Murder in the Cathedral

Today, for most, movie theaters are the cathedrals of America. We go there to be inspired, to be shown big themes, to live life through the big screen and surround sound with fellow parishioners. 


There is no doubt that James Holmes imbued deeply in film. For him to put himself on the stage of the murderous cinematic altar suggests that the world of movie and film was a place where he spent a great deal of time, energy, and imagination. So, in some macabre mash-up, the religious formalism of his background (I had a premonition that the Colorado killer had a church background) and where he worshiped (film) merged into a horrific and destructive drama. Good and Evil, with evil prevailing. He fashioned himself the Joker.


Holmes is a highly intelligent young man, unusually bright even. Also, quiet and reserved. Monsters raged silently within years and finally busted through in a ferocity that is beyond frightening and frankly satanic. How  he was lured by Lucifer to play the demonic role, we may never know. But, we have good reason to be fearful of the world that his act represents. We know that our times are becoming unhinged. We can no longer dismiss such incidents as disparate and isolated events. They are now happening with a regularity that suggests such violence will now be the new norm on the daily news. Statistically, being the victim of such a rampage is pretty unlikely, but in the media world we all inhabit, it shall be part of the daily diet, different day.  


I have to wonder if he in his religious training ever pondered the Cross, the suffering of the Christ. Somehow James Holmes own evil never saw its consequence in the death of Jesus. The barbaric crucifixion of Christ, whose blood was shed for him. Was it, "Ho hum?"  


I am reading a book right now called "Owning Your Own Shadow" where the author Robert A. Johnson observes, "The Catholic Mass is full of the darkest things: there is betrayal, rejection, torture, death--and worse. All this leads to revelation but not until the dark side has been portrayed as vividly as possible. If one went to Mass in high consciousness one would tremble at the awfulness of it--and be redeemed by its balancing effect. The Mass lost most of its effectiveness when it was modernized and made to serve the cultural process. One ought to be pale with terror at the Mass."  


As a Protestant, I dispute the Roman Church's assertion that Christ is sacrificed in the the Mass over and over again, but I think Christian theology must continuously assert in its rituals and services that Christ did die, once for all, consistently and clearly. Somehow our theology of substitutionary atonement has become too antiseptic and sanitary, too clean and shiny. Not gory and bloody as it should be presented. Our sin is downplayed, defanged and dismissed, in our minds. But it still resides in our dark hearts unreconciled.  

Maybe evil will lose its magnetic seductive power when we truly experience what  it did to Christ...Son of God, innocent but given a criminal's death. Who is coming back again in judgment not as a passive Lamb but a ferocious Lion. Holmes smirk shall be smitten from his face on that day.          


Later in the book by Johnson, he explores the meaning of the T.S. Eliot's play "Murder in the Cathedral." where priest Thomas, who is on his way to being martyred, says:  "Temporal power, to build a good world, To keep order, as the world knows order Those who put their faith in worldly order Not controlled by the Order of God, In confident ignorance, but arrest disorder, Make it fast, bred fatal disease, Degrade what they exalt."


The author of the summary writes, "Here, Thomas asserts that the only order is that found in the will of God and that any attempt to stray from one's obedience to it can only result in the"fatal disease'' of chaos. Only God can provide any sort of harmony between one's temporal and spiritual lives and Thomas chooses to remain in the "confident ignorance" of one who does not know— but who nevertheless trusts—the force of Providence."


Order comes from God...as our culture leaves godliness behind, be assured that evil will rise. We want order without God. An Idol of Order actually. There is hope in Jesus, there is only hope in Jesus. I know that this in an uneven post...hell, it is an uneven world.