Desire and Curiosity: Flannery O'Connor
Reading is the first way to listen, and thus to learn.
Invitation to read
Invitation to read
From “The Day After Redemption”
“Where in your time, in your body has Jesus redeemed you? Show me where because I don’t see the place. If there was a place where Jesus had redeemed you, that would be the place for you to be, but which of you can find it?”
At the beginning of Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood, the would-be anti-Christ Hazel Motes says to Mrs. Wally B. Hitchcock, a passenger seated in front of him on a train: “I reckon you think you have been redeemed.” Mrs. Hitchcock, clearly taken aback by the question, “snatched at her collar,” not knowing how to answer the question. “I reckon you think you have been redeemed,” Hazel insisted. “She blushed. After a second she said, yes life was an inspiration, and then she said she was hungry and asked if he didn’t want to go into the diner.” Thus begins Hazel Mote’s relentless efforts to expose Christian hypocrisy by founding the “Church of truth without Jesus Christ crucified.”
When the disciples of John the Baptist asked Him whether He was truly the Messiah, Jesus pointed to His miracles as sign. Hazel Motes accepts the challenge and rejects Jesus because he doesn’t see these miracles happening. “Where in your time, in your body has Jesus redeemed you? Show me where because I don’t see the place. If there was a place where Jesus had redeemed you, that would be the place for you to be, but which of you can find it?” There is no evidence for such a thing as redemption, says Motes. Instead, he preaches a Church without Christ where “the deaf don’t hear, the blind don’t see, the lame don’t walk, the dumb don’t talk, and the dead stay that way.”
How do we respond to Mote’s challenge?
“Where in your time, in your body has Jesus redeemed you? Show me where because I don’t see the place. If there was a place where Jesus had redeemed you, that would be the place for you to be, but which of you can find it?”
At the beginning of Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood, the would-be anti-Christ Hazel Motes says to Mrs. Wally B. Hitchcock, a passenger seated in front of him on a train: “I reckon you think you have been redeemed.” Mrs. Hitchcock, clearly taken aback by the question, “snatched at her collar,” not knowing how to answer the question. “I reckon you think you have been redeemed,” Hazel insisted. “She blushed. After a second she said, yes life was an inspiration, and then she said she was hungry and asked if he didn’t want to go into the diner.” Thus begins Hazel Mote’s relentless efforts to expose Christian hypocrisy by founding the “Church of truth without Jesus Christ crucified.”
When the disciples of John the Baptist asked Him whether He was truly the Messiah, Jesus pointed to His miracles as sign. Hazel Motes accepts the challenge and rejects Jesus because he doesn’t see these miracles happening. “Where in your time, in your body has Jesus redeemed you? Show me where because I don’t see the place. If there was a place where Jesus had redeemed you, that would be the place for you to be, but which of you can find it?” There is no evidence for such a thing as redemption, says Motes. Instead, he preaches a Church without Christ where “the deaf don’t hear, the blind don’t see, the lame don’t walk, the dumb don’t talk, and the dead stay that way.”
How do we respond to Mote’s challenge?
