At Mass today (there was the usual "St. Anthony Tuesday" crowd), hearing the refrain "Body of Christ" over and over led me to reflect that this week in, in a most particular way, a week of focus on the Body of Christ: his own human body, subjected to so much, and his Mystical Body, the Church--with thousands of catechumens making their final preparations for Baptism. And that, in turn, led me to think about the upcoming "Da Vinci Code" movie. In a way, that, too, claims to be about the body of Christ, even if its adherents are willing to accept something less than the Eucharist/Church Body, and opt simply for a physical descendency. It is a measure of how culturally unaware people are that they believe it would have even occurred to the first generation of Jesus' followers to "cover up" what was and is the most expected, normal, unexceptional pattern for a person's life (marriage and children) and concoct the actual story we have in the Gospels, in which (I am not making this up) there are intimations that Jesus' celibate lifestyle set him up for ridicule as a "eunuch." Who would have made up that kind of hero in the year 33 A.D.?
No, the truth is really what you learned in second grade (hopefully!). Jesus did not leave us his progeny, he left us himself in the Eucharist and in the Church.
1 comment:
I read "The DaVinci Code" last summer and was largly unimpressed. I found it pedantic-- like I was being lectured by a smug professor. And the ending was very contrived. Everyone believes that I feel this way "...because you're soooo Catholic." OK I admit it!
---harv681
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