Vanity Uncovered

The Suffering Servant

9x11 collage

In my vanity, I tried to collage a perfect face of Christ. I hoped for a Jesus with a beautifully serene expression and eyes full of love. Instead, after many tries and frustration, I ripped back the paper, and gave up. I waited some time, and when I finally gave myself permission to go back to the piece, there he was the Suffering Servant looking into my eyes. When I let go, and accepted my honest abilities, the process, and the outcome, I received more than I hoped for.
I feel that the Holy Spirit was guiding the creation of this picture.

Is it our vanity that tries to make the church perfect? Or is it the vanity of church leaders that causes them to turn their faces away from the real people who are battered and torn? The church was never meant to be a great imposing Vatican structure. The church was not meant to be a white robed pontiff floating around somewhere in a pope-mobile away form the people and sprinkling rose petals at Marian shrines. The church is certainly not red robed men who live in luxurious homes protecting their images by covering up abuses. The church is people with messy lives filled with battering and suffering. I believe that the Holy Spirit is trying to guide the church to accept, and serve all the people. All of us, married priest, wives and children of priest, illegitimate children of priests, and abandoned women who have loved a priest, all belong to the church.


Marcella Paliekara

http://dailypaintingsbmp.blogspot.com/ or email me at myvisionsandvoices@yahoo.com