If Anyone Would Come After Me...

I grew up Catholic. I went to Catholic schools. I have an aunt that's a nun. I am familiar with Catholic culture. I will still sometimes say "we" when referring to something Catholic. I don't know how legitimate that last one is but I can speak with some confidence about some things Catholic with a bit of an insider's perspective and as a theologian in pupal form... I think that last bit would work better spoken. Anyway, things Catholic: Catholics know death.

When I was making the transition from one church community to another, even sometimes now, I am surprised by the Protestant leap to Easter Sunday. Maybe it comes from not having a liturgical calendar. Maybe it comes from knowing an empty cross versus a crucifix. Maybe it's Luther's fault. Maybe it's a function of being a modern post-industrial economic superpower that death seems so far from us in general. Maybe it's a back and forth, round and round web of all these things and more. Catholics know death, Protestants know the resurrection. How's that for a sweeping generalization that misses the particulars and diversity of those traditions?

It's sometimes a strange thing when there's a move to recover the crucifixion in a Protestant context. The Gospel according to Mel was a gorefest especially popular among Evangelicals. Every year at this time, the alumni magazine put out by a local Evangelical university reprints a medical examination of the crucifixion. There's a desire to know just how much Jesus went through. It seems as if there is a need to know how much pain Jesus would have endured so we can feel sorry for him, or say, "How sad that is." "How awful, he was such a good guy." "Isn't it just horrible?"

There's a brief glance at death then a leap to an empty tomb. But do an empty cross and an empty tomb have us simply say, "My goodness, that death was so awful. Thank God that's been done for me."? It seems that it would be difficult, when it's a once a year novelty or an infrequent observation, to take the next step- to say, "I did this," and then to say, "This is mine, as well."

We're still busy dying. We're still sand in a sieve. Jesus doesn't answer "Are you not the Christ!? Save yourself and us." But bearing our own cross, he says, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

An empty cross and an empty tomb only mean something when we know both were used exactly as they were meant to be.

And Now, Young Jedi, You Will Die
The Thing-Pixies
F**k the System- System of a Down
Livin' Thing- ELO
Daria- Cake
Similau- Esquivel
Clint Eastwood- Gorillaz
Lullabye- Ben Folds Five
O Mio Babbino Caro- Schicchi
I Ain't Marchin' Anymore- Phil Ochs
City of Blinding Lights- U2
Luna- Smashing Pumpkins
Shrink- Dead Kennedys