Paying Attention To The Sky

One of things that always surprised me about the passion was the prominence given to the ridicule Christ had to endure. It is something every schoolchild can associate with and is placed in the context of real physical abuse. The beating, the crowning of the thorns are also part of  being dressed in a “robe,” given a “scepter” and then being led around while his jailers jeered and ridiculed Him. And this stuff follows Him all the way to the Cross.

The gospels seem to be reminding us that this kind of abuse can be just as painful as the physical pain inflicted up our Lord. In fact, I don’t think it really has to tell us this, as deep within our hearts we all know this is true. Our most vulnerable part is our puny egos and for all of us who “creep our days, guarding our hearts from blows,” fated to die obscurely, the savagery of the ridicule our Lord endures makes the passion the most unendurably painful event in world literature. Everything else is mere prolix.

One wonders about the sanity of Tiger Woods these days – an intensely private and proud man of biracial ancestry, now unable to pass on to his children what his father gave him – a sense of pride and simple honesty. While the mass media calculates the losses in income to his “bottom line,” I can almost guarantee you that wherever Mr. Woods is hold up (reading comics and playing night golf according to last reports) the one thing he wants back is what he has lost forever.

For that assiduously burnished byproduct of his fame (“Nothing is more important than family”), meant more to him than all else. He could give a flying hoot about the money, believe me. However Tiger is forever in the public memory now proclaiming that the most important thing in life is skanks performing at your command.

Pity his wife and children. That’s all he is thinking about now. Which is why the appearance on Oprah and a sobbing mea culpa is pretty much a forgone conclusion. Yet when you think about who he is and his character, that appearance will crush him. TomCruise? He’d be on the couch bearing his tortured soul in a New York minute. Tiger Woods? I don’t think we have ever seen him.

But the question here also is what of us? We who deal in the endless Tiger jokes and guy banter. When is enough enough? When does Tiger become Christ like? We teach our children in school about bullying but then ceaselessly provide them with adult examples. What kid old enough to understand Jay Leno doesn’t take away the power of ridicule and its effectiveness at demeaning an opponent? This is why repentance works in America. It lets us off the hook, we’re the ones who need it.

Can there be anything farther from St. Thomas’ definition of love: “Loving the other as other.” With complete disregard for our own selves, truly letting the other be completely free to fulfill themselves. Ridicule is an almost exquisite extreme of this Christian view of love – it turns the other into caricature and object. Nowhere do I see this more fully played out in my experience than on so-called internet “Discussion Forums.”

And I am guilty more than most of using the sarcastic barb against those who jeer and use invective against the Catholic Church. I demand others listen to me as a Catholic and chafe when they misunderstand and accuse me of fundamentalist or Calvinist distortions. Rather than redouble my efforts to listen better to others or to more patiently explain my Church I clamor for my right to be heard and understood. Yes, there are those who throw rocks and ridicule Catholic teachings but they are the god-haters who have always been there but the more you truly listen the less of them there are.

Or am I being overly rosy here? Must be Christmas week.