Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven
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| Sunny Days in Heaven Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven |
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Friday, August 02, 2002 The Power of Belief Minute Particulars has a blog about Peggy Noonan seeing the pope the other day contrasted to when she saw him two years ago. She writes: "When you see the pope something happens. You expect to be moved but it's bigger than that and more surprising. It feels like a gaiety brought by goodness. It feels like a bubbling up. I think some people feel humbled by some unseen gravity and others lifted by some unknown lightness. " As I said a few days ago, if he were some fellow sitting in a corner in a nursing home, or on a park bench, no one would pay him any mind, but it is rather marvelous how people can take on such a greater persona by means of an office, title, position, and lever of not only power, but representation. The pope represents or embodies in himself a kind of ideal - the concept of the Holy Man - the one who is better than all others. In the Catholic case - Jesus on Earth. This is powerful and heady stuff as Peggy found out. The sense of such a presence of authority can make men tremble. Which is why it is all the more important to speak the truth to Power. The insignificant critic before the powerful can take on two meanings - one of defiance to legitimate authority (such as a Christian not trembling before God, but being impudent and rebellious to divinity); or one that denies difference between one human and another in their equality of being before God. An ordinary Jew snared to appear before the High Priest and the Sanhedrin has much reason to fear and tremble. How great their might, how puny the poor man's rights and dignity. But we like to imagine Jesus as unfearing and disdainful as possible for a son of man before the Court and Pilate. Humble before God, defiant, indignant, and assertive before the judgments of men. The desire to invest in other humans an aura of greatness is meaningful. I would that people felt more that way towards God than to any man on earth, though. Furthermore I have always been struck by what a nobody Jesus was. People saw and heard him, some may have been healed by him. Nobody ever heard anyone express what he did about God. His insights are unparalled in human history, his poetry unmatched, his intellect keener, more precise, more understanding than anyone's ever; and his compassion and power to forgive, more absolute. His voice and his touch healed - and yet he was a nobody. People took him up and put him down as they pleased. If he wandered the streets of Jerusalem, he did so as another peasant/workman. As he wandered the countryside, he was just another field hand or shepherd passed on the road. Yet, the pope (or a president, or a general, or a rock star) rides down the road and people swoon. Human judgments are peculiar and fickle. The people have no notion whether their neighbor is a saint or not, but they see the pope and it's as if the heavens have opened. I suppose I might feel differently if this was John 23rd instead of JPII whom I've never warmed up to no matter how hard I've tried. The funny thing is thatr I wouldn't care that John 23rd was the pope. It was the man and the communion of love he was that mattered. If you had met him as a guy at the beach, you would have felt the same way about him. With JPII, all I see is an ideologue who likes show biz and can't bear to get off stage. If you'd met him at a cocktail party when he was younger you might have said, well, he's a hot dog and a comer, isn't he? That's unfair, I know, but people used to turn out for Pope Paul IV, too, in massive numbers expressing the deepest, most sincere piety, and now nobody gives him a second thought. His personality is lost. This present pope's personality will quickly fade, but John 23rd's will never be forgotten - he was such a pure lover and child of joy. Oh, we'll still talk about JPII's reign because it was so long, so autocratic, repressive, and unresponsive. We'll talk about the secrecy of the Vatican and its nefarious, labyrinthine ways, but we won't talk about JPII as a pillar of warmth and love, but a rather cold-blooded, pseudo-intellectual with pretensions of art. But Jesus, what a nobody he was! If you'd met him on the road sitting in the shade from the midday heat, you could've talked about the weather and come away from the encounter full of wonder and curiosity. People often talk about his charisma, but he couldn't have been that magnetic a figure. John the Baptist was much more popular and known, and other pseudo-prophets commanded larger groups before and after his life before the Romans crushed them. No, Jesus didn't necessarily make all that great an impression on people, but had a way of getting under some folks' skin as they got to know him. Yeah, I guess he might have had some triumphant days with crowds crying out, Blessed is the woman and the breasts that gave you suck; but I tend to think the gospels do quite a bit of exaggeration to make Jesus look more important in this time than he was. He basically was a nobody and he died a nobody. And today? He's pretty much persona non grata. An unwelcome fellow both in and out of the church. posted by Mark Butterworth | 8:49 AM | |
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