Jesus and the Flying Nun

Jan 10, 2010 S.J.D.S., Nica

Local Christians and town fathers have planted a very over-scale, Rio-wanna-be, Jesus statue high on the hill overlooking the small bay and town, although clearly crime has increased both since installation and the economic down-turn. ( I am told criminals in this largely Catholic nation are devout only when sentencing or death are immenant.) Jesus appears from not a very great distance- both from the front and back- like Kwan Lin - the Chinese god of mercy and compassion- with his double ´skirt´ or pedestal. Even more so up-lit at night.( According the the recent PBS series, Jesus in his gnostic-pre-Paul incarnation had a more female-compassionate- energy, much like Kwan Lin )

Jesus faces south, neither in the direction of Jeruselem nor Rome and perhaps coincidentally in the direction of the mines of Potosi, Bolivia that funded the construction and gilding of cathedrals in Spain and the new world for centuries. South not East? Which begs the question, is orientation not important to Christian iconography? Grant it, we don´t want his butt facing the town however Mary Magdelane may or may not have felt about his posterior. ( No disrespect intended) Mosques must face Mecca. Does Christ only have to face his local sponsor? We know the church has a long history of selling indulgences. Decorate and paint frescoes in an early Italian renaisence town and you could be excused from the practice of usry- a major sin. ( Major sin then, clearly not now in these inflated credit-card-rate-times.)

January and February in San Juan are the wind-turbine-promoters poster-child-months: Gale force winds are normal, and strong winds constant. The old stone Jesus has been replaced by a considerably larger fiber-glass , Flying-Nun-light and friendly Jesus. In Mexico especially, the image of Mary or Guadalupe can appear in cracks in walls, or paint stains- fairly arbitrary places you might admit. Crowds form, waiting to be blessed or cured. What would happen if Jesus were to take flight, Flying Nun style, and land on some poor bloke, or dog, or worse yet the local beach-front Eskimo ice cream shop. Do lines form, for a cone and a blessing? But I guess, cones, crackers, what´s the difference? It´s the transfiguration and thought that count. Right?
´´May I have coffee ice cream in a body-of-Christ cone please. And some sprinkles. Hold the indulgences please.´´

Abrazos
Esteban