Anyway, just who said Jesus is a mummy's boy …
or a socialist ... or a capitalist?
Friday, 20th April 2007

Dear friends,

The video I provided a link to on the forum yesterday has led to a fair bit of interest judging by the number of hits it has received. I honestly don't know if it was originally created as a send-up or was produced with the serious intent as some sort of training video to show seminarians how to set up an altar and how to conduct themselves in the worship of Jesus.

The experience of watching the video though leaves me wondering: exactly what is the picture of Jesus these men have in their minds when they engage in these activities? Whom are they worshipping? Whom are they inviting the faithful to worship?

Yesterday on CathNews you might have caught the website review about a new movie called "The Call of the Entrepreneur". A number of neo-conservative American Catholics have come together to produce this documentary which, I gather, argues the importance of entrepreneurs and capitalism from within a Christian and Catholic context. I have to confess I am not averse to arguing that we need entrepreneurs in society who generate the ideas, and are able to marshall capital in ways that enable large scale enterprises to be built. At the same time I do not hold to some kind of Catholic Calvinist view that envisages Jesus as some kind of friend of the wealthy, of capitalists and philanthropists to the exclusion of, or in preference to, others.

The on-going debate over Liberation Theology, at its heart, takes issue with the interpretation some put on Jesus as wanting to see him as some kind of political revolutionary and socialist.

Isn't the picture confusing? What is the true picture of Jesus? Is he none of these things, all of these things, or some super-amalgam of the lot?

What is your picture of Jesus?

Is Jesus some kind of mummy's boy, social conformist inviting all of us to be goody-two shoes who run around sucking up to the authority figures in society? Is he some friend to the rich and powerful in society because they're the one's who "get things done" and who create the wealth and jobs that enables society to feed the poor and disadvantaged? Or is this Jesus we are invited to worship some bohemian, sandal-clad hippie, anti-establishment socialist who rails against "the system", "the establishment" and the "institution"?

These are not the only pictures of Jesus we present to the world are they? We also have the image of the "meak and mild", wouldn't hurt a fly, Mr Nice-Guy, who is everybody's friend and who would never say anything to offend anybody.

What's the true picture of Jesus? What sort of picture does the institutional Church present to the world of this man, Jesus, whom we invite people to listen to and to follow? Do we all tend to envisage Jesus through the lens of our own political outlook, our own psychological outlook, or where we see ourselves positioned in the social pecking order?

Let us hear your views in the Catholica forum.

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life, and in our world,

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher
Catholica Australia