“How hard it is sometimes to live in two worlds, the one we inhabit with the people around us, and the one that we live in alone. None may know the pain we hide, the deep wells of worry into which we look, the memories that enfold our lives like a forest. But the Spirit knows and cares and understands, ever beside us to offer comfort and counsel.”
—Bishop Steven Charleston Daily Facebook Page.
The Repentant Magdalene National Gallery, Washington, DC
The Repentant Magdalene.
Recently I spent time with a 387-year-old friend that I have known for her last twenty-five years. We first met when she was one of three Georges de La Tour’s Magdalene paintings at a special exhibition at the National Gallery of Art. She was the only one in their permanent collection. I visited her that morning before an important meeting in Washington, and she quieted my soul. I instantly fell in love with her. She spoke to me as no other painting has before or since. This Magdalene sits with her left hand on a skull. She does not look at the skull directly but sees the skull’s image in a mirror in front of her. The chiaroscuro scene is dark and only illumined by a partially hidden candle beside the skull. I talk to Magdalene and thank her for her insights.
For me, the skull represents our insides, what our skin covers up—the Christ within as well as the negative parts of our unconscious. Over the years this Magdalene has taught me that we most often see inside ourselves by looking into a reflection, a mirror. It is too painful and too overwhelming to see what we are beneath our surface. We cannot look at there directly. It is like looking at the sun. The mirror represents the reflection we see of ourselves in others. We come to know and understand the true parts of ourselves by seeing ourselves in our neighbors.
One of the reasons God calls us to community is to learn from others who we really are. I best see my own soul, the Christ within me, as well as my many unconscious character defects, by first recognizing them in others. Caring for our life means discovering these unconscious character defects first by becoming aware, and then by seeing them for what they are in others. Caring for our soul is finding the Christ within ourselves by first seeing that holy in another, and then realizing the miracle that it is also within us.
May we continue to experience these epiphanies around us, especially through art and culture.
Joanna . joannaseibert.com