Mtr Mary Trainor

Dear friend,

Trust is a pretty rare commodity. How, where, can we get the truth, the facts? Where could we ever?

We need only to look at recent events to see the challenge. There either was or was not an armed insurrection on January 6; masks are, or are not, a tool to prevent the COVID virus from spreading; and, there is or is not a climate crisis.

Getting to the truth of something can take decades, centuries. Other things come along unpredictably and their veracity must be weighed in the moment.

***

Years ago, my mother and I drove to New Mexico to visit my brother and his family in Los Alamos. On the way, she and I stopped for lunch at a Coco’s restaurant. While awaiting our food, I looked around and noticed a waitress who had obviously paid attention to her appearance. But as I was watching, her face changed from its lovely countenance to become a skull. I looked away, blinked my eyes a few times, and looked back. Still a skull.

I looked toward my mother. She was very hard of hearing, so whispering to get her attention was not an option. I glanced back at the waitress, who by now had turned around to serve a table. While certain of what I had seen, I could not grasp its meaning. And who could I ever tell but my mother?

***

In today’s Gospel, we are in the first chapter of John. Jesus has already called Peter and Andrew as disciples, and he’s on the path to Galilee. Jesus finds Philip and says, “Follow me.” When Jesus spots Nathanael, he declares the man’s character: “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

There are several significant trust relationships in this passage. There are three men, Philip, Nathanael, Jesus, in multiple relationships with one another. What is lovely about trust relationships is one can relax, we know who is speaking, and that their word is gold. Did they misunderstand something? Maybe. But they are not misrepresenting, twisting, manipulating. If they said they saw something, then they saw something.

***

By the time we got settled in Los Alamos, night was upon us. But the evening’s light wind was warm, so we sat on the patio and scanned the skies. The whole group was silent until my mother broke the spell: “Patty (my name in the family), tell Jim and Mary what you saw today.” I was annoyed because I had not yet decided that I would tell them. But I gave in and had just started to share what happened in the Coco’s, when mother interrupted to say to them, “Now, remember, this is Patty talking.” An affirmation of my trustworthiness, no matter how absurd the story may be.

That was when I first realized I was seen that way in the family. I cherished the moment, but more, I can enter the reading of scripture with a deep sense of how important the character of Jesus’ disciples is, because they are the ones who handed on his story. And people who knew them well, knew they could be trusted, and that this Jesus fellow surely must be the Son of God

Mtr Mary