For Yours is the Power and the Glory, now and forever...
Thoughts on Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory
So I'm up late...can't sleep & hoping my roommate can't hear typing in her sleep. The above line is from the "Our Father" that is recited in a Catholic mass...I thought of it after our discussion--this whole book demonstrates, through a weak and doubtful human character, that the power and the glory is indeed God's, and he used this man despite himself. The ending is just beautiful. The boy that was earlier jaded against religion in this secular communist state finally makes a personal connection with a martyr...the drunk priest he had met earlier was shot that day; he knew a martyr personally, and could connect with him...unlike the larger-than-life martyrs his mother read to him about from cheesy, exaggerated books. Greene has done the same thing for us: introduced us to a martyr (and without our quite knowing it).
I think the best thing about this book is the way it turns our notions of good and bad on their heads...thus demonstrating, again, that the power and the glory belong to God. When the priest was sleek and good and respected, he was in reality at his worst. When he was poor, debased, sinful, rejected, and full of doubt, he was at his best; and even though he couldn't see that, we can see it and thus see God's perspective....which is a cool trick on Greene's part...getting us to see that this man is righteous and brave, and that he has changed lives and saved souls...that he is a martyr in fact.
If you aren't to the end yet, I highly recommend it.
Perhaps my lack of sleep has to do with the "decaf" coffee I consumed at the meeting. Oh well, if it gets me to write something!
So I'm up late...can't sleep & hoping my roommate can't hear typing in her sleep. The above line is from the "Our Father" that is recited in a Catholic mass...I thought of it after our discussion--this whole book demonstrates, through a weak and doubtful human character, that the power and the glory is indeed God's, and he used this man despite himself. The ending is just beautiful. The boy that was earlier jaded against religion in this secular communist state finally makes a personal connection with a martyr...the drunk priest he had met earlier was shot that day; he knew a martyr personally, and could connect with him...unlike the larger-than-life martyrs his mother read to him about from cheesy, exaggerated books. Greene has done the same thing for us: introduced us to a martyr (and without our quite knowing it).
I think the best thing about this book is the way it turns our notions of good and bad on their heads...thus demonstrating, again, that the power and the glory belong to God. When the priest was sleek and good and respected, he was in reality at his worst. When he was poor, debased, sinful, rejected, and full of doubt, he was at his best; and even though he couldn't see that, we can see it and thus see God's perspective....which is a cool trick on Greene's part...getting us to see that this man is righteous and brave, and that he has changed lives and saved souls...that he is a martyr in fact.
If you aren't to the end yet, I highly recommend it.
Perhaps my lack of sleep has to do with the "decaf" coffee I consumed at the meeting. Oh well, if it gets me to write something!
posted by Denise | 10:48 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home