Sin in Storytelling

Last year I joined a local chapter of the national book club titled Well-Read Moms. (Disclaimer: I am not a literal mom, but I like to believe I live out the charism of spiritual motherhood through my students and my choir.)

 The club has been a really positive experience, and the books we read last year were enjoyable and edifying -- even Charles Dickens' Hard Times and George Eliot's Middlemarch... which I am still slogging through... but I digress. 

We are currently gearing up for the first book of the new year, a one-act play by Margaret Edson titled Wit (or W;t, depending on what edition you are reading). However, as we begin to delve into the work, one of the mothers in the group posited the following question: 

"In the play 'Wit', a character uses the phrase G--D--- several times. The character is not a Christian. One mother feels that Wit should not have been chosen since it takes the name of the Lord in vain. Her thought was that as a group for busy moms, the organizers of the club should have had a higher standard and found a different work on the same topic. What do you think?"

I was immediately reminded of the criticism that Flannery O'Connor received for her short stories. Although most of these stories are violent as well as dark, she always includes a moment of grace to which the main character must respond in some way, shape, or form. The main character may choose to reject this moment of grace, but it is there for the taking. 

Flannery O'Connor, 1925-1964.

Flannery O'Connor's stories portray the true order of the universe, for where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. God is ever reaching out to the human person in love, offering them moments to repent and to believe in the Gospel. At the Incarnation, God Himself entered into the sinful messiness of the human world, taking on flesh so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. But ultimately, it is the choice of the individual to accept His offer. 

When it comes to whether or not a book should be read and recommended by Catholics, the most important thing is whether or not the book proclaims the truth about the human condition and the spiritual order, for while there is sin, there is also grace. Both forces are at play, but the grace of God always prevails. 

There are plenty of books in great literature that contain sin, whether or not it's taking the Lord's name in vain or committing murder or adultery. Crime and Punishment is about a homicide. Does that mean we shouldn't read it? Solzhenitsyn's famous short story, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich also contains profanity and blasphemy, but it honestly and brutally portrays life in a gulag, as the book gives a concise but brilliant testament to the evils of the Communist Regime in the Soviet Union. 

In sum, while it is possible for the portrayal of sin in storytelling to become gratuitous or over-the-top, it's important to portray the world honestly, and honesty requires the acknowledgement that we live in a fallen world, where sin and evil manifest themselves in various forms. However, evil must be counter-balanced by a poignant moment of grace. 

I am eager to see how the two forces are at play in Edson's Wit. 

The Master is Here...

A stained glass window from the neo-gothic chapel at
Kilmore Abbey, Ireland

A passage from Dom Mark Daniel Kirby's homily on the Gospel for this previous Sunday, The Raising of Lazarus. First of all, I have to say that St. John's Gospel is my favorite Gospel. St. John's Gospel is the Gospel of the Theologian. There is a reason why he is symbolized by an eagle - because his gospel soars above the others in its beauty and depth. (I am not trying to belittle the other Gospels though - each has their own unique purpose and beauty about them in their portrayal of the saving work of Christ). This is one of my favorite passages in St. John's though, and in Scripture as a whole. I think it is partly because of its use in Dostoyevski's novel Crime and Punishment. In a poignant scene in the book, the heroine Sonya reads the Raising of Lazarus to Raskolnikov in the hopes of awakening him to his need for repentance, to his need to be awakened from the spiritual death of grave sin to the life of grace in Christ. There are so many little moments, though, within the story that are overlooked as we pay attention to the climax of the narrative when Our Lord calls to Lazarus to come forth. Here are a couple moments Fr. Kirby speaks of in his homily:

"There is much in today's Gospel that solicits my attention and almost begs to be preached. There is, for instance, the message sent to Jesus by Martha and Mary,
the model of all intercessory prayer: "Lord, behold him whom Thou lovest is sick."
How like the prayer of the Mother of God at Cana is this prayer of two women, friends of Jesus,fully confident in His response even before He gives it. "They have no wine." (Jn 2:3) "Lord, behold him whom Thou lovest is sick." There is no need to say more. A prayer of intercession patterned after this prayer cannot fail to touch the Heart of Jesus.

I could also linger over the message that Martha whispers into Mary's ear: "The Master is here, and calleth for thee." (Jn 11:28) This is the very message that everything in our churches whispers to the believing heart: the doors of the Church says it, the Holy Water at the entrance of the Church says it, the flicker of the sanctuary lamp says it,
the centrality of the tabernacle says it. "The Master is here, and calleth for thee." (Jn 11:28) How can you or I remain indifferent to such an appeal?"

-Dom Mark Daniel Kirby.