Column New and old ways into universal truths
By JEANNETTE BATZ
Ive been reading Joseph
Campbell, mainly at the suggestion of a reviewer in this very publication.
Overall, its been a stimulating and delightful experience. Except for the
part where he says weve killed our metaphors, that we need new ones.
At first I nodded, stroked my chin, agreed as cautiously as a
white-wigged British magistrate. Then I realized what I was agreeing to. The
Garden of Eden, the Virgin Birth, transubstantiation, the end of the world --
all dead as doornails, stripped of relevance and resonance?
I think not.
Campbells premise was that for centuries, church theologians
have insisted on historicizing these metaphors, niggling over factual issues
impossible to resolve and draining their symbolic significance in the process.
Campbell believed the metaphors were now bled dry, and he was waiting eagerly
for replacements to spring from the current culture.
Im looking at our current culture, and Im not seeing
anything anywhere near as powerful. It does seem easier for people to recognize
Christ on the big screen in the Lord of the Rings than on the altar at
Mass. But thats not new metaphor, its just new presentation.
I turn to an old friend whos now Msgr. Jim Telthorst, pastor
of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. His blue eyes still startle me, he
still laughs with reassuring ease, and hes just as humble, smart and
clear-eyed as he was 31 years ago, when he taught religion at my grade school.
Fr. T. never made us choose between history and meaning.
Metaphor is not the denial of reality, he reminds me.
Its the way in. Because all the words fail. He begins to
chuckle, thinking of the way todays teenagers say, I was like
and never finish the sentence. Were starved
for metaphor, he says. We dont have any way to tell someone
were excited except to say, Oh wow. We say, He was like
Yeah? What was he like?
Everything is imaged for us, he finishes, gesturing
toward the TV flashing pixels in the restaurants bar. Were
empty.
Is that because the ground of our faith is dry and barren, I ask,
braver than I was in grade school. He meets my eyes. I am the Light of
the World, he replies gently. I am the Living Water. We both
know light still dawns, and water still refreshes.
Yes, weve hammered at historicity until we concussed it.
Yes, weve added and projected whatever meaning we needed onto
scriptures elegantly bare bones: Catholics reading teachings about the
Virgin Birth as proof that sex is filthy; Protestants reading the teaching of
transubstantiation as proof that Catholics are cannibals.
But misinterpretation doesnt mean we need to start from
scratch.
Maybe the Virgin Birth says we cannot save ourselves, cannot
find our own path out of the darkness, suggests Telthorst. Maybe
this is an image of God taking the necessary step. Maybe this is a symbol of
wonderful opening and surrender to God. Such readings dont place
the Virgin Birth outside historical truth -- and neither does its previous
existence as a symbolic motif in ancient cultures. Archetypes exist for a
reason: They capture universal truths.
And transubstantiation?
I do believe in the Real Presence, he says, and
there is foundation in scripture for everything I said. The church does not
teach that the bread is the physical presence of Jesus. It says that the
bread is no longer there as bread, but as the sacramental presence of Christ.
It is present as the saving moment of Christs death and
resurrection. He stops eating altogether, intent on making his point this
time around. We became rigid in thinking real equaled physical, he
explains. We have trouble probing the really real. Just because
somethings not physical doesnt mean its just a thought.
Words arent enough, he continues.
Thats why we need sacraments. Sacraments are metaphors acted out,
so that we might touch, hold onto and be drawn into the really real. Metaphor
brings two things together that were once distinct, and makes them a new
reality. Its not just a way to tease our imagination, he adds.
Its a way to deal with mystery, with a reality so profound that we
stumble trying to express it.
He sighs heavily, no doubt thinking of all the ways that what he
is saying now could be misunderstood. You know, a lot of this goes back
to different personalities, he says. The person who is
predominantly intuitive in the way they learn things is going to hear this
stuff and want more. The person who learns mainly through the senses is going
to want precise language and concrete, specific meanings. Its a world of
difference, and we drive each other crazy. Both extremes can do damage,
he says. The sensate wants to make an absolute out of the metaphor, and
the intuitive sometimes cheapens the metaphor by trying so hard to reach beyond
it.
Caught in the liturgical tug of war, the average Catholic feels
forced to choose between history and transcendence. Historicizing the sensate
path freezes the reality, distancing it and making us spectators instead of
participants. And reducing the metaphor to a simple sign or reminder, as
intuitives sometimes do, removes us from its full reality. Thus surveys came
back to the bishops saying people no longer believe in Real Presence -- all
because, in Telthorsts opinion, the question isnt being framed
right.
The sacrament doesnt just remind us of
Jesus. It exists so we might consume the Eucharist and become what we eat,
become Jesus presence in the world. If we stop short of that reality,
were still looking at Jesus as someone apart from us. We havent
become his presence. So, I prompt: Do we need new metaphors?
I dont know that I would rush to a new
mythology, he answers slowly. You cant just create one. After
Vatican II, we rushed out to create new symbols, and they were laughable.
He sets down his fork and smiles ruefully. I was part of that. But you
know, there really only are a few elemental, universal symbols -- like air,
fire, water, earth -- and bread.
Telthorst isnt looking for new symbols or myths, but he is
looking constantly for new ways into the old ones. Lately whats
helped me is the new cosmology, he says. Scientists describe the
center of the universe in a way that, for me, parallels Christs real
presence in the Eucharist. Theyre learning that the universe is still
moving, still growing, and they say they have discovered its omnicenter. One
guy gave an example: Put a lump of raisin-bread dough in the oven and it starts
expanding, and the raisins move outward along with it. Every raisin is the
center of that experience, feeling that movement. Every part of the universe is
experiencing the heart of the universe.
And every community that celebrates Eucharist together is
experiencing the same real presence, the same saving power, the same Lord who
is the Word through whom all has been created and all has been
redeemed.
I smile, feeling that pleasant closure of the circle, the arriving
back where we started, but happier for the journey. Telthorst and Campbell
might disagree about the steps, but theyre on the same path after all.
The shiny new metaphors of current physics do arrive free of historical
baggage, innocent and fresh, eager to be fathomed.
But they point to the very same truths.
Jeannette Batz is a staff writer for The Riverfront
Times, an alternative newspaper in St. Louis. Her e-mail address is
jeannette.batz@rftstl.com
National Catholic Reporter, March 15,
2002
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