** We will resume Sunday Mass on August 25, 2013 @ 5:00 pm at the FDU Chapel, Teaneck. ***
[__01__] Imagine that you or I were to overhear our name. Or, imagine that you or I were to walk into a room at the moment our name is mentioned.
In some cases, we
might be tempted to pause – to eavesdrop – to hear what is being said about
about us, or assumed about us.
In such a case,
someone would be speaking about you or me in the third person.
“Third person” also
describes the perspective taken by an author of fiction or non-fiction.
For example, one of
this summer’s big Hollywood movies is The
Great Gatsby.
This is a story told
in the third person by Nick Carraway, a neighbor and someone of more modest
means than the very wealthy Jay Gatsby.
Nick describes his own
small house and the Gatsby’s large house on the right side of his….–
“My house was … only fifty
yards from the Sound. The [house] on my right was … Gatsby’s mansion…. [with a
swimming pool, more than forty acres of lawn, and a garden.] My own house was an eyesore, but it was a
small eyesore, and it had been overlooked [by real estate developers], so I had
a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling
proximity of millionaires – all for eighty dollars a month. ”[1]
Such is the
third-person viewpoint of Nick Carraway, the narrator. This is a third-person viewpoint on Gatsby’s lawn,
wealth, ambition, and his parties.
Gatsby does not tell
the story; Nick tells the story. And, in Fitzgerald’s novel – or the movie –
this narration is an important technique.
After all, the
identity – and history - of the title character - Gatsby - is mysterious. In the third person, talking about Gatsby …
the third-person narrator can reveal the information with subtlety and slowness.
[__02__] This
Sunday, we observe Trinity Sunday, recalling that
Jesus sends the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the
third person of the trinity. And, the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of Christ
and the Gospel.
In the Gospel, Jesus
said to his disciples at the Last Supper and to us, “I have much more to tell
you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of Truth will
tell you.” (John 16:___)
While concluding 3
years of teaching at the Last Supper, Jesus indicates the disciples are not
quite ready to graduate or to be certified.
Their “credentials”
will be acquired gradually over time.
Also, the Gospel will
continue to unfold – more pages will be written – more chapters will be
published – after the first Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
There will be some
Third-Person intervention, some information provided by the Third Person of the
Trinity.
[__03__] The Holy Spirit will reveal, will
motivate the Apostles to leave their locked hiding place, to go to Jerusalem
and beyond to tell the Good News
But, we might also ask
– is the Holy Spirit simply a narrator ? simply a source of information ?
[__04__] In
the example of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
novel, Nick Carraway – the narrator is important.
Yet, we could imagine
that there are other ways that the story could have been told or revealed. The
narrator, in a fictional book, is an option, a technique.
The third-person narrator
could, in theory, be eliminated. We might have a different series of events.
But, we could still have the same ending.
[__05__] The
Good News of our faith is that the “third person” – the Holy Spirit – is
essential.
[__06__] Do we hear our name called by others, do we
sometimes wonder what others are saying about us? Thinking about us?
Do we hear ourselves
described in the third person, or characterized or judged by others in the
third person?
Yes, and, this can
make us – naturally – uncomfortable.
[__07__] Are we not also concerned about what other
people tell us to do, invite us to do?
Sometimes, we receive
good advice, sometimes, we receive bad advice …in the first person.
[__08__] The
Holy Spirit is our gift, our guide, to the continuation of the Good News, the
pages of the Gospel in our own lives.
In both fiction and
non-fiction, the “third-person” narrator only tells us what others have done or
not done.
But, in our faith, the
Holy Spirit is the third person reminding us what God has done, has created and
that Jesus suffered and died for our sins.
The Holy Spirit is
also asking what you and I will do, with God’s help, in own actions, our own first-person
story. [__fin__]
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