Only Say the Word

An entire week passed, eight days actually, and no posts!

I ask myself, "What good is something if you don't use it?" No good at all. And no excuse, sir, no excuse. Sloth is a wily foe who, in the words of the Western movie cliché, "takes a heap o' killin'."

I will try to recall all that has happened in the past action-filled week and fill in here as I am able.

Slept a few minutes too long and didn't get up in time to make it to Daily Mass this morning. Get to work, open my Magnificat to today's readings and wham! -- the story of the centurion's servant, the theme behind this blog, is today's Gospel in the Roman Catholic church. Jumpin' catfish did I ever miss the train! Maybe the cathedral downtown has a noon Mass. If so, I will go.

My mother-in-law makes an annual gift to me on the anniversary of my baptism, a subscription to "The Word Among Us," which has a daily meditation for the readings in the Roman Catholic missal for that day.

To wit, I present today's meditation from The Word Among Us.

*****

Monday, November 28, 2005

Meditation Matthew 8:5-11

The centurion in today’s gospel showed great courage in asking Jesus to heal his servant. For a powerful officer in the Roman army to seek out a Jewish rabbi from a small town in Galilee would not have been a politically expedient thing to do. Yet he did not hesitate to approach Jesus. Where did his courage come from? From the same source that allows us to be spiritually courageous: a sense of need and a great trust that Jesus is able to meet those needs.

Did you notice the urgency and desperation that marked the centurion’s words? “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress” (Matthew 8:6). Evidently, this man cared a great deal for his servant and didn’t want to see him suffering. So without regard for the possible consequences of associating with Jesus, he sought him out and made his request with boldness and humility.

Obviously, this centurion had a great sense of need, but that alone was probably not enough to move him to Jesus. He must have also believed that Jesus had some special power that enabled him to reverse the course of a serious illness. He must have sensed that Jesus could fill his need.

Notice, too, that the centurion didn’t take his servant to Jesus to be healed, as so many others had done. He didn’t even think it was necessary for Jesus to touch his servant. All he needed was for Jesus to say the word, and the healing would occur. No wonder Jesus marveled at his faith—and he was a pagan, no less!

As the season of Advent unfolds, Jesus wants to give each of us the same kind of courageous faith that this centurion displayed. We know that faith is a free gift from God. But we also know that we must cooperate with God if we want to see this faith bear fruit. It’s up to us to let go of our overly sophisticated complexity, as well as our fears, and come to Jesus humble, needy, and trusting. The next time you are at Mass, think about this centurion and his faith as you join him in confessing: “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.”

“Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122:1-9

*****

I hereby resolve to not let missing daily Mass or skipping an entry here happen again.

Walk the Line: 4 stars out of 4!

Reese Witherspoon as June Carter and Joaquin Rivers as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line (2005).

For only the second time in 2005, went to a movie theater today to see a movie, the excellent Walk the Line.

Recommend it highly to anyone who ever tapped a foot to Johnny Cash’s music, or remembers him and June Carter as a twosome. The acting performances by Rivers and Witherspoon are first-rate. “Oscar material” as they say. Such a trite expression, but it's true about these two. Outstanding movie.

Without drawing much attention to the fact, it is a Christian film. Based on two books by Cash about himself and his life, there is quite a bit about faith, hope, love, forgiveness, and redemption in this film. The Christian themes are so sublty interwoven with the plot and characters, it might actually give some of Cash’s secular fans something to think about, or plant a seed of faith here or there, without them realizing it.

Want to develop this line more in another post.

It’s Saturday night and I’m the First Lector at the 9:30 Mass in the morning and I can’t spend as much time writing about this as I would like.

The movies get it right. Sometimes.

Ernest Borgnine as the Centurion in Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth (1977).

Hollywood, and the media in general, have a way of taking a story that originates elsewhere and making it into something less-than-desirable that isn't much at all like the original.

For example, Clan of the Cave Bear (1986), the film version of Jean Auel's wonderful novel about the clash of cultures 30,000 years ago during the decline of the Neanderthal and the rise of Cro-Magnon, is a great example of how a terrific book was turned into a mediocre, some say awful, movie by trimming away almost everything to the barest story line, despite the best efforts of the actors, make-up people, wardrobe and photography. I’ve heard the movie versions of Clan of the Cave Bear described as the Cliff’s Notes version of the book.

Sometimes the opposite happens, a bunch of stuff is added not in the original story source and it can just as easily doom the resulting movie.

Or there is the case of in-between, an adapted movie with not enough of something and too much of something else, a complaint sometimes leveled against Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 magnum opus, The Ten Commandments. Personally, I love this movie and take it for what it is, the product of 1950s Hollywood, put forth by one of the great showmen of all time. As Leonard Maltin puts it in his biographical article on DeMille, “[he] was, first and foremost, a showman; he was also a superb storyteller.” That’s why The Ten Commandments works for me. It is pretty darned good storytelling, although the Book of Exodus doesn’t contain nearly as much detail as we see onscreen. The proof is in the pudding: this movie still draws big ratings during its annual telecast.

DeMille is reported to have said, “Give me any two pages of the Bible and I'll give you a picture.” He certainly did that, more than once.

H.B. Warner as Jesus in DeMille's King of Kings (1927).

At the end of the silent era, just before talking pictures swept the industry, DeMille produced and directed what some today consider to be his greatest picture, the silent version of King of Kings. It is also the best example of cinematic embellishment for the purpose of creating a desired effect. As the picture opens, Mary Magdalene, before her conversion, is a zebra-riding harlot embroiled in a torrid affair with Judas Iscariot. (No, I am not making this up).

Despite such wild departures from the Gospels, DeMille's 1927 King of Kings is another masterpiece of its time and place in history, if not an accurate source of Bible lore. H.B. Warner does a masterful job in the role of Jesus, and the scenes depicting His ministry are poetic, beautifully acted, with some scenes photographed in an early Technicolor process that combine to make it as reverent as any film on the subject could be, now or then.

Which brings me to a bowl of movie porridge that is not too hot, not too cold, but just the right amount of Gospel and creative screenwriting.

In case you have missed seeing it, allow me to recommend Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth. It is an absolutely terrific film. Originally a miniseries on NBC, shown two hours a night for three nights at Easter 1977, it has been rerun on network television in the United States several times since then, including once I recall at Christmas. It is today available from almost any DVD retailer in a two-disc set, and at the time of this writing, Amazon offers this for under $20 ( Click here for Amazon link).

The complete version on DVD runs six hours and eighteen minutes, but spread out over a couple of nights, that’s not a lot of time. As a definitive filmed presentation of the life of Christ, it’s worth every second of that 6:18.

From the Annunciation to the Nativity, to the Ministry of Jesus, to the Passion and Resurrection, every aspect of His life gets a close treatment. An all-star cast tops the production quality: Anthony Quinn as Caiphas, Rod Steiger as Pontius Pilate, Christopher Plummer as Herod Antipas, Michael York as John the Baptist, Olivia Hussey as Virgin Mary, James Mason as Joseph of Arimathea, Laurence Olivier as Nicodemus, Anne Bancroft as Mary Magdalene and James Farentino as Peter, to name only a few. The DVD set is one of my more prized Christmas gifts from 2004.

It is based strictly upon the Gospels and varies only slightly to maintain dramatic continuity. I know, there’s that word, “variation,” for the hallowed “dramatic continuity” thing again.

The difference here is with the artist. While DeMille added for show effect, Franco Zeffirelli simply tells the story, its impact is delivered by its own strength. It helps that Zeffirelli is a master filmmaker, to be sure, but the result is a fascinating, compelling, even riveting film. The viewer's attention is captured and held even when watched non-stop on DVD instead of the original episodic television presentation for which it was created.

As co-screenwriter with Anthony Burgess and Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Zeffirelli created the most beautiful interpretation I could imagine of the story for which this blog is named.

Borgnine and Robert Powell as Jesus in Jesus of Nazareth.

Odd casting, you think? Dutch Engstrom from The Wild Bunch as the Centurion? Yes! You betcha! Despite what you might think, Borgnine is perfect casting; as is Robert Powell, who is just absolutely stunning. Hear it for yourself.

Click here for the audio track to this scene.

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST

Nearly two years ago, on Ash Wednesday (25 Feb) 2004, this movie changed my life. It woke me up, rattled me to my bones, to the very fiber of my soul. I left the theater that night saying to myself, "I didn't realize it was that way. I didn't know. I have to follow Him, become a part of what He was, what He did, what He gave us, I have to know more and be more." In other words, the Holy Spirit called me.

I answered.

Jim Caviezel is Jesus in The Passion of the Christ (2004).

After a 34-year absence, I began attending church again, that very next Sunday, 29 Feb 2004. A day has not gone by since I saw this film that I have not thought about God, Our Lord Jesus Christ, what He told us in Scripture that we are supposed to do with our lives, and how I best can do that. Sometimes it is minute-to-minute, asking myself, "What would Jesus do?" Other times it is almost like God is my autopilot, and I know, in the words of a friend of mine, "I am in tune with the Divine."

The Passion of the Christ is the ultimate example of Hollywood, through one of its most successful alumni, Mel Gibson, getting it right.

Yet so much has been written on this landmark film in the last two years, I am reluctant to try to add more. I am working on a book about this subject, tentatively titled My Journey to the Church of Rome, but until it is closer to being finished, I leave this column to another to describe my feelings about The Passion of the Christ.

I direct you to an exceptional Christian writer and thinker of another tradition, the well known radio commentator James C. Dobson, Ph.D, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family. It so happens what Dr. Dobson wrote about this film in advance of its opening, and his brilliant and scholarly refutation of the wild and baseless charges against it, still mirrors my feelings to this day.

Please read it here.

ALEXANDER SCOURBY UPDATE #3

The Note to Self earlier this week has paid off. Will have in hand, within a few days from now hopefully, 41 episodes of the ABC radio network program The Greatest Story Ever Told , which ran from 1947 through 1956, and in which Alexander Scourby appeared as Joseph of Nazareth.

Or so the story goes. We’ll see.

In the meantime, here are program details, courtesy of Jerry's Vintage Radio Logs.

Have seen it elsewhere, but no mention here of Alexander Scourby in the cast. Then--it's early. We've only just started looking.

"THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD" ABC GOODYEAR Sundays 6:30 - 7:00 pm

Based on the book of the same name by Fulton Oursler, dramatizes events and stories in the Bible as told by Jesus Christ.

STARS: Warren Parker as Jesus Christ DIRECTOR: Mark Loeb ASST.: Leonard Blair SCRIPTS: Henry Denker MUSIC: William Stoess composed and directed the orchestra and Chorus

In today's entry, the picture at the top of the column of Ernest Borgnine as the Centurion and the audio track from Jesus of Nazareth are courtesy of the Excerpts of INRI Web site.

Bloggers Seek to Mix Faith and the Internet

Click on the link below to read something that really gave me pause. Our pastor's sermon last Sunday morning was the impetus to start this blog. Four days later, I clicked here and saw this article!

Thanks be to God.

I'm sure liberals everywhere are doing an Elmer Fudd-style slow-boil, that is, if they even read Fox News. On the other hand, I , Decius the Centurion, who believes in the Lord so much He only has to say the word and I am healed, is healed!

In other words, I take this as a sign I am on the right path.

ALEXANDER SCOURBY UPDATE #2

Is this getting to be a Daily Feature? Hmmm. Could be.

Scourby is much beloved as a narrator of Scripture by my non-denominational Christian, former-Baptist colleague who sits next to me in the office, and apparently this extends to his circles as well. This colleague was mystified when I showed him the RSV cassettes. Like me, he had no idea Scourby did a tape of the RSV. He said it was a huge deal in his circles in the early 80s when the Scourby KJV was announced.

Day Four - Alexander Scourby update #1

After all the postulating yesterday about the career of Alexander Scourby, ran across this today which explains the Brooklyn boy with what I thought was a British accent. Also explains his connection to Scripture, and why he would have recorded an RSV. OK readers, you can stop the deluge of posts about Alexander Scourby and the Revised Standard Version. Just as soon as there are some of you.

To wit:

From All Movie Guide: Of Greek parentage, Alexander Scourby hid his natural Brooklynese cadence behind a "stage British" accent in his earliest stage appearance. After an apprenticeship with Eva LeGalliene's company, Scourby graduated to Broadway with a major role in Leslie Howard's 1936 production of Hamlet. In radio from 1937, Scourby became one of the busiest and most sought-after voice-over specialists in the business, functioning as narrator on innumerable TV documentaries and as commercial spokesman for a myriad of products (most notably Johnson & Johnson bandages). In his Broadway and film work, Scourby was frequently cast as a villain, such as the Italian-American gangster boss in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953). One of his last assignments was as the host of the PBS broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera. The resonant voice of Alexander Scourby can still be heard on religious radio stations by virtue of his mid-'60s syndicated series "Alexander Scourby Reads the Scriptures." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide.

So. Now we know. Radio since '37, his own syndicated radio series in the 60s.

Day Three

My latest eBay winnings arrived today, the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the New Testament on audiocassette read by the late Alexander Scourby.

My parish priest, who reads the Bible in Greek, says (with tongue firmly in cheek) if you simply must read the Bible in English (uh-hem), the RSV and New International Version (NIV) are the best translations, in his humble opinion. So I carry the RSV with me to work every day in what passes for a briefcase. Have somehow been drawn to the RSV these last few months, upon which I can elaborate in another post. But now I have the RSV read by one of the great narrators of the electronic age, all to my very own. On tape. Soon to be converted to digital format for preservation. Yee-haw!

Was home today with blood-sugar crashes (a.k.a. hypoglycemic events), two of them in five hours in the early morning, along with the resulting exhaustion and stiff muscles they bring on, but was still able to get something constructive done and earn my paycheck anyway by finishing up a long-delayed manuscript via remote desktop connection. Isn't Windows XP the greatest thing since sliced bread? (Mac users groan aloud, worldwide.)

I can literally run the computer at my desk in the office building where I work nearly 10 miles from where I sit at home. Very cool to a boomer like me. Had just about finished with the Manuscript From Hell when the United States Postal Service (the mail) arrived. As the chorus of our barking dogs died down, my wife walked into my office here at home and presented me with a thick package.

It is something of a rarity, I believe, the RSV read by Scourby. (If you click here, you might well recognize his voice as he reads St. Matthew 8:5-13, which contains the story for which this blog is named ).

Scourby is better known for his reading of the King James version (KJV), tapes and CDs of which are for retail purchase everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. In fact, Alexander Scourby once said the KJV was his favorite version. In light of that statement, it's even more rare to find a New Testament in the Revised Standard Version from him, I would think.

Well, thanks anyway, Mr. Scourby, wherever you are Up There today, for taking the time and effort to do your voice magic with the RSV while you were still here on Planet Earth. Have been unable to find on the 'net any listing or history or story about Scourby recording the RSV. Aside from the eBay auction and some bare-bones Amazon Marketplace listings for used copies, nothing showed up in Google.

Unusual markings on the box the Scourby tapes came in today. It's one of those molded thin-plastic jobs you may recall from the 70s, or 80s, even the 90s for cassette collections, unusual in that the markings are so generic, simple, spare. No publisher name, no ISBN, no nuthin'! All it says is, "The Holy Bible. Revised Standard Version of the New Testament read by Alexander Scourby." The cassettes themselves have a street address in Albuquerque, and which particular book and verses are on that particular cassette, but nothing else. Just a mysterious recorded RSV from New Mexico by Alexander Scourby with no provenance.

As Spock would say, "Sensors indicate...,"that Alexander Scourby passed away on 22 February 1985 at the age of 71. Therefore we safely can conclude his RSV was recorded before then. (grin) His Internet Movie Database mini-biography calls the Brooklyn native, "The possessor of one of stage, screen, radio and audiocassette's most distinguished vocal instruments."

A little further checking reveals he had a long history on radio, beginning in the late 30s and from 1947 through 1956 on the ABC radio network played in the role of Joseph in The Greatest Story Ever Told, which inspired George Stevens' movie of the same name in 1965. A listing for an episode describes King Herod order the Slaughter of the Innocents, so that would make him Joseph of Nazareth, instead of Joseph of Arimathea from the Passion story. Would be interesting to find some episodes of this long-running radio program, no? Yes! Note to self: check it out.

Sensors also indicate Scourby recorded books, including the KJV, for the blind for over four decades. And how about that, he's from Brooklyn, I had always thought from the sound of his voice that he was British. What I didn't know about Alexander Scourby!

Any readers out there, if there are any readers out there on Day Three, please feel free to chime in if you know something about Scourby and the RSV. I like to think I'm pretty good at turning up stuff like this, but am drawing a blank so far. When, where, why, did he record the RSV if the KJV was his favorite? And did he ever do the Old Testament as well?

Alexander Scourby, circa 1940.

Maybe you recognize him now. Or not. I remember Scourby from the late 50s and early 60s as an actor and ubiquitous presence on the great live-drama programs of the era like Playhouse 90, Alcoa Presents, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater, etc., but recall him most clearly as the island governor in the terrific and highly underrated Devil at 4 O'Clock (1961) with Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra. But those performances were nothing like this. I knew him before today as a familiar face from days gone by, a character actor with a very distinctive voice. I could be in the next room and hear the television or radio and tell you it was Alexander Scourby. Now I also know him as an absolutely marvelous narrator of Holy Scripture.

The first cassette in order in the thin-plastic box is of course, since this is the New Testament, the Book of Matthew. Wow. I've read the famous verses of St. Matthew many, many, times, especially over the last year since I joined the Ministry of the Word at my church as a Lector, but never have I had such an experience as sitting on the front porch late this afternoon, feeling the cool blustery wind of our first major norther of the year blow clattering leaves across the yard, listening on the now ancient 15-year old Walkman my 30-year old son left behind when he moved out on his own 11 years ago, to Scourby's voice pouring the Word of the Lord into my head. Indescribable, almost. Words fail me, really. It's a completely different experience for me to hear the Bible read. Never thought it might be, just wanted an RSV on audio of some sort done by a good reader.

And boy, did I get one! "Ask and you will receive...," as the quotation goes.

What a day! Three a.m. hypo event, fitful and tortured dozing after that for a few hours on the couch so as not to wake my wife, until what would have been "get up" time; calling in sick to work instead of getting up, having another hypo just at 7:30 after calling sick, spending the morning and almost all of the afternoon finishing that blasted manuscript that has hung over my head since September, and finally, having the warm honey of the Gospel via Scourby's dulcet tones poured into my ears to wrap it up.

And now, the pork roast my wife started hours ago is nearly ready and the house is full of warm, wonderful, supper smells and I am warm and wonderful and happy to be alive.

Thank you God, for all You have given me.

Day Two

Part of getting along is getting along when you're not at your brightest. I overslept today, and missed my usual morning routine. The day has been sort of--funky--because the timing is off for one thing. For another, the zeal is there on faith alone. I don't feel it as strongly as I would like to. Which is when you need it the very most, according to C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters.

So I keep pluggin' along. By the numbers at the moment, but I'm pluggin'. Thanks very much to Steve Adams for permission to use his hobo nickel of the Centurion at the top of this page. To see his utterly fantastic work click here.

More later. On faith, of course.

Forward

I heard someone whose philosophy I admire very much say this morning that a world renowned organist used to come to the organ loft and while away the hours on weekends just playing. Practicing. Practicing his Toccata and Fugue in Dminor or whatever. He didn't have to of course, he just did it because he was world-class good at it and got better by practicing on weekends when he didn't have to. Professionalism is the word for that, I think. I have an idea I can write. But I don't write every day. It occurred to me, when I heard this bit of philosophy this morning that a blog would be a way to write every day. I certainly have the ideas, just nowhere to write them that they could do anyone any good besides me. My notebook is full. Maybe something here will give you pause. Or not. Anyway, here's the first post. We're underway. -Decius