Mtr Mary Trainor

Dear friend,

Transitions. Turning points.

I have missed the point of some of my life’s greatest moments, because I was too distracted to grasp the “backstory” of what was going on around me. Or maybe, as my high school English teacher told us often, I just needed to get “some spitting' distance” between me and the moment.

Transitions and turning points in our own lives are harder to read until later, sometimes much later.

***

In today’s Gospel from Mark we encounter a major turning point. We know that because we know how this story turns out. We have perspective that others could not have who were in the middle of that transition.

But this is the moment, this is the day when Jesus activates his ministry. And it was launched with the arrest of John the Baptist. His arrest signaled the time had come for Jesus to take center stage.

And what did Jesus do in this transition? He taught. He formed his team. He healed. Jesus was building “street cred” for the ushering in of the reign of God.

***

Changes in our own lives can come about in ways we only recognize later. What was it Soren Kierkegaard said? “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

One of my previous vocations was that of a newspaper editor. The career began humbly enough as a writer-photographer for a very small daily newspaper in a mountain pass town in Southern California. I was one of a newsroom staff of three.

As months went by I felt stuck. Maybe this was a poor fit. I was on the threshold of throwing in the towel.

Then, transition rang my phone on a Sunday morning. It was the managing editor, calling to say he was leaving his position. He wouldn’t be returning, and asked if I would collect his things and place them on the loading dock behind the newspaper building. I did as he asked and I never saw him again. I later learned his untimely exodus was because he had committed a crime.

So, it was a crime, not an arrest, but nevertheless I got his job. His departure advanced my career in newsroom management, a life chapter I remember fondly.

***

There will be other turning points for Jesus. Again, we know this because we have read his story. And there will be other turning points for me and for you.

I have learned to view the unexpected as the possible heralding of God at work--new options, new vistas, new life.

Mtr Mary