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O'Malley's Best The Perversity of God This Kingdom-Party Jesus speaks of which so many of “the best people in society” shun is clearly the Christian community–here and hereafter. Part of me applauds the host’s tastelessness in opening the invitation list to the down-to-earth folks from the byroads and corner bars. The best wedding reception I ever attended was not in a chi-chi country club but a Ukranian church hall with pasta and beer and a polka band. However, there’s part of me–the part of me that outgrew that callow boy from the blue-collar Buffalo family, the carefully manufactured sophisticate who learned the difference between Dewars and Clan McGregor and between Matisse and Mondrian, and important rules like never wearing white trousers after Labor Day– that valued part of me becomes a tad apprehensive about God’s lack of, well, refinement. “I mean, how will one deal with...well, people who aren’t at all like, uh, oneself?”If we had some kind of laser vision that would allow us to discern the people in a subway car or on the street who are–under the near-infinite disguises–full-fledged participants in the Kingdom of God, I imagine we’d be at least somewhat taken aback. “My God! You don’t mean she is actually....” And the surprise–indeed, revulsion–will probably increase in proportion to our submission to the cultivated world’s criteria for acceptability. Some, I think (and I don’t exclude myself), will wonder if we haven’t awakened in a heaven directed by Frederico Fellini or in the bar scene in “Star Wars.” Innumerable (and unnerving) grotesques. All the village idiots in the world will be there, of course–in reserved seats, close to the Host and the band. And a lot of freaks only a few of us have ever looked at closely in soup kitchens and charity wards. The wrinkled old lady with the ratty fur piece who frequents selected garbage cans and the old wino with his Sneaky Pete in a brown paper bag. Almost certainly some are going to be wiping their hands in embarrassment on the damask table cloths. Beyond doubt all the kids will be there who wondered why the labels “xxxx” and “slut” scalded them so fiercely–before they even knew what those words meant or what kind of people “deserved” them. And every single person who was ever told, “You’re funnylookin’!” There’ll be a lot of folks who tried their damnedest to give up on life–but who just couldn’t. Jesus actually specifies that prostitutes and embezzlers will surely be there and treated preferentially. And right back to the beginning of the Bible, the Host shows a perverse predilection for aliens. As I wrote this, I kept thinking of Melanie Wilkes in “Gone with the Wind,” a most proper Southern lady going out to sit in a carriage with the whore who had saved Melanie’s husband from the Yankees. Maybe “perverse” is the wrong word, but it’s in the right direction. Okay. Well, I suppose we just have to live with the God we have. And perhaps it might be wise to make friends with initially unattractive people if we’re inevitably going to spend all eternity making merry with them in the biggest damn Ukranian church hall we’ve ever seen. But there’s something else troublesome about that parable. Why does Jesus mess up the symmetry of a perfectly well constructed (if disturbing) story with that afterthought misfit at the end? It makes no sense (at first). Everybody at the party is a misfit! Why single out this one? Some interpreters say the Jewish custom was to have proper clothing on hooks by the door for those unable to afford them. Yeah, right. And all the Jewish mamas at the multiplication of the loaves and fishes had brought hidden caches of food! And when Peter and Jesus were walking on the water it was because a whale had thrust itself up in the Lake of Tiberias. Why do well-intentioned interpreters think they have to justify the Son of God? I think he put that unacceptable misfit in because he was a master psychologist. He knew there’d be loophole-seekers and cynics and minimalists who would say, “Hell! Then God forgives everybody, no matter what! If God is that slipshod in his requirements, why not have it all? Live the unapologetic life!” I think Jesus realized there’d be endless self-deceptions–people who buy their way with counterfeit credentials–people who wear crucifixes and stars of David as talismans, people who sign into hospitals as “Catholic” when they haven’t prayed since school. People convinced they can charm their way past whoever guards the pearly gates the same way they used to get past the bouncers in dance clubs. I also think of the people Jesus himself simply could not forgive–not because he didn’t want to, but because they refused to accept that they needed forgiveness. The self-righteous, the puritans, the judgmental who validate their own worthiness by contrasting themselves with the unworthy. The pharisaic In-Crowd, gnostic, witheringly patronizing. And yet...and yet, I think some divine perversity has rubbed off on my soul without my realizing. (Don’t tell the inquisitor types this, okay?) From what I’ve grasped from the New Testament not only of Jesus’ lack of discrimination but also his persistence, I have a hunch the Host is going to sneak out from the party into the night where the rejected misfit is wailing and grinding his teeth, and squat next to him, loosening his bonds, and say, “Okay, would you like to talk about this situation? Before we make this permanent, I want to make sure you understand. I don’t work on deadlines. I’ve got all the time in the world.” At my worst, I can even imagine God–when the Final Trumpet has faded away–winging down to hell and sitting in Satan’s office, saying, “Okay, now you’ve had a very, very long time to re-think this whole thing, right, and a lot of unpleasant experiences? Can we talk?” If I–who am only minimally astute–can imagine that, I simply have to suspect that it must have occurred to God. |
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Copyright © 2008, McQuaid Jesuit |
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