Leprechauns and Noah’s Ark — Part One: Rainbows

St. Patrick’s Day is nearly upon us.  While there is much to be said about the great saint being commemorated — my Patron Saint, incidentally — I think most people’s attention would be more easily captivated by popular images of leprechauns and their pots-o’-gold under the rainbow.

Given this traditional affiliation, I want to preface my comments on leprechauns with a focus on the rainbow.

Rainbows have captivated mankind’s attention for ages, and so many cultures have attributed various forms of significance to it.

To the Vikings it was the Bifrost Bridge, believed to connect earth to Asgard, the realm of the gods.

According to Greco-Roman mythology, what we call the rainbow was in fact the path made in the sky by Iris, a minor deity whose job it was to relay messages between Heaven and Earth.

The ancient Chinese would have said that the rainbow came into existence as a result of a slit torn into the veil between heaven and earth, which the goddess Nüwa sealed using multi-colored stones.

Across the world’s many cultures throughout the millennia, interpretations of the rainbow included the clothing or paraphernalia of gods, omens, and the very form of a particular god itself.

And then of course we have the modern scientific explanation of the rainbow, which is well beyond my expertise or powers of explanation and has something to do with the refractions of light.

This, however, gives us the how of the rainbow.  Before we dismiss the ancients as stupid primitives who understood nothing about the world, we should keep in mind that they were more concerned with whys than with hows.

If we take a look at the various cultures in question, we notice that most of them conceived of the rainbow in terms of some sort of connection between heaven and earth — whether in the form of a connecting apparatus or a revelation (intentional or not) on heaven’s part of itself.

With all this in mind, let’s take a look at the Biblical conception of the rainbow.

In the Book of Genesis, we read about God’s Covenant with Noah and all of creation after the Great Flood:

God added: “This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.  When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings.  As the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and recall the everlasting covenant that I have established between God and all living beings – all mortal creatures that are on earth” (Genesis 9:12-16).

It is with this understanding of the rainbow in terms of a Covenant in mind that I intend to explore the leprechaun/rainbow symbolism in relation to Christianity.

NEXT: The Covenant

Images obtained from Wikipedia.

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‘Argo’ and the Challenges of the Spiritual Life

Director Ben Afleck’s latest film, “Argo,” did very well at the Oscars.  I’m sure Afleck and all those associated with this movie will never forget being presented with the Best Picture award by First Lady Michelle Obama — a quite interesting occurrence, given the nature of the story.

Set during the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979-1980, ‘Argo’ features Afleck in the lead role as Tony Mendez, the CIA agent charged with rescuing six escaped American hostages receiving shelter at the Canadian ambassador’s home in Iran.

Mendez’ plan involves joining the six of them in posing as a Canadian film crew scouting exotic locations for a (fake) science fiction film called “Argo.”  When he arrives at the ambassador’s house, he gives each of the hostages a script with complete information about their fake identities — including minute details such as where they went to school, their middle names, their parents’ professions, etc.

And it is this aspect of the film that I want to focus on.  The hostages must memorize their roles to perfection, and in a very, very short period of time.  Watching the movie comfortably on our couches, we could easily ask ourselves: “How can they possibly do that?  Who could muster the discipline and brainpower for that kind of thing?”

But the answer immediately comes to us along with the question itself.  If our lives depended on it, as theirs do, we would do the same thing.  No matter how hard the task, we would find a way to do it.

The connection I am about to make to Christianity may seem forced, but this aspect of Mendez’ rescue mission turns my attention to God’s great rescue mission.

How many of us, if we truly understood the importance and the urgency of our conformity to God’s will, would become more zealous in our faith?  How many of us would then strive to know our faith and grow in virtue as best we can (without becoming scrupulous, of course), knowing that any moment could well be our last?

I think that the role memorization scenes in “Argo,” while not being among the most memorable or attention-catching parts of the movie, can be very useful in helping us Catholics (and other Christians as well) to think about this.

Jesus Christ does make many demands of us, most of which seem virtually impossible (and indeed they are from a merely human standpoint).  I would say that there are two things that need to be kept in mind here:

1. The stakes are infinitely higher for us when it comes to living our faith than for the American hostages in memorizing their fake identities.  Their lives are at stake, but our immortal souls are at stake.
2. While the stakes are higher, the pressure is, in a certain sense, lower.  As Mendez was happy to remind the American hostages, one very small error in communicating their cover-up stories to Iranian interrogators would get them killed.  But with the faith, as long as we are truly doing the best we can to grow in the faith and in holiness, God will not withhold His grace.  In fact, it is safe to say that, due to remaining imperfections, most of us will not go to heaven immediately after we die.  Fortunately, the Catholic Church teaches us that God’s mercy extends beyond this present life, so that all those who die in a state of grace but still without the perfection necessary for heaven will go through a final purification.  We call that purification Purgatory.

So in effect, our sense of the stakes and the urgency can protect us against negligence, while trust in God’s mercy and kindness can protect us against scrupulosity and servile fear.

In both cases, we see God’s mercy at work.  What God wants is not to make things hard for us, but to change us, to make us more like Him…to give us life.

I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10)

And He will not fail to give us the strength to do whatever we cannot do on our own, so that we are never taxed beyond our capabilities.

Actually, there is another — though intimately related — aspect of “Argo” that relates to the spiritual life.  When Mendez comes to the six hostages with his plan, he asks them for total trust, assuring them that he has “never left anyone behind.”

Jesus Christ asks us for such trust as well.  And since He is God incarnate and love itself (1 John 4:8), our trust in Him is well placed.

In conclusion: Yes, the challenges of the Christian life can be very daunting.  But hopefully the most recent Academy Award-winner for Best Picture helps, in its own indirect way, to put these challenge in perspective.

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Video: L’Arche International

Here is an inspiring interview with Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche International.  L’Arche is an organization of communities for people with developmental disabilities, and is founded on a profound philosophy of love and acceptance.

This clip is from the 1996 BBC documentary “Everyman: Science Friction.”

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‘The Dark Knight’ Closes…

So we come to the final chapter in our exploration of Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises.”  In part one, we looked at evil as presented in the form of the villain Bane, who capitalizes on people’s hope.  In part two, we looked at what hope is all about and how it comes across in the movie.  Finally, in part three we looked at how humanity’s final hope must be in a life beyond this world, not in any notion of an earthly utopia.

But common sense — and, indeed, the Christian faith — will tell us that we cannot cease to care for the present world.  So how do we reconcile living and working in the world with our ultimate trust in a transcendent hope?

Let’s look to Batman for a clue.

Bane’s plan is to destroy the city of Gotham with a neutron bomb.  At the end, Batman tows the bomb out to sea in an airplane-like vehicle that doesn’t have autopilot.  There, the bomb explodes.

Now to be fair, the question of whether or not Bruce Wayne/Batman died as a result of this incident is left open.  The film ends with a scene in which his loyal butler and former guardian, Alfred (Michael Caine), sees him at an outdoor café in Italy with Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), who has presumably become his wife.

Whether this is real or a form of wish-fulfillment on Alfred’s part is, in my view, debatable.

But whatever the case, it is clear that the hero of this story serves his people not by false promises or by flashy displays of power, but by self-sacrificing love.  He puts himself at greatest risk for the good of others.

Arguably, this sort of self-sacrifice is pointless if human beings are to place their hope entirely in this world.  Only if we have some kind of hope that goes beyond what this world has to offer can we make ourselves capable of this kind of service.

Anyway, that’s how we persevere in the world in hope — through love.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we are all called to martyrdom.  But our job is to effect the “Christification” of the world — that is, bringing Christ to the world and the world to Christ.  And self-forgetting love is what Christ’s very life is all about.

So we are to passionately care for the world and for the communities and cultures in which we live; but our care for these should be directed toward a higher hope, rather than our higher hope being forced to fit into the narrow confines of this world.

And that higher hope is Love Himself.

And now, if it’s all the same to you, let us hang up the bat cape.

Image of Batoni’s “Sacred Heart” from Wikipedia; other images obtained through a Google image search.

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Utopia, Dystopia, and Tanscendence in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

This is the third installment of my commentary on Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises.”  Here are the links to the first and second posts, respectively:

DVD Review: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

Hope in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

I left off with a discussion of hope among the prisoners who watch Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) climb the dungeon wall and escape through the round window far above.

But imagine for a moment that someone was able to take the prisoners’ attention off of the light that shines from above.  Imagine someone getting them to focus instead on the reflections of that light on the prison walls.

Pushing the envelope even further, imagine this nameless intruder taking advantage of their love of these reflections and persuading them that they can actually turn the prison cell into the equivalent of what is outside — that is to say, a place that can generate its own natural sunlight, its own oxygen, its own sources of natural sustenance, etc.

Fix this scenario firmly in your mind, and you will get a sense of the great evil of Bane’s (Tom Hardy) project.

This world is not a bad place, nor is the Christian vocation to escape from it.  God created the world and everything in it, and all things remain fundamentally good.  But at the same time, as St. Paul says,

…creation was made subject to futility (Romans 8:20).

Happily, that’s not the end of the story.  St. Paul continues…

…not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.  We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.  For in hope we were saved” (Romans 8:20-24) (italics mine).

That last sentence is particularly important.  As mentioned in the previous post, man’s ultimate hope lies not in this world, but in the “new heavens and new earth” to come.

Far from bringing out the best in humanity and what this world has to offer, the movement toward an earthly paradise actually arrests the journey toward fulfillment in Christ and perverts the here-and-now by forcing the present world to take on a role it cannot possibly fulfill.

Hence, you have the dystopic vision of society — a vision to a certain extent realized in Communist and other totalitarian societies in the past half century.

Only those who know they are in prison can truly have hope.  Only those who know the realities of sin and death, and of being part of a world “subject to futility,” are ready to receive the peace that can only come from a Divine Savior.

But if you can take the prisoners’ focus off of the light that shines from above, you can warp even that most fundamental human hope for deliverance.  And that’s exactly what the devil, the supreme enemy of mankind, would like to do.

Thankfully, our world has a savior infinitely greater than Batman.  Let us therefore be vigilant in…well, hope!

But how do we do that?  What does this mean concretely?  I think I’ll need to do a fourth post to address that one (and I should warn people that there is a major spoiler ahead).

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Body and Soul

Before I conclude my ruminations on “The Dark Knight Rises,” I wanted to spend some time explaining the Catholic understanding of the relationship between the body and the soul.  We’ll just be skimming the surface, but it will be enough for the topic we’re dealing with.

Actually, it’s probably a good idea to start with what the body/soul relationship is not.  A common misconception — one that, while having existed in some form or other for thousands of years, was really codified in the West by seventeenth-century French philosopher René Descartes — is the “ghost in the machine” view, which essentially says is that only the soul is the real person, whereas the body is just a shell.  Death, in this context, is merely the soul’s escape from the body, which can be cast off like used clothing.

And that’s one of the more generous conceptions of the body that are out there.  There are older gnostic philosophies that see the body — and with it, the material world — as evil, illusory, and to be shunned.

Unfortunately, there have been forms of Puritanism that have tried to infuse Christianity with similar conceptions of the body.

But from a Catholic viewpoint, this is far from the truth.  As a human being, your body is more than just a “shell.”  It is, in fact, you.

True, the body is not the whole of the human person — man has a spiritual as well as a physical component.  But the uniqueness of the human being among all living beings God created is that we are a blend of both the physical and the spiritual.  We are neither pure matter like animals and inanimate objects, nor pure spirits like the angels.

It is true that the soul is separated from the body at death.  But we have to remember that this is not man’s natural state.  It is a consequence of original sin.

As Christians, we believe that the soul is redeemed in Baptism.  The body, however, is not yet redeemed; it must go through natural death.

But this is not because the body does not share in redemption.  Indeed, at the end of time every human being will share in the resurrection of the body…

Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:2 — NIV).

This discussion opens up a host of other possible discussions about the nature of the soul, eternal life, etc.  But again, I’m just providing a snapshot of the subject to prepare for the final installment of my “Batman” commentaries (which will deal with a proper understanding of ultimate hope and how it relates to this world).

I still intend to have that available by tomorrow night.  But as always, if things change, I’ll let you know.  Thanks for reading.

Images from Wikipedia

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In Praise of ‘Jig’

Just tonight, I saw the 2011 documentary “Jig,” which chronicles the 40th annual “Irish Dancing World Championships.”

I won’t say much about it, other than to say that it gives the lie to the idea that all such competitions are like “Toddlers in Tiaras” or other such foolish shows.  The children and teens featured in this film behave with great poise, discipline, and respect.

For that reason, I think many people would find the film to be a breath of fresh air.

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