Before he even said it, we knew, those of us who are Conception Catholics, those of us who were taught by the nuns and priests and brothers… we knew exactly what Rudy Giuliani was thinking before he ever said it aloud.
During tonight’s Republican debate, as Mr. Giuliani was answering a query about where he stood regarding Bishop So-and-So’s criticism last week about Giuliani’s stance on abortion …lightning kept interfering with the microphone. Several times the mic suddenly buzzed, bzzzzzzzzzzzt, sputtered and went out for a moment, then came back on. Giuliani handled it with aplomb and humor, and the rest of the candidates backed away from him laughing…
But, we knew the truth. We knew what Rudy was really thinking. Deep down in any old fashioned Catholic, no matter how old and wise they become, no matter what sweet and smart other teachers they had in Catholic school, which was most of them… no matter what, there’s a room. In that room lives
Sister-Mary-You’re-Going-to-Hell, along with Brother-Andrew-George-Tell-Me-Why-I-Should-Let-You-Live, and also Father-John-Joseph-If-You-Lie-To-Me, -God-Will-Send-A-Lightning-Bolt-and-Strike-You-Dead.
Those old saintly travelers do rise up all by themselves from time to time… especially when there are cues from the environs. Like lightning when you’re speaking, for instance.
You could just see the flashback going across Giuliani’s forehead like a ticker tape. He finally paused in his serious reply to the question and indicated that for him, as a boy who had gone to parochial schools all his life, that this lightning thing was a little scary.
Everyone laughed. In good humor. Although there may be a few, who will read what happened here as highly symbolic. And perhaps it was, either to interfere with Giuliani’s answer, or to interfere with the Bishop’s critique. Or, perhaps it means nothing about either one of them… that’s my bet.
Just as some levity… since it is said that lightening hits the earth one-hundred times per second, maybe all it really means is that God goes off His game from time to time… as plenty of the biggest, most pernicious liars in the world seem able to speak their way through all the storms they themselves have raised, and do so with mystifying impunity.