Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Dave Todaro's avatar

That was an extremely interesting read. I knew the song, but did not know anything about the historical Wenceslas other than maybe the first verse of the carol. When, incidentally, I did not hear even once this year.

What strikes me most is your vindication of legend as an important and revealing window into some striking truths about the essence of humanity. Certain legends survive and become popular because they touch our hearts; because they represent something that we long to be, or long to be touched by. If humankind has a Creator and did not come about against all odds by some unfathomable cosmic accidents, then it must be true that we were created according to a design. So then, legends are borne in part because we're designed to long for something they represent.

We are designed to want heroes, champions who can do for us what we can't do for ourselves. At their root, so many great stories are about the triumph of "the good." We invent Superman, Spiderman, WonderWoman, Marvel. We tell ourselves the wars we fight are to preserve the things we identify as "good." I glue myself to the TV because Josh Allen can do what I can't do ... win a lot of football games for my "good" home town!

But as you pointed out, there's one hero story, one legend which, upon closer scrutiny, is much more reasonable for honest people to accept as historical fact. The tomb is empty. The hero in question conquered more than poverty, more than a corrupt government, more than any kind of human suffering. He conquered death itself. He opened a way for never-ending celebration. He showed himself as the one true answer to all the longings of the human heart as we manufacture lesser heros, lesser idols.

And deny as though some of us might, until we lay hold of Him among all the others, we'll find at the very end that the heros we choose are unable to save us from death and misery.

St. Augustine wrote in his Confessions, "Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we men, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you... you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

Merry Christmas, my friend! Until we see him as he truly is, in the New Jerusalem.

Expand full comment
2 more comments...

No posts