Today is the Jewish day of "atonement." Christians "repent" or are "saved" but Jews, observant Jews at least, "atone."
Atonement, the word, carries with it meanings which go beyond regret, apology, a recognition of sin, but include some notion of setting things right, payment, making amends, doing something active to set things right.
There is also the aspect of expiation, which is contained in that Christian notion of being saved, casting out the poisonous things and being cleansed.
So there is a self serving notion in atonement; once you are cleansed of sin, you are healthier, better for it. You've undergone a ritual of purification.
There is a certain pleasure in wallowing in your inadequacies, of being sorry, because you know it's short term: At the end of the day, at sundown, you know you are going to be fed, be restored, be better than you were at sunrise.
But through it all, there is the sense of guilt. He who has no sin cannot atone. But we all must have sin. We have all failed to live up to some standard through the year.
Children do not have to fast on this day, presumably because the ancient Jews knew children, who in those days were likely to be thin could not last a day without food, but also the thinking was likely "What sins do children have?"
But children are rife with sin--they are, even more than adults, being told what they have done wrong, how they have failed--it's called "education." Children, more than most people are made acutely aware of their failings, being corrected, admonished to do things differently, to think differently. They should be the ones really into atonement. You didn't finish your French fries and people are starving in China. You didn't clean your room or love your grandmother enough.
Adults can rationalize their sins. You didn't pay your secretary what she was worth. But that's just part of business--driving a hard bargain is what makes a business profitable. Besides you can always bring Jim Crachett a Christmas goose.
For the Phantom, the idea of fasting has had a certain appeal. Muslims fast sunrise to sunset during the month of Ramadan. Buddhist monks fast to purify themselves. But fasting from sunset to sunset does induce a sort of suffering in 21st century America which takes one back to some more elemental existence. It makes one realize how strange our current American life is--after all, for most of man's existence on this planet, he was hungry, and many still are.
Fasting can enliven the senses, create sympathy for those who are hungry, hungry in the physical and in the spiritual sense.
But in some sense it goes back to the idea of answering for past transgressions. There's a great scene in The Godfather, toward the very end, when Michael tells his brother-in-law he has to "answer for" Sonny's death. Of course, what that comes to mean is the brother-in-law has to pay for Sonny's death with his own life.
And maybe that's what a day of atonement is all about, in the end. We know we will all answer, eventually.
Yes, the concept of Atonement is an interesting one and pretty widespread it seems. Most religions appear to offer some form of it, which is ironic since much of the guilt and therefore need for absolution appears to be induced by religion to begin with. Like a great Madison Avenue marketing ploy-create a need and then provide a solution. Of course that might just be my personal take on it considering my less than stellar introduction to the wonderful world of sin and repentance. The Jews may think that children don't need to fast because they are without sin, but the Catholic Church never looked that fondly on the youngest members of it's flock. In my parochial school the nuns started in on sin and all it's different levels (original,venial,mortal) in first grade. By second grade and at the advanced age of seven, when we'd be making the sacrament of confession, all the sin talk really hit high gear. Now unless you were the "Bad Seed" and knocking off your classmates, most of our sins were minor(venial). But with no mechanism for having them absolved yet, I imagined my soul to be pretty black and getting blacker by the day. The end result was I became unable to fall asleep since I was convinced the devil was coming for me. After a lot of crying and keeping the whole house up, my mother gave me a stuffed tiger with plastic teeth and told me that would ward off Satan. Thankfully I bought that and pretty soon my fear of a nighttime visit from Lucifer faded. If only I had known that in a couple months the Church would be providing me a way, in the form of confession, to get a clean and refreshed soul on a weekly basis. By 8th grade I started to view confession as not much more than Saturday afternoon entertainment for the priests and that was the end of my formal foray into repentance. Not that I think atonement is without value-and I, like everyone, have plenty to atone for- I just don't think you need an intermediary to get the job done...When you say fasting holds a certain appeal for you does that mean you do it routinely?
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned in my comment to you on John Sexton, I am behind in my viewing of "The Killing" but did at least see the first episode of Season 2 last night and now know--spoiler alert--that candidate Richmond didn't die but is paralyzed. My guess for who the killer is remains a possibility, but a slimmer one considering the net is widening. Thanks again for suggesting this one-- it is very entertaining..
Maud
Maud,
ReplyDeleteAh, there is no person as interesting as a recovering Catholic.
George Carlin is one of my favorites. His take on the confessional is well worth reviewing.
You seem to have come out okay, in the end.
Doctors are well accustomed to this path in life--if the end result is a good doctor, it justifies everything you went through to get there.
The Phantom