The recurring woman protagonist in these Pentirsi stories is conflicted over adultery, not the physical kind but rather an emotional one. The stories protest against the boredom and absurdity of existence, similar to Albert Camus’ “The Adulterous Woman” (1957), in the existentialist and feminist tradition. Camus took the title from the book of John 8:1-11 that teaches no one has the authority to judge and condemn because no one is completely righteous. Instead, people must forgive and help one another to overcome sin.
Aside from being inherently flawed and still a work-in-progress in the Master Potter’s hands, humans transgress despite their resistance and by God’s permissive will, so that they will be humble in repentance. With humility comes wisdom, which then prepares them to live in true freedom as children of God.
The sequencing of the stories is not random. The order of presentation in Pentirsi: Stories of Repentance, is the thread that connects the stories.
During the ancient times in Jerusalem, a woman wished she could start on a clean slate all over again (“The Last Temptation Retold”)
Two Thousand years later in the financial district of Makati, a woman yielded to her desire for a life of purpose and meaning, but her love was forbidden. She dared to protest before the Omniscient (“Whom Her Soul Loved”).
The woman gave up the man “set apart” and married another. In the mundane existence that she found herself trapped, she was anguished over having to give birth to another life who would become one more witness to her failure (“Foreign Body”).
Payback time came several years later when she had to battle with carcinoma of the milk ducts on her left breast, the slightly bigger one that used to feed her newborn infants all six of them, each one coming into her life successively every year (“Healing in Linac”).
She recovered from cancer and thought her path to holiness began with her healing miracle. But she had to be tested once more and fail, because in her autumn years she felt the emptiness again and soon it would be winter, frozen and deathlike (”Total Resistance Extreme”)
So, she embarked on her last adventure, a sojourn she would see through its completion (“The Journey”).
After fifteen years, her cancer had a recurrence and her right breast was gone too. She was the woman with no breasts, but her season of grace had come. The Creator was reintroducing Himself to her, beloved infidel, so she would keep still and know He is God. (“The Patient at Room 908”).
Would not the Author of Life show more compassion and put an end to her narrative at a ripe age? But when she died, her lover from long ago sought to keep her immortal on earth with all the pleasures-- through cloning and artificial intelligence. The last temptation came post mortem and she yielded not (“My Lover is a Robot”).
She dared to love (“Daring to Love”) and in the final story (“Pentirsi”) we knew all sins were forgiven.
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