Abbey-Roads2

The Jews! The Jews!

Gibson had a bad-boy image all along - you saw “Mad Max” and “Road Warrior” - so he got a DUI. Who cares? John of the Cross says ‘esteem no man because the Devil will show you his faults’. He’s a celebrity, drank too much, and the police were on top of their job - they arrested him. I thought - big deal. Then I read remarks he made in a rage during the arrest process, for which he apologized when he sobered up. I expect he’ll go to Betty Ford and all the rest and make some grand overture to counteract his ant-semitic slurs. (What an ego for a short guy though, saying “I own Malibu.” and other power play phrases. Wow! People sure think they’re important. Money, money, money! Honor, honor, honor! Fame, fame, fame!)

Did you ever see his interview with Raymond Arroyo where he couldn’t sit still, acted like he had a twitch, and kept rubbing his hair? I thought he was on something, if not, just wierd. He’s no saint. people seeemed to want to canonize him for “The Passion of the Christ” - him and Cavesiel. Get out! (Katherine Hepburn was being interviewed once and asked why she did not live in Hollywood and questioned about what she thought of the acting community, she answered, “They’re pigs. They’re all pigs.” Words pretty hard to ignore from a Hollywood insider.)

What I find interesting with Gibson’s remarks however is how it is not that uncommon for the “devout” to harbor a deepseated, unexpected hostility towards Jews. I hear it almost every day; I’ve heard really good priests and nuns express mistrust as well as condemning remarks - it betrays at the very least a suspicion of Jews, if not down right anti-semitism. My dad called Jews “kikes” - Gibson’s dad blames them for pretty much everything wrong in the world. Gibson might have picked something up from his dad. Drunken remarks, like the proverbial “Freudian slip” can reveal alot about a person. Little more has to be said.

But don’t try to tell me “The Passion of the Christ” was an anti-semitic film - it wasn’t - the movie pretty much illustrates what happened to Christ. But don’t try to canonize the actors - or the director for that matter.

Feast day for the very, very nervous.

“Jeepers Richard! I’m nervous!” Madelaine Kahn’s character, Victoria Brisbane, from “High Anxiety.”

Everyone always likes to use Mary and Martha as examples for the so-called active and contemplative life. I cannot dispute the Fathers and all the other saints, if time allowed I would write how Teresa of Avila praised the so-called active life and called attention to its own unique contemplative qualities. Teresa of Calcutta and her sisters are marvelous examples of this. Enough said on that.

When it comes to Martha complaining about Mary not helping out when the Lord was at her house, I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t incited to do so by the men in Our Lord’s company who may have thought it unseemly for Mary to be sitting at the Teacher’s feet - after all, it was the men Jesus was speaking to, a woman’s place was indeed servile. Martha’s exasperation may have been with this attitude, plus having to leave her work to call Mary. Of course we don’t know that.

What we do know is that Martha was agitated, a bit anxious and nervous. Don’t we all get like that? Today I am. Everything seems overwhelming for me today, I’m worried about many things, I need St. Martha’s intercession to help me realize that “Only one thing is necessary.” (Hard to understand sometimes when you’re in the throes of anxiety.) Nevertheless, I think I should get some medication for panic attacks, while asking Martha for her help.