Thousand Faces

Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. 

At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here. At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.” (Matthew 12:38-42)

We’re all familiar with the expression “in the belly of the whale.”  “The Belly of the Whale” is an early chapter of Joseph Campbell’s seminal work The Hero With a Thousand Faces.  Campbell said: “The idea that the passage of the magical threshold is a transit into a sphere of rebirth is symbolized in the worldwide womb image of the belly of the whale. The hero, instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, is swallowed into the unknown, and would appear to have died.”

We are reborn when we encounter the unknown and are transformed.  We have a new outlook and understanding of what is important in our lives.  For example, when we are sick and face death, but we recover we come to appreciate all we have taken for granted such as family and friends – relationships and love.   We were in the belly of the whale, and then we were freed from the darkness of that belly.

Jesus was in that belly we call his tomb.   He suffered and then rose.   It was a transformation we can only image through our faith.   Now he is our hero with a thousand faces.  And, those faces are ours because we transform when we mimic him through heroic deeds of love and compassion.

For many of us we spend far more than three days in the belly, but we eventually leave when Jesus reaches in and pulls us out while insisting we must not be an evil and unfaithful generation.   Oh, so true in this year of our Lord 2020.

Deacon David Pierce