Mtr Mary Trainor

Old paint on canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent…*

Dear friend,

Looking back. Taking stock, again. It seems I spend more time these days reflecting on events of the past, relationships, and curiosity about my parents—what shaped them into who they became.

And if and how any of that changed me into who I was, am, at various stages. New meaning can emerge because we emerge, we know more, we see differently.

In our Daily Office Gospel today from John, we find a hint of this phenomenon. Jesus goes on a tirade in the Temple, attempting to  rid it of things that make his Father’s house a marketplace.

…When that happens it is possible in some pictures, to see the original lines…

Some members of Jewish leadership accost him: By what authority are you doing such destruction? Jesus says, Tear down the Temple and I will raise it in three days. 

Surely a joke. Right? But Jesus is actually giving a hint of what’s to come, his death, his resurrection.

The text is not explicit, yet I read into it that his disciples do not understand this at the time. Their understanding came later, when they looked back.

 …a tree will show through a woman's dress, a child makes way for a dog, a large boat is no longer on an open sea…That is called pentimento because the painter 'repented' changed his mind…

“After Jesus was raised from the dead, his disciples remember that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” It took some time, some experience, some context for their understanding to come together.

…The paint has aged now and I wanted to see what was there for me once, what is there for me now.

Mtr Mary

*From Pentimento, A Book of Portraits by Lillian Hellman. 1973. Inspiration for the movie Julia.