We might imagine, and you'd be right, if you see this painting to be a view of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus in the Jordan River. But the cluster of people is set at a distance and within a great landscape of water, land and sky. Isn't it wonderful, the translucence of the water, the true-blue sky, the deep green of the woods leading down to the water. I love the tree on the right margin which seems to explode with energy.
Polenov has not called the picture, The Baptism of Jesus, but simply, Epiphany. We hear every year that Epiphany is a Greek word that means manifesting, revelation, showing, unwrapping. The Feast of the Epiphany used to have three strong liturgical themes: the Gentile Magi following the star to Christ, the heavenly voice at the River Jordan and the first sign of Christ's divinity at the Cana wedding.
These events in the life of Jesus are not a walk down memory lane for us, but God continues to incarnate and infuse. God continues to manifest, reveal, share and show. And each of us, and all of us together, are inside these ever new events. We're wrapped in, dipped in, inhaling and under these events. We're not admirers but share-rs.
When we're Baptized the priest or deacon addresses us, even as infants, "You have become a new creation. and have clothed yourself in Christ." We're supposed to be new Christ-persons. It takes a lifetime to turn a mind and a heart around to that of Christ — which means a heart-mind lived authentically, fully, humbly, beautifully, generously, creatively and joyfully.
A Dominican Sister-friend recently sent me a video of the Irish Night held at her order's motherhouse. Raffle prizes were given away with sisters pulling the winning tickets, young people from an Irish step dancing school performing, bagpipers piping — all virtually. But in the last few minutes an Irish Blessing was sung accompanying still photos of retired sisters holding up signs of thanks, love, promise and encouragement. Their lovely, beamy faces! Epiphanies of God's loving kindness are everywhere. I ask it all the time — Do we really know how to say thank you? And if I think I do, then I want to learn and re-learn it again and again, renewing it more deeply each day.
Vasily Polenov, for his own reasons, was rather removed from the life of the church. But he designed churches inside and out in attentive detail, and painted dozens of pictures, scenes from the life of the historical Jesus. And he created all these pictures of rivers, valleys, mountains, sky and changing atmosphere, and ponds and streams and trees in their seasons. So it seems to me, he understood gratitude in a most profound way. He understood that Thank You is the authentic Christian lifestyle.
The Trappist Monk, Thomas Merton, reflecting on his hermit life in the Kentucky woods with the animals, forest and fields wrote: "I have a real need to know these things because I myself am part of the weather and part of the climate and part of the place, and a day in which I have not shared truly in all of this is no day at all. It is certainly part of my life of prayer."
