggles with transformation that I mentioned previously.

"Even though I have done research and writing for decades in this space, I just realize that so much about being human and change is a mystery. It's not linear. It is not obvious. It is really hard to pin down.  I am sure you have had this experience too, you wake up one day and you feel differently about yourself, you notice something about yourself you never noticed before and you think "how did that happen?" This is some of my critique of getting caught up in fancy language and terminology.  It is important to recognize that so much of this is, even now, unknown.  And I think that is fantastic because it keeps me humble and observant."

Therefore, I ask the transformational coaches, why wouldn't you help a client rework their resume so it tells a better story?  Why wouldn't you help them prep to interview for a great opportunity in a challenging new job, tightening up their answers and helping them make better eye contact?  And when they land that job, why not address their need get up and running with transition structure and best practices?  Why not let them practice a high-stakes presentation and work with them on their delivery and body language? Why would helping them plan their mother's funeral be off limits?

I ask because, echoing Drake, how do you know what leads to transformation? 

Maybe the success of landing the new job...or nailing a pitch to get investment dollars...or getting up to speed in a challenging new job...is the breakthrough that gives them the confidence to "play looser," to stop the debilitating, constant second-guessing of themselves? 

Maybe it's not your brilliant insights into the workings of the Inner Critic...but rather, helping your client put a steady stream of points on the board, punctuated by some real Wins.....that helps them get over the hump, that produces transformation.

The host, Joel, concludes: "Instead of learning methods and theories of human change or the stage-like theories, it is more interesting to develop our capacity to meet this moment and be with our clients in a way that invites this unfolding into the mystery."

“Illumination has become an instrument of conferring nobility on those who would never seem to deserve it. What, precisely, turns one random guy into a saint? The attention of Jesus — but also, the attention of a painter.” 

And, perhaps even the attention of a coach. 

Art for Art's...and Mercy's...Sake

According to Farago, when Caravaggio sent saints to their deaths in barren fields of black, he was endeavoring "to bring the saints and the angels down from the heavens to earth [leaving us] face-to-face with the sacred story, denuded of its idealism, left open, left raw."

That naturalism had a function that went beyond popular accessibility. "What Caravaggio was really doing was something perhaps not so out of line with Francis’ approach: stripping the holy narrative of its adornments, to devote himself to the here and now."

He did this, above all, through his breathtaking use of light and shadow, whose effects ennobled the lowest members of society with something like divinity.

“It’s light as light, light as fact.  Illumination has become an instrument of conferring nobility on those who would never seem to deserve it. What, precisely, turns one random guy into a saint? The attention of Jesus — but also, the attention of a painter.” 

And, perhaps even the attention of a coach.

“Art must not discard anything or anybody,” said Pope Francis. “It’s like mercy.”

Amen.

Dennis Adsit, Ph.D. is an executive coach, organization consultant, and designer of The First 100 Days and Beyond, a consulting service that has helped hundreds of newly hired and promoted executives get great starts in challenging new jobs.