Life Sells

An earlier version of this Worth Revisiting post first appeared as a part of my Sunday Snippets post on 1 February 2015 on the blog Principium et Finis. To enjoy the work of other faithful Catholic bloggers please see Worth Revisiting Wednesday, hosted by Elizabeth Reardon at theologyisaverb.com and Alison Gingras at reconciledtoyou.com.

Tim Tebow

      This coming Sunday, as Americans and those who follow American football will know, is “Super Bowl Sunday”, when the National Football League has its annual championship game.  Since this sporting event typically has a larger television audience than any other program throughout the year, advertisers pay enormous amounts of money for advertising time during the game. Over the years they have concocted increasingly bizarre commercials in order to catch the attention of that massive audience: twenty years ago an ad featuring an alligator and some frogs stealing a case of beer to the tune of Bob Marley's "Jammin'" [here] was a big hit; this year [2015] there will be an ad for ketchup and mustard [here] featuring dachshunds running around wearing hot dog buns (I'm not sure how appetizing most people will find it); over the past few decades there have been countless commercials that have gone as far as possible to employ the old advertising maxim, "sex sells" (sorry, no link to those).  The curious result has been, at least in years when the action on the field hasn't been particularly arresting, most of the chatter the next day is about the ads and not the game itself.
     Interestingly, the most discussed commercial seven years ago was not bizarre at all: it simply showed a mother talking about her son [here] (o.k., he does appear to tackle her at the end, but that’s pretty tame for a Superbowl commercial).  The mother was Pam Tebow and her son, Tim, had just compiled one of the most spectacular college football records in memory (which, unfortunately, would not translate into comparable success as a professional).  The reason why this ad was more controversial than all those others ones filled with innuendo and grotesquery is that it was a pro-life ad.  Mrs. Tebow was talking about why she did not follow doctors’ advice and abort the baby who later became one of the most celebrated college athletes ever.  That, apparently, was shocking.

Avita Grace Wood

    

     Now, a few years later, comes the story of another child, Avita Grace Wood, whose life was saved by the same commercial.  Her mother, Susan Wood, had agreed to abort the unborn Avita, at the insistence of her boyfriend, the child’s father.  After seeing the Pam Tebow commercial, however, Susan changed her mind and chose life (full story here). As in the case of the numerous accounts of women who chose not to abort because of 40 Days for Life and other pro-life efforts, we are reminded that our faith, prayer, and witness can change hearts and save lives.  We just need to keep moving the ball down to the field.

10th Day of Christmas: A God the Unexpected

The Mighty God: The Birth of Christ by Federico Barocci

    Merry Christmas!   Today is the Tenth Day of Christmas.  This is a good day to reflect on the fact that the God revealed in the Nativity is a God who defies our expectations.  Who would expect the infinite, almighty Deity to manifest himself as a tiny baby, born in a cattle stall with the beasts? Who would have thought that wise and exalted visitors would come to this baby from strange lands many miles away with their rich gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, as we will commemorate Sunday in the liturgical celebration of Epiphany?

     Nor did the child grow up to be the sort of Messiah that people expected, not even his own disciples: he rebukes Peter, his chief Apostle, with “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23) because the man who will become the first Pope can’t accept that The Christ must suffer and die in order to save humanity.  And nobody on earth was really expecting what happened on Easter Sunday.

     Of course, none of the above should have been a surprise: it was all foretold by the Prophets, as we saw over and over again in the Advent readings and prayers.  In other words, he’s a God Of The Unexpected mostly because we insist on setting ourselves up to be taken by surprise. But that’s the way we imperfect, broken human beings are: we think we can simply make reality be what we want it to be . . . but God usually has other plans. 

     We can glimpse something of this stubborn arrogance in the story of two of today’s Saints, Zosimus and Athanasius (n.b. – this Athanasius is not the more well-known Athanasius of Alexandria):

Zosimus and Athanasius (d.303) + Martyrs in Cilicia (modern Turkey). They were executed during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305). According to one account, Zosimus was tortured and Athanasius, a witness, was so moved that he converted to the faith. Both were then tortured but survived and died in peace after being released. They became hermits. (from www.Catholic.org )

The Roman authorities thought that, if they were brutal enough, they would discourage people from embracing Christianity, but – surprise! – seeing the torture of Zosimus instead drew Athanasius to the Faith.  And his is not an isolated incident: “The blood of the martyrs”, wrote Tertullian, “is the seed of the Church.” Up to the present day, we see that Christianity is strongest when it is under attack.

     We would do well to remember these things when we contemplate the Child in the Manger.  However bad, even disastrous, things may seem (and in a world insistently moving further away from God, they do), we should remember that the same child grows up to promise that the Gates of Hell will not prevail against his Church (Matthew 16:18).  
     Prepare yourself for the unexpected.

9th Day of Christmas: Two Doctors and the Best of 2016

Merry Christmas!  

Today is the 9^th Day of Christmas, and the Memorial of two Doctors of the Church, St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen.  

It is also the first day of the Christmas Season that is not a Solemnity, but don’t let that get you down: I’ve included a rousing version of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” below.  After that, for those who are interested, is a selection of a few of my favorite posts from 2016 - who knows? You might find something interesting.  Oh, and have a Happy New Year!

Below are a "baker's dozen" of posts from last year, both from this blog and my original blog, Principium et Finis.  Hope you like them, and stick with us in 2017!

8 Feb - Some people get very upset when an ad hawking tortilla chips implies that unborn babies might be, you know, human:  “Life Sells Chips (or, Chips Sell Life)” PF

29 Feb - Whoever said the age of miracle is over hasn’t been paying attention to the news: “Seen Any Miracles Lately?” PF

21 March - So, who’s the real prodigal in the story, and who is the worse sinner? “Confession, Jonah, & the Prodigal’s Sons” PF

10 April - The Franciscan Nun who founded EWTN and long-time sports broadcaster Joe Garagiola both died in the same week; they may have more in common than you realize: “Mother Angelica & Brother Joe” ND

1 May - There be Dragons everywhere you look - just ask St. George, Michael Voris, and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: “Fighting Dragons, Inside and Out” ND

21 May - Sharing the Good News is not a microaggression, but Mercy isn’t always easy: “Evangelization, Prayer, & the Spiritual Works of Mercy” ND

27 June - A meditation on love, murder, and a home-town Civil War Mystery: “Charleston, the Stranger & Orlando: The Power of Forgiveness” ND

7 October - Ok, you thought that you’d seen it all, didn’t you? Well, guess what . . . “The Satan Club: One H@!! of an After School Club for Children” ND

16 October - How rational is it to think we can build a perfect world without The Way, The Truth, and The Life? “Slavery in Rationalia” ND

23 October - In which I argue that the Church really does have something to say about wearing underwear as outerwear and women’s MMA fighting: “Has Modesty Become A Dirty Word? Yoga Pants, Cage Fighting & Catholic Teaching” ND

8 November - You’ve gotta serve somebody, people, but there’s only one Master who can give you true freedom: “Prophet Samuel,The Candidates, & the Letter to Diognetus” ND

13 November - Just when you thought people couldn’t get any more crass . . . vasectomy showers! “A Tribute Vice Pays to Itself (Vasectomy Showers, etc.)” ND

3 December -  How an episode of Star Trek illuminates the priest’s traditional orientation at Mass: “Darmok and Jalod Ad Orientem” ND