We cannot repair the past. But we owe it to the past to make a better future. It is a fine line that we draw every day, reflecting on the past to improve the future, while not dwelling there so much that we forsake the future. The only sure path out of this quandary is the forgotten concept of “metanoia.”

I think it was during a 7th grade religion class that Mother Marie Julia smiled—a rare phenomenon, usually reserved for those times when she was vigorously applying a yardstick to my thighs and backside—and asked us a simple question to test our knowledge of the Bible: What, she asked, is the shortest sentence in the Gospels? None of us knew, of course. But I perked up immediately. I was not at all enamored of the Baltimore Catechism or the rote memorizing of various prayers, but I have always enjoyed trivia, and this tiny tidbit of Biblical trivia seemed especially intriguing. So, perhaps alone among my classmates, I remained rivetted on her every word and breathlessly anticipated her answer. …

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