Wise ones

In the year 2000, at the turn of the millennium, the National Catholic Reporter newspaper ran a contest, inviting artist to produce a rendition of Jesus for this time. The winner, “Jesus of the People” was painted by New England artist, Janet McKenzie. You can see it here. https://janetmckenzie.com/joppage1.html

I came in contact with Janet’s work a couple of years later when Orbis Books (Maryknoll) published a book, Holiness and the Feminine Spirit: the art of Janet McKenzie. It included reflections for each piece. Joan Chittister, OSB, wrote the reflection for “The Visitation.”

Through this project Orbis sent us prints of some of Janet’s other works and the one that really impacted us was the one called “Epiphany. We framed it and use it annually.

It features Janet’s usual androgynous people, both in gender and race. But, if you look closer you can see that they are definitely female. What a wonderful visual of the Magi, especially as it portrays women as the wise ones from the East.

It is eye opening when you first begin to experience such things as: to reading commentaries of biblical books from the point of view of the women involved; seeing visuals such as this that feature women as the principal players or discovering the spiritually rich material now available from a woman’s perspective, as well as a man’s.

So be sure to watch for wise men and wise women--both travel through our lives.