Sunday night Television

I iron my shirts on Sunday nights, and that's when I get all my TV exposure. Tonight I watched the history channel's treatment of the 7 deadly sins. Actually, I only caught the last two episodes on anger and pride. In each one the ultimate conclusion was that man is helpless in freeing himself from the sins. Anger is caused by the brain and pride is necessary to succeed (IN OUR WORLD... not in God's world). The history channel didn't know what they were talking about but at least I was able to get a good laugh in once. They had some Yale professor on saying that Capuchin monkeys (observe the cute cuddly picture) exhibit pride, and therefor there is reason to believe that pride is in man's DNA. I don't know why it is so revolutionary to tell me that pride is part of my nature, but I digress. Yes, the Capuchin monkey was the key to the whole argument.


It was almost as if a sly, clever writer was forced to say that we can't help ourselves, and so he used a monkey with the same name as a Franciscan offshoot (observe famous Capuchin, Padre Pio, below). Yes, it was a good laugh. While their saying that man can't help but be proud and humility is impossible they are constantly reminding me of saintly friars who are given the gift of humilty by abandoning themselves and loving God. There had to be an inside man. Or maybe the history channel really is that naive.


Speaking of humility, Padre Pio and his stigmata offer a great example. The first picture I saw of Padre Pio was this one, featuring his stigmata promanantly. Saints like Padre Pio and Catherine of Siena are given the gift of suffering like Christ did. And you'd think that you'd flaunt those suckers around if your going to suffer for 30 some years with them but no: the saints who recieve them ask for them to be made invisible! They don't want them to go away, just invisible. They want to suffer the pain without recieving any of the recognition for it. I suppose the history channel would say that the saints are insane. They forget how AWSOME God is! He can make you such a holy person that you'd joyfully accept thankless suffering to come closer to him. If the saints delt with having nails driven into their hands for 20 or more years think of all the small insignificant daily things we can offer up to God, so that our suffering might bring us closer to the one who suffered death for us.