Three Trinities

The culminating effects of Andy’s teachings and Red’s transformational Metanoia openly manifest themselves in Red’s third parole hearing. Unlike his first two meetings, where he encountered a “wall” of five men, here, the “New” Red is greeted by a Trinity that includes a female. Here also, for the first time he hears his full name, suggesting the idea that (again, as a result of his essential turn inward), he is now “known” and “recognized” by the “powers that be.” When he is asked if “he feels he has been rehabilitated,” he responds in a truly childlike and humble fashion: “I have no idea what that means.” The essential “change” in Red’s soul as a result of his Repentance has given him a truly new and profound perspective: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 18:3).