Misunderstandings

Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. “I have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you.” (John 15:26-16:4A)

John speaks of a misunderstanding – a serious one in that everyone wishing to kill Jesus’ disciples thought by doing so they were offering worship to God.  Quite ludicrous, but that’s what John told his fellow followers about Jesus and those in the synagogues.    Here’s a story about another misunderstanding – not so lethal, but with far-reaching consequences.

A new monk arrives at the old Italian monastery for his celibate life of shared poverty and prayer and is assigned to help the other monks in copying the old texts by hand. He notices, however, that they are copying from copies, not the original manuscripts. So, the new monk goes to the head monk to ask him about this, pointing out that if there was an error in the first copy, that error would be continued in all subsequent copies.

The head monk says, “We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son.”   He goes down into the cellar with one of the copies to check it against the original. Hours go by and nobody sees him.

One of the monks goes downstairs to look for him. Hearing sobbing coming from the back of the cellar, he finds the old monk leaning over one of the original books crying, and muttering between tears: “There’s an R! There’s an R!” 

He asks the old monk what’s wrong, and in a choked voice came the reply, “The original word isn’t “celibate” but “celebrate.”

Deacon David Pierce