antipopper

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded, because every man heard them speaking in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, “Behold, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how then do we each hear them speaking in our own tongue wherein we were born? Parthians, Medes, Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians — we hear them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”

(Acts 2:1-11)

Universalism. Translation. Difference. The TARDIS vortex as the Holy Spirit. After Mass yesterday (again, don’t ask) and Prayers of the Faithful that were surprisingly about social justice, the politics of class (!) and the role of the universal Church, we went to see The Da Vinci Code. What a crock! Having had a quixotic interest in vintage christo-heterodox conspiracy theories in a previous life, I’d stayed away from the whole phenomenon for fear of grave disappointment, but I caved in to everyone else’s curiosity. I’m not sure how well the film mirrors the plot of the novel, but Dan Brown reads The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and we get this? Christ on a bike! I mean, it was good to have such a high profile slagging of Opus Dei (“fascist Opus Dei,” Mr Hanks corrects us) and Christianity’s deeply rooted misogyny, but that’s about it. Why do I keep defending Akiva Goldsman, based solely on Batman Forever? Oh dear.

[ tags: christianity, da-vinci-code, holy-spirit, opus-dei, tardis ]