MDMD(8) Christ's true Pity

[Sojourner]

At 09:43 AM 9/16/97 -0300, Vaska Tumir wrote:
>[taken from Doug Millison's recent post on the topic]:
>
>>>231.16 - 231.18  "for Christ's true Pity lies so beyond us, that we may
>>>best jump and whimper like Dogs who cannot quite catch the Trick of it."
>>>What is Christ's true pity?  What does this remark reveal of Fr. Maire
>>>and Pynchon's attitudes towards him?  (It is significant to consider this
>>>question in terms of Dogs we have encountered.)
>
>Wish I had a Bible on me, but for those of you who know your New Testament
>better than I, this will come as no surprise.  Remember the little episode
>in one of the Gospels where a non-Jewish woman walks up to Jesus and pleads
>with him to save her dying child?  His first reaction is to shoo her off as
>a "dog" -- since she's not one of the chosen people [according to the
>commentaries on the episode I've read, the term was a standard contemporary
>Jewish slur on the members of other nations].  When she reminds him that
>even dogs are granted scraps and crumbs from the master's table, Jesus
>relents and heals the child.
>

For those interested, I can quote Vaska's post in its
entirety, as I have scribbled it hastily onto an old tire
using an ice pick:

Here is the KJV:

The Gospel According to Matthew
Chapter 15

[21] Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.
[22] And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried
unto him, saying, Have mercy on me,
O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
[23] But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought
him, saying, Send her away; for she
crieth after us.
[24] But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel.
[25] Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
[26] But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread,
and to cast it to dogs.
[27] And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall
from their masters' table.
[28] Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be
it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her
daughter was made whole from that very hour.

just in case you're interested, there are 46 references
to dogs in the entire Bible.

One more of note (perhaps as a contrast to the good Fratello)


Matt.7

[6] Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls
before swine, lest they trample them
      under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

point-counterpoint