“They say, ‘His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily
presence is weak, and his speech of no account.’”
So wrote the Apostle Paul describing the scuttlebutt about
himself in one of his periodic gusts of annoyance with the Church
at Corinth. The Corinthians had definite ideas about what an
apostle should look and sound like and Paul did not measure up in
their eyes. Part of the problem was that there seemed to be a
disconnect in the minds of the Corinthians between how Paul sounded
in print and the way he came off in person.
Communication wasn’t especially helped by the fact that the
Corinthians were pretty confident they were All That and that Paul
would really be improved if he would just listen to their
up-to-date theories. Throughout the correspondence that constitutes
1 and 2 Corinthians, you can see Paul patiently (and sometimes
not-so-patiently) attempting to shepherd a group of people who are
blissfully confident that they had it together.
The Corinthians brag about their tolerance of sexual immorality,
revel in class inequalities, pull their chins thoughtfully while
the latest philosopher tells them there is no resurrection from the
dead, resent Paul’s authority, are all excited about some new moral
theory that “Grace” = “Go Nuts and Do Whatever you Want!”, as well
as various other alarums and discursions that force the apostle to
put out a bunch of fires.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. The Corinthians sound
remarkably American. And as you survey the Mainstream Media (MSM)
coverage about Pope Benedict, who is visiting America this week,
what comes through again and again is that much of the MSM is
already weary of hearing what it has never yet heard.
Many come to bury Benedict, not to praise him, let alone listen
to him. Their minds are made up. Like the Far Side cartoon
about what we say and what dogs hear, much of the press coverage
will consist of TV spots which will consist pretty much of
regurgitations of The American Media Narrative on Benedict:
“Benedict blah blah blah Hitler Youth blah blah blah God’s
Rottweiler blah blah blah inflexible blah blah blah homosexuality,
divorce, women priests blah blah blah Vatican crackdown, etc. blah
blah.”
THIS WILL NOT be helped by the fact that we are a Paris Hilton
people meeting a Pope who expects us to think. Much of the media —
especially the visual media — finds this as hard as Barbie finds
math.
So large swaths of TeeVee America encounters the Pope’s visit on
exactly the same basis they encounter the Presidential race: “How
does the guy look? He has a German accent! His eyes are deep set! I
heard somewhere that he thinks only Catholics go to Heaven! I liked
John Paul II better because he had twinkly eyes.”
I wish it were not so, but the fact is a visual medium
encourages this sort of surface stimulus/response and discourages
large numbers of people from doing much else. Who has time for all
those encyclicals and all their big words?
Nonetheless, this Pope who believes so strongly in the
transformative power of the Holy Spirit appears to think that even
a Paris Hilton people can be granted the sight to see beyond the
tips of their own cosmetically-enhanced noses.
He comes to us in one of the darker hours of our history when we
are at war, the economy is in a shambles, the election is a choice
between Larry (D), Curly (D), and Moe (R), Solomonic judgments are
about to be made in the field of bioethics by the best court
prophets money can buy, the Church is wracked by scandal, and we
are preparing ourselves to cope with it all by watching That
Pregnant Guy on Oprah and dosing up on a cocktail of
Viagra and Ambien.
Will Benedict succeed in his mission to America? I suppose it
depends on what you mean by “succeed” and “mission.” Will he
succeed in making the world not be the world? No. Even Jesus
couldn’t do that. But then, that’s not the mission for either Jesus
or Benedict.
Will he succeed in preaching the gospel? Yes. Nothing can stop
that, including three nails and a lance.
MY OWN MODEST definition of “success” would include, as well, some
modest progress toward fulfillment of Shea’s Iron Law of
Media-Reported Benedictine Growth,
It states, “Whenever the MSM declares that Pope Benedict
has grown, undergone a dramatic change of course or gone a long way
toward accepting positions he once rejected this invariably means
the reporter or pundit who has discovered Benedictine ‘growth’ has
no clue whatsoever what Benedict (and often, the Catholic faith)
teaches and is only now discovering it.”
So I look forward to some dim recognition by the media that Pope
Benedict, while mysteriously choosing to remain Catholic despite
exposure to the bracing intellectual and spiritual winds blowing
from the summits of our Hiltonic media culture, still has some good
points and does not seem to be as mean and anti-intellectual as
member of our journalistic class have been assuring one another he
is.
This tiny movement of the grey matter, while no great shakes by
itself, could be a prelude to at least some of our chattering
classes attempting to familiarize themselves with the immense
oceans of light and lucidity that are his works. For though his
bodily presence may be “weak” (to use Paul’s term) or
“unphotogenic” (to use the language of the image-obsessed media),
his letters are indeed weighty and strong.
Strong enough, I pray, to speak to a culture that is desperately
in need of the clarity, humility, beauty, and love of Christ that
he preaches with such marvelous grace.
