On Chorus Call

 

Fake facts are not new. The Greek tragedies hinge on them. The gods are by no means predisposed to overlook them. Confronted by catastrophe, Chorus knows that every one shall be afflicted by the resulting fall.

Who believed history tucked safely into the past? Catastrophe overturns the existing order; fatal reversal. Chorus hears it in the death of Agamemnon: “Anyone can see it, by these first steps they have taken, they purpose to be tyrants here upon our city.”[i]  Chorus foresees, inquires, fears, recounts, witnesses, prophecies. “Where shall I turn the brain’s activity in speed when the house is falling?”

Jesus, also, faces his followers as prophet. In Wycliff’s translation: “Moreover when ye se the abominable desolacion, whereof is spoken by Daniel the prophet, stond where it ought nott, let hym that readeth it, understonde it.” (Mark 13:14) What is standing in the wrong place now?  Your role is Chorus: stay awake.  Meanwhile the disciples are absorbed by the problem of who is worthy.

You still have a spiritual life. What is the state of your soul? The great and troubling mysteries of Lent and Holy Week are before us. (Let whoever reads understand).

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[i]Aeschylus, Agamemnon, tr. Richard Lattimore.

On Many Calls

 

“Many are called, but few are chosen.” Although few are chosen, does this mean many are called? Many who were called did not turn up. The great audition lacked some otherwise ambitious performers. (That’s how you don’t get the job). When the choice is down, the call goes to whom you did not expect. All the usual suspects found somewhere else to be on the day when the Holy Spirit stood beside Paul and made the right call. For a while.

            You can choose or be chosen. Which is more worrying? Think of the last kid chosen for the sports team. (Suffer the little children). Is one choice better than the other? Many vocations, many locutions. Who has the choice to choose? Then who is called, and who’s called out?

            Out of court, out of time, out of options. Some shall be out, some shall be in. (In favour, in prison; in trouble, in luck.) Where Martha has many calls on her attention, Mary has one only. That’s just a fact: if Martha didn’t answer, dinner wouldn’t make it to the table. The dinner, the table, the bread, the wine. The gift. The last shall be first; the first last.