What does it mean when we mock something?
God has wired our brains to see, know, and long for truth.
I’m going to go Thomistic on you for a moment, so I hope I don’t lose you. Stick with me here!
St. Thomas Aquinas describes different faculties of our mind that assist with knowing the true, good, and beautiful. We have a memory that stores past images, sense data (smell, taste, touch, etc.) and value determinations (good, bad, useful) and emotional associations (fun, sad, shaming, exciting, shocking, etc.)
So, we have all of these memories and images in our mind, many of them with some strong emotional and valuative associations for being good, beautiful, and true.
For many of us Leonardo DaVinci’s image of The Last Supper holds some powerful associations of goodness, truth, and beauty.
When a person mocks us, he or she is contemptuously saying that there is something wrong with our image and value pairing.
It feels like a personal assault, especially when the target is a deeply held existential belief or conviction.
But it really isn’t personal. At least it doesn’t have to be.
When someone mocks you, the target of mockery isn’t so much you personally as it is the image-value pairing to which you hold.
This may seem overly technical, but my goal is to help you not take the mockery so personally and be overcome by emotions of defensiveness and anger. These emotions can cause us to miss an incredible opportunity.
If we could remove the “taking it personally” from the mockery and focus on the image-value pairing under assault we can seize the mockery as an opportunity to:
- Grow in our personal convictions,
- Share the reasons for our personal convictions,
- Offer fraternal correction,
- Take a moment to get curious about the opposing convictions of the other (perhaps no one has ever really asked them the challenging questions),
- Or all of the above.
Recently at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, we witnessed an outright mockery of the Last Supper.
The assault was felt by any who hold the image of Leonardo DaVinci’s Last Supper as a source of contemplation of the divine gift of the Eucharist and the comforting sense of a God who is Emmanuel–God with us.
We have an opportunity to uphold this image. To proclaim the significance of what it truly communicates. To invite people into contemplation of its truths. To share the same message of hope that Christ shared at a table full of hungry sinners yearning for the bread of life. Can we see those posing in mockery as yet another table full of hungry sinners yearning for this same bread?
So yes, we must correct the error and uphold the truth of the image and true meaning of the last supper. That’s what we do as Christians. But, how might this also be an opportunity to invite those who are hungry to partake in the banquet of the Last Supper?
