The Ultimate Under-Dog
by Jorge Vargas
We like underdogs. It does not matter if you are from the United States or France or Great Britain or Uganda or Saudia Arabia or China or Peru or Russia or Argentina or anywhere else. Humans have a tendency to side with the underdog. We are repulsed by arrogance, by over-confidence, by overwhelming power. Some power is good and there are individuals attracted to power, but even those individuals will find themselves strangely attracted to a resilient group of least likely heroes and heroines. Our history - real and imagined - is filled with stories of small bands of people fighting hegemonic powers and, even when beaten down, rising up to fight another day.
It is the story of Egypt's slaves, of Rome's original Catholics, of the Protestant rebels, and of the independence fighters that expelled Britain, France, and Spain from the Americas. It is the story of a lonely England standing strong against a powerful Germany during the Battle of Britain. It is the story of the many tyrants who have been overthrown by groups otherwise described as 'rabble.' It is the story of an under-appreciated Senegalese team defeating an over-rated French national side in the first game of the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
And who are the usual 'bad guys' in history? The overwhelmingly powerful. The enslaving Egyptians of old, the corrupt Roman Emperors, the conquering Spaniards, the vile Nazi oppressors, the European colonizers, the US military and its assortment of cold-blooded technocrats, and the 2002 French national soccer squad.
The story of Easter - a story of a mother's loss, of a son's suffering, of a politician's weakness, of a crowd's ignorance, of a leader's arrogance, of a human's cowardice, and of a follower's betrayal, and of an ultimate sacrifice - culminates the life, death, and Resurrection of an under-dog, of a least-likely hero, and of a band of 'rabble.' Jesus Christ was not the great general-king that the Jews of ancient times were avidly awaiting. He did not come to cast off the Roman Empire and make the Chosen People the world's dominators.
He came, instead, to tell the world a story of love and forgiveness; He was born in a manger surrounded by animals in a stable in a back-water town in a back-water province of the Roman Empire. He died on a cross, receiving the Empire's worst possible punishment, amidst the unforgiving cries of an unforgiving Jewish public and under the watchful eyes of unquestioning Roman soldiers. He died next to two criminals wearing a crown of thorns and a rag.
From there sprang the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Christian faith that, in only a few centuries, managed to convert the Emperor of a previously pagan and unforgiving Rome and, 1,400 years later, gave men the strength to send great ships across the Atlantic Ocean under a Catholic banner to spread the faith - and, yes, to bring back wealth. Today, the Roman Catholic Church is arguably the world's strongest and most formidably organized religious order, due in large part to its historical ties with Spain and France - and to a far lesser extent Italy - but also due to the relatively decentralized structure of the Islamic faith and the highly fractionalized state of the Protestant sects and the static history of the great Jewish religion.
Roman Catholicism is arguably the world's strongest and most formidably organized religion. Fine.
But power is not and must never be the goal of Roman Catholicism, otherwise we will lose the very thing that made our religion and our Church so great, both spiritually and, yes, politically. There are many great threats facing Roman Catholicism throughout the world.
In the great nations of Iberian America, Roman Catholic cardinals and other leaders wield great authority and in some towns of the southwestern hemisphere these individuals have been known to abuse their power in the past and may still do so again. That abuse must be curtailed and replaced by benevolence, caring for the populace, and a more Christ-like (down-to-Earth) approach. The cathedrals of Iberian America are as beautiful as those of Western Europe and far beyond any of the cathedralesque buildings in Anglo-America, but with that beauty and with that greatness must always come humility.
In the nations of Anglo-America, a different peril faces a Roman Catholic Church frequently marred with scandals over sexual abuses by a very few and highly rare group of priests. In no other nation does Protestantism rub shoulders with Roman Catholicism more than in the United States and though there is much that the Roman Catholic church can learn from the different Protestant groups - and equal amounts, if not more, can be taught by the Roman Catholic Church - the Protestant ethic of life's fortunes indicating the fortunes of the after-life is altering the mindset of many Catholics in the US, due to the Protestant-dominated nature of today's Roman Empire. This Protestant influence can be good, but it must be limited, or else a future division may be nigh and a new Protestant sect may be born. The Roman Catholic Church must ensure that its goals and teachings can be taught, credibly, to the public of the United States if Jesus' teachings are to remain the focal point of the Christian faith.
And in Europe, the political and historical heart of Roman Catholicism, arrogance is a problem, but it is not necessarily the greatest of them. An Easter Vigil Mass in Lima-Peru's National Cathedral is a packed house with people lined up in the city's central plaza. That same mass in Madrid's national cathedral holds within it far too many empty pews. Why? Because in Spain, just as in France and in Italy, religion is a habit of the elderly and not of the younger generations, for they are far too intersted in the allure of atheism and hedonism. Therefore, in Europe, the Roman Catholic Church must make greater efforts to reach out to that generation and, yes, to change its appearance so that instead of being the Church of Spain's Franco and France's DeGaulle, it becomes the Church of Spain's Zapatero and Italy's Prodi.
And throughout the world, and within those regions, the Roman Catholic Church must make certain that it does not lose that original message that is so crucial to Easter. The Roman Catholic Church may be powerful and may become more powerful still, but it must utilize that power for good and it must never lose its most Christ-like characteristic: Humility.
A Roman Catholic Church without humility would become a bastardization of itself, and that must be avoided if the true word of Jesus Christ is to be spread throughout the world.
