'Holding Out for a Hero' - Palm Sunday
Do you remember the old movie “Footloose” (1984)? It’s a classic. Streetwise Chicago teenager, Ren (played by Kevin Bacon), moves to a small Mid-West town dominated by a Bible-thumping minister who has banned rock music and dancing. Bonnie Tyler’s song sums up the mood of the repressed townsfolk: “Holding Out for a Hero”:
Where have all the good men gone;
And where are all the gods?
Where's the street-wise Hercules;
To fight the rising odds?
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and turn and dream of what I need
Chorus
I need a hero; I'm holding out for a hero
'til the end of the night
He's gotta be strong; And he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a hero; I'm holding out for a hero
'til the morning light
He's gotta be sure; And it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life
It is deep in the human psyche to “hold out for a hero.” Joseph Campbell, a James Joyce scholar, in 1949, published a book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. He draws on a term used by Joyce in Finnegan’s Wake: monomyth. The monomyth, also described as the “hero’s journey”, is an observation that numerous myths and stories from around the world share the same basic pattern. The stories of Theseus, Buddha, Moses, Jesus, and even “Footloose”, all contain five basic elements of narrative:
• A call to adventure - which the hero can accept or decline
• The road of trials – at which the hero can succeed or fail
• Achieving the goal or “boon” - which usually results in self-knowledge
• Returning to the ordinary world - which again risks failure
• Applying the self-knowledge or “boon” - making the world a better place
We don’t often use the term “hero” to describe Jesus, but Campbell’s categories certainly apply. Our Lord received his “call to adventure” at his baptism in the Jordon. In the isolation of his forty days in the wilderness, battling with his inner demons and with Satan, he chose to accept the call. Jesus then began his three-year “road of trials” on the road to Jerusalem. Today, Palm Sunday, is the penultimate trial. Jesus has earned tremendous popularity with the people through his healing miracles and dynamic preaching, but he had also made some powerful enemies. The Jewish people have long awaited the Messiah, the promised hero who will end the years of oppressive Roman rule and return the Promised Land to its rightful owners.
The political rally that Jesus stages on Palm Sunday, however, has a bitter irony to it. The crowds singing his praises today will soon be calling for his execution. This is a fulfilment of the devil’s temptation to power-over, from the wilderness. With all this political power, with the people behind him, he could stage an armed revolt, have a crack at taking power; but instead he chooses the path of non-violence, the path that will lead to Good Friday and the cross. To the crowds, Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem looks like the “boon”, the goal of the Messianic quest, but we know that the greatest trial is yet to come. The Passion is the final trial that awaits our hero.
In these days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are each called to adventure into the uncharted landscape of our lives. The road of trials seems to have just begun, and none of us really know how long or how hard the road ahead will be. But we do have a hero; the same hero we were worshipping before the outbreak.
Although in exile, scattered in isolation across Melbourne, we are still the Body of Christ. The Lord, our hero, is still with us; still present as we break bread together; still present as we pray the rosary together; still present as we reflect on the scriptures together; even if it is across YouTube or Facebook or Zoom these days.
Although dispersed for a time, we are still our hero’s hands and feet and eyes and hearts. As Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) so famously wrote: “Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people.”
It has been such a blessing this week to see the Body of Christ, our fellow St Peterites, undertaking heroic acts, small and large, along the current road of trials:
· I have received numerous e-mails, phone calls and texts, telling of the truly heroic ways you are coping in these incredibly challenging times. From Apollo Bay to Brisbane to Sunshine, you are rising to these challenging times, with faith, hope and love.
· You continue to care for one another. The Pastoral Care team is working on a parish telephone tree, but in the meantime our Warden Helen Drummond is making a Herculean number of calls to numerous parishioners, to make sure you are OK.
· Chris and the Lazarus Centre staff are still feeding the poor every morning; takeaways these days, but they are still there, day after day.
· Ree and the “Heaven at The Hill” social enterprise team are still serving coffee to the MFB, the workmen, and the handful of other essential workers still coming into the City each day. When so many businesses are having to lay people off, we have been able to keep our barista Rhys employed.
· President Leane, from State Parliament, has commissioned their kitchens next door to produce food for those who have lost their jobs, those isolated at home who are going hungry. Working in partnership with State Parliament, our own “Heaven at The Hill” has distributed more than 900 frozen meals over the past week.
· And Krystyna, Chair of the Foundation, has had buckets of flowers delivered, to be handed out with the frozen meals, to lift people’s spirits with a little beauty.
· And the list goes on …
The Lord be with you … and also with you.
We are the Body of Christ … his Spirit is with us.