Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, January 6, 2000
The Southern Cross, Page 9
Images that penetrate
the conscience
By Father Eugene LaVerdiere, SSS
Catholic News Service
q
k-/ ome images transform the
world.
I think of a photo depicting an ex
ecution in a Vietnamese village. As I
remember it, a soldier was shooting a
kneeling man point blank in the head.
The photo bridged the distance be
tween America and Southeast Asia. It
brought the war to every town and
neighborhood.
Everyone could identify personally
with the kneeling man as his head
recoiled. Around the world, the photo
galvanized people of good will against
war itself. As a leaven, the photo im
age penetrated our conscience, pro
claiming: “War is not human!”
Some images are like leaven, pen
etrating a culture, as yeast permeates
dough.
At the end of World War II, my dad
took me to see a newsreel on the open
ing of the Nazi concentration camps.
The camera followed the first Allied
soldiers into the camps.
The images of the piles of discarded
bodies and the emaciated, naked men
and women are still with me. At the
time I was only 8.
Like a leaven, these images pen
etrated every part of my being. I still
ask, “How could human beings do this
to a human being?”
Christian images and symbols can
also transform the world.
Think of crowded churches on Ash
Wednesday. We live in a cosmetic,
escapist culture. Usually, we do not
face our mortality. But on Ash
Wednesday, everyone wants to be
signed on the forehead with ashes.
The ashes on our foreheads are a
countercultural sign, proclaiming to
everyone who can see that we are hu
man and mortal, reminding everyone
that we were formed from dust and
will return to dust.
The New Testament images of
Jesus nailed on the cross inspired art
ists and sculptors for 2,000 years.
Their work is a symbol of forgiveness
and salvation.
The crucifix evokes Jesus’ dying
words, “Father, forgive them, they
know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). The
crucifix also evokes the words of the
“good” criminal: “Jesus, remember me
when you come into your kingdom” (Lk
23:42). Everyone remembers Jesus’ re
sponse, “I say to you, today you will be
with me in paradise” (Lk 23:43).
The image of the infant Jesus lying
in a manger also inspired artists from
the beginning. Usually, a manger is a
/ place for cattle feed. But Mary placed
the Son of God in a manger because
there was no place for them in the city
of David.
All contents copyright©1999 by CNS
Lying in a manger, Jesus was a
homeless child. And in his ministry
Jesus was homeless. We read in the
Gospel, “Foxes have dens and birds of
the sky have nests, but the Son of God
has nowhere to rest his head” (Lk 9:58).
Here are two points to reflect upon:
—From the beginning, the church
has been a promoter — a builder — of
human culture. Promoting artists
and writers, the church has been a
friend of culture. Think of the Gos
pels. Think of the earliest art in the
Romans’ catacombs.
—At the same time, the church
called every culture to repent and be
lieve in the Gospel, inspiring artists
with the New Testament images of
Jesus on the cross or lying in a man
ger. As such, we can describe the
church as countercultural.
In each case, the church calls every
one of us to be a genuine human being.
Proclaiming the Gospel with im
ages, the church is calling every cul
ture to be a genuine human culture.
Some images can transform the
world. The church knows that.
(Father LaVerdiere, a Blessed Sac
rament priest, is a Scripture scholar
and senior editor of Emmanuel
magazine.)
FAITH INTHE MARKETPLACE
How can someone like you
contribute in specifically
Christian ways to building
up your world?
“I think the Scriptures and
the church are clear in asking
us to take care of the needy....
As long as we address the needs
of those less fortunate, we are
doing what we need to do.” —
Moe Wosepka, Helena, Mont.
“We need to give (youth and
young adults) ways that let
them express their faith.
Anyone looking to help the
church must look to helping
these young people.” — Jeannie
Weber, LaCrosse, Wis.
“As a lay high school youth
director, I can do this by being
a role model for the high school
young people I work with, ...
living out the faith that I
profess to them each week in
our small group meetings.” —
Dave Geist, Dodge City, Kan.
“Assisting the poor to assist
themselves. I think that by
giving to them in education and
work skills, I can help many
people who in turn can then help
others.” — Madeleine
Blankenship, Charleston, W. Va.
An upcoming edition asks: What goal
are you setting this Lent — and why?
If you would like to respond for
possible publication, please write:
Faith Alive! 3211
Fourth St. N.E.,
Washington, D.C.
20017-1100.
Ina Nutshell
The Jubilee Year 2000 “is not just a series of functions..., but
a great interior experience” to live, Pope John Paul II wrote.
Christ more and more penetrates humanity’s life, the pope
wrote in first announcing the jubilee. Reflecting upon this, he
suggested, helps us to appreciate “the Gospel parable of the
leaven (cf. Mt 13:33).”
As leaven in society, Christians should be “builders of hope,”
the pope said in one speech.
Transforming the ordinary
into something life-giving
By Mary Jo Pedersen
Catholic News Service
tan in color and smells awful! When
you mix it with warm water it forms a
distasteful looking paste. But oh what
that yeast does to a bowl of flour, salt
and a little oil!
My grandmother lived next door,
and she baked bread regularly when I
was growing up. I remember standing
homes every day.
The family is the first place we learn
to be leaven for the world. You can see
it in the patient efforts of parents teach
ing a 2-year-old to share his toys or an
aging husband feeding an invalid wife.
Children learn how to be yeast for
others by watching their parents work
hard for their benefit and spend time
with them when they have homework
or are sick. Children learn to be yeast
by acting responsibly and respectfully
toward each other.
CNS photo by W. P. Wittman Limited
on a chair at her kitchen table “help
ing” her mix the brown smelly yeast
solution into a large bowl of flour.
This was a messy ordeal. I wouldn’t
touch the gooey mix until she had it
mixed together and was kneading it.
After the first kneading, the bread
“rested” atop the warm oven. I remem
ber tucking it under a thick towel to
keep it warm and un
disturbed.
And no one could
let a cool breeze into
the kitchen or jump
around the stove dur
ing the second or
third rising. We were
not to “scare” the
dough.
A hot oven would
finish the process,
with the awful smell
of yeast giving way to
the unforgettable fragrance of fresh
baked bread!
I never hear the parable of the yeast
in Matthew’s Gospel without thinking
of these miraculous transformations in
Grandma’s kitchen.
As families hear the jubilee-year in
vitation to become leaven for the world,
they might take comfort in knowing
that the messy but transforming work
of leaven already is occurring in most
Something messy and unjust can be
transformed into something beautiful
and life-giving by these ordinary ac
tions.
There are plenty of opportunities for
becoming leaven in neighborhoods and
parishes. Neighbors watch out for each
other’s mail when someone is travel
ing, take meals to each other when
there is sickness or a
crisis; our parish
stocks a pantry in the
city that serves im
migrant families and
has an organized out
reach to families in
need.
In baking bread,
yeast comprises only
2 percent of the
dough’s weight. It
doesn’t take much to
do a lot!
For most folks, leavening happens
in ordinary ways in messy situations.
It occurs quietly, by the power of the
Holy Spirit, when people respond to
Christ’s invitation to transform the
ordinary into something life-gi v ing.
(Pedersen is coordinator of the
Leadership in Family Life Training
Program for the Archdiocese of
Omaha, Neb.)
hen you mix (yeast)
with warm water it forms
a distasteful looking
paste. But oh what that
yeast does to... flour, salt
and a little oil!”