Who Are Your Beatitudes Mentors?
Who are the people in your life – either personal connections or more public figures – who embody the sort of humble confidence that Jesus describes in his Sermon on the Mount?
The artist Sister Corita Kent was commissioned to produce a large painting for the Vatican pavilion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. She offered the brightly colored 40-foot wide by five-foot tall presentation of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount seen here in a photograph from a later show at the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art. As an indication of her artistic reputation at the time, it is worth noting that her work joined Michaelangelo’s Pieta at the pavilion as a celebration of Church’s art..
Sister Corita was a prolific pop artist working from the 1950s until her death in 1986. While she was well-known during her lifetime, her legacy hasn’t received due attention until recently. The 2016 show at the Harvard Art Museum Corita Kent and the Language of Pop has rightly placed her in the company of her peers Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.
Sister Corita was born Francis Elizbeth Kent in Fort Dodge, IA. Her family moved to southern California when she was a child, and she grew up in Los Angeles. At 18, she entered the Convent of the Immaculate Heart of Jesus, taking the name Mary Corita. She graduated from Immaculate Heart College and went on to earn a Master’s Degree in art history at UCLA. She taught art at Immaculate Heart and became the art department director.
Her primary medium in those years was the silk screen. Her studio was across the street from one of the area’s first supermarkets, and she became interested in the way words were used primarily to sell things. She subverted the bold colors and proclamations of the supermarket posters to return words to their divine life-giving intent. One of my favorite series from this period is her adaptation of the colored circles on the packaging of Wonder Bread, which she re-imagined to be representations of round, eucharistic wafers. By doing so, she invited her viewers to consider the true nature of “enriched bread” and their obligation to feed those who are hungry. You can see an example from that series here. Her shot at the Del Monte tomato people was even more provocative when she borrowed and repurposed their branding to declare, “Mary Mother is the juiciest tomato of them all.”
In her 1964 painting, Sister Corita uses the word “Happy” to translate Matthew’s Greek word “macarios,” which is typically translated as “blessed.” Some people think that “happy” doesn’t capture the gravitas of Jesus’ message. I think she used that word in combination with the bright colors to get our attention–like the signs in the supermarket–and make us take a second look at what is for many, a very familiar passage of the Bible. A second look is certainly necessary because the way she arranges the letters doesn’t make for easy reading. She transcribes Jesus’ words as:
HaPPY / are those / who feel / their spiritual / need for the / kingdom of / heaven / belongs to them /
HaPPY are / the gentle / for the whole / world will be- / long to / them /
HaPPY are those / who know what / sorrow means / for they will be given / courage and comfort /
HaPPY / are / those / who / hunger / and thirst / for what / is right / for they / will be / satisfied /
HaPPY are those / who show mercy / for mercy will be / shown to them /
HaPPY / are the / single / hearted / for / they / will / see / God /
HaPPY / are those / who make / peace / for they / will be / known / as / sons / of GOD /
HaPPY are those / who have suffered / persecution / for the kingdom / of heaven / is theirs / and what happiness will be yours / when people blame you and ill treat you / and say all kinds of slanderous things / against you for my name’s sake / be glad / yes, be tremendously glad / for / your reward / in heaven / is / magnificent / rejoice / when that day / comes / and leap / for / joy
And then there are all of the other words that she’s added to the painting in her smaller cursive hand. These blocks of text fill the spaces between Jesus’ declarations and demand to be thoroughly investigated. What we discover is that Sr. Corita has provided dozens of quotes from the writing and speeches of two men who had just died the previous year; Pope John XXIII, and President John F. Kennedy. Not leaving us to wonder at her agenda, she writes to us using blue paint in the lower left corner:
Christ / Came to this earth / Acted for / And spoke to man / Told them by his actions / And by his words / How to be happy / Put it all in a short talk / On a mountain / The beatitudes / The happy attitudes
And then,
Two men / Named John – John XXIII and John Fitzgerald Kennedy / Lived on this earth / In their own time / By their actions / And by their words / They told us Christ’s way works / These are two happy men / Read their words next to the beatitudes.
Both of these men had led larger than life lives in Sr. Corita’s world of progressive Catholic Christianity, so they aren’t surprising choices. What is remarkable is the depth of exploration into their writing that her painting takes. Yes, “Ask not what your country can do for you…” is there. It’s in red paint, just to the right of the centerline and the stack of Jesus’s words reading, “[Happy] are those who hunger and thirst for what is right for they will be satisfied.” But there’s also this from Kennedy’s June of 1963 Commencement Address at American University, “…we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just.”
The quotations from Pope John XXIII come almost entirely from his papal encyclicals. These lines from Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth) are representative of Sr. Corita’s choices, “…it is not enough for Our sons to be illumined by the heavenly light of faith and to be fired with enthusiasm for a cause; they must involve themselves in the work of these institutions, and strive to influence them effectively from within.”
Pope John XXIII and JFK might not be your choices, but Sr. Corita by offering the words of theirs to read along with the teachings of Jesus, provokes a question for us: As we head into fall and draw closer to La Dia de los Muertos and All Saints Sunday with ofrendas and lists of the blessed dead to be read aloud at the Sunday service our question to you is: Who are your be happy attitude mentors? Who are the people in your life whose words or actions present Jesus’ teaching to you? As we remember those gone before us and celebrate their victory in Christ it is also good to consider the example that they have left for us and celebrate that example by following it. Whose words would you paint next to those of Jesus?
Be blessed.
Pr. Jim
Saint Catherine’s University in Saint Paul MN has a high resolution image of Sr. Corita’s full painting in their digital collection.
I’ve completed a transcription of the text of the painting.
Rev. Katherine Museus and Rev. James A. Wetzstein serve as university pastors at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University and take turns writing weekly devotions.
October 16, 2024