January 8: Ossenburger, Our Buddy, Saint Fillan

...Then, the next morning, in chapel, [Ossenburger] made a speech that lasted about ten hours.  He started off with about fifty corny jokes, just to show us what a regular guy he was.  Very big deal.  Then he started telling us how he was never ashamed, when he was in some kind of trouble or something, to get right down on his knees and pray to God.  He told us we should always pray to God--talk to Him and all--wherever we were.  He told us we ought to think of Jesus as our buddy and all.  He said he talked to Jesus all the time.  Even when he was driving his car.  That killed me.  I can just see the big phony bastard shifting into first gear and asking Jesus to send him a few more stiffs...

Holden does not have a high opinion of this Mr. Ossenburger.  Ossenburger is a graduate of the school Holden is currently being expelled from.  Ossenburger is rich.  He's donated tons of money to the school.  Ossenburger is an undertaker, hence Holden's joke about Jesus sending him "a few more stiffs."  Holden thinks Ossenburger is a phony, but Holden pretty much thinks every adult he knows is a phony.  He may be correct about Ossenburger, who strikes me as a little bit of a fool.  The kind of guy who thinks any problems a person may have are the direct result of a lack of faith, a lack of thinking of Jesus as "our buddy."

I can't stand people like Ossenburger.  If my daughter develops biploar when she enters her teenage years, I don't want an Ossenburger to tell me that I didn't get down on my knees enough,  that I didn't pray to God enough.  My daughter is sick.  I don't want to hear about my lack of faith, my inability to see Jesus as my friend.  Bad things happen, whether Jesus is camped out at your house or not.  Bad things happen to Holden.  Bad things happen to me.  Bad things happened to Jesus.

Don't misunderstand me.  I believe that prayer is a powerful force, and I believe that Jesus is a constant presence for good in my life.  The universe is too structured a place to think everything that occurs is random.  I don't buy that chaos theory line of thought.  What I'm trying to say is that bad things do and will happen to the best people, whether they are card-carrying members of the Jesus fan club or not.

Mr. Ossenburger has it at least partly right, I think.  Prayer is important.  Jesus is our ally.  But, Jesus doesn't make you a rich, successful undertaker.  Jesus doesn't shield you from the Kryptonite life throws at you.  Jesus isn't your lucky charm.

Saint Fillan, the patron saint for January 9, had Jesus as a buddy, but Fillan had his share of problems, I'm sure.  He lived most of his life as a monk and hermit.  Just the haircut was an affliction, not to mention the whole eremitical lifestyle of deprivation and poverty.  Fillan embraced the hardships of the world and, through his relationship with Christ, was able to overcome them, transform them into things holy and sacred.

For Holden, mental illness is an issue.  He's severely depressed, on his way to a mental breakdown.  Mental illness has been a part of my life for a very long time, as well.  One of the traditions surrounding the cult of Saint Fillan deals with mental illness, as told in my copy of Illustrated Lives of the Saints:

Those afflicted with mental illness were dipped in the pool of Strathfillan, then tied up and kept overnight in a corner of the ruins of the Saint's chapel.  Those who were found loose in the morning were regarded as cured.

Fillan was renowned for the miracles of healing he worked during his lifetime.  Many of those miracles must have centered on mental illness for the above practice to have survived into the early nineteenth century.  Fillan must have helped the mentally ill during his lifetime, and he did it through prayer and the help of Christ.

I don't mean to sound all evangelical in this post.  I will not be dragging out the rattlesnakes and poison later tonight for a tent revival.  What I'm saying is that there are phony bastards like Ossenburger out there who wear their Christianity like blazers at an exclusive country club.  And then there are saints out there like Fillan who put their Christianity into practice, bringing compassion and healing into the world.

Saint Marty doesn't want to be a phony bastard.

Saint Fillan's cave