VINCENTIAN Terry McCarthy’s terminology (CL 12/5/02) appears initially to be overly melodramatic.
‘Demons’ is an archaic word. However, I think he is correct in retaining such a word.
In a book currently attracting much interest, called I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, Rene Girard says that a community ‘lets off steam’ by converging on someone that it blames for its troubles. The title is drawn from Luke 10:18.
Christianity through the resurrection of Jesus reveals and prevents the continual victimisation of the ‘scapegoat’. The resurrection revealed the victory of the innocent victim par excellence.
Girard traces the history of myth, the development of ‘demons’, the system of human and animal sacrifice.
He shows that the idea of ‘demons’ is entrenched in the collective memory of the human race. He also shows just how deep is our capacity for demonising scapegoats in our anthropology.
Mr McCarthy’s paper takes on more than just a socio-political importance. Mr McCarthy’s theme would go to the root of the revelation of Jesus Christ according to Girard’s analysis.
The references in Matthew, Mark and John to the ‘poor are always with you’ have become a slogan to support a certain disinterest in the needy as if the words justified their continued poverty.
The sayings have their roots in Deuteronomy 15:1-11. We are always to be ‘open-handed because the poor are always with you ‘
The existence of the poor is not a situation to be tolerated but it is a situation to be continually assisted.
Jesus challenged the religious leaders to recognise his poverty and to assist him. The woman who lavished the perfume on him was justified because she realised the urgency caused by Jesus’ imminent death. His approaching Passion impoverished him. His message did not ignore the poor. He was the poor. Jesus’ acceptance of the woman’s blessing was an assent by him that he was among the poorest.
The Christian message is the key to a response to Mr McCarthy’s call. Otherwise, Girard warns us that we will continue in what he calls ‘mimetic desire’ ie the desire common among all of us and imitated by each of us to satisfy self.
According to Girard the community holds itself together by attributing conflict to vulnerable victims rather than acknowledging the true source of the conflict ie ourselves as the true ‘demons’.
Mr McCarthy’s analysis is not solely an economic challenge. The needy are to be drawn into the community. He challenges who we are.
VINCENT HODGE Paddington, Qld
