The Scream

THE SCREAM

Who is this person? Where is he? What is he doing? What is the feeling he has? Why? Has this ever been you? 

In 2012 The Scream sold at auction for $120 million. Few people know that painter Edward Munch gave the painting the name, “The Scream of Nature”. Munch in describing the image stated, “I was walking along the road with two Friends the Sun was setting. The Sky turned a bloody red and I felt a whiff of Melancholy – I stood Still, deathly tired – over the blue-black Fjord and City hung Blood and Tongues of Fire My Friends walked on – I remained behind – shivering with Anxiety – I felt the great Scream in Nature...” (E. Munch).

People resonate with this image. It has become a symbol of the modern man’s plight. So what is our plight? What does the Church say about it? 

For us, as Catholics, The Scream calls to mind the epic fall of Adam and Eve, the subsequent torrent of evil in the world and our desperate need for a Savior. This is a good example of accidental theology. Though the painter never intended it, he painted a picture of the effects of sin. 

As the psalmist says, “Out of the depths I cry out unto to you, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice”? (Ps 130:1) 

The stark reality is that we all have a screaming hole in our hearts that we are trying to fill either consciously or sub-consciously. You have a choice, Nihilism, Escapism, Hedonism or Catholicism. You can accept emptiness and unhappiness as an unavoidable fate with the attitude that sounds like something out of the most nihilistic philosophers-“We’re born, we live, we suffer, we die, that’s it!” 

In this bleak and dark view of reality there is no hope, no meaning, no standard of good or evil, nothing to strive for except temporary hedonistic pleasure or tireless escapism through an addiction to power, prestige and possessions. This is an old, tired story yet so many people are tempted to succumb to what philosophers call post-modern angst or what most of us simply call despair.  

THE HOLE

What is the meaning of the hole in our hearts? How did it get there? What can we do about it?

Every covenant that God made with His people in the Old Testament led to the sacraments. The sacraments are the ladder that we have extended to us in the New Covenant so that God can climb down and get us out of the fallen world. We then set our sights on the happiness of heaven. Without understanding the Fall, the sacraments would seem like just empty rituals without any context. Like the Israelites in the desert of sin, we too have our manna to sustain us until we arrive at the promised land.

We know we are called to be happy with God, in communion with God’s family in this world and in the next. Yet to some extent, if we’re honest, we are all unhappy. Chesterton said, “Not only are we all in the same boat, but we are all seasick” (G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with The World).

THE FALL

So what is 'The Fall'? After Creation in the first two books of Genesis comes the pivotal turning point of our family story. Genesis chapter three is the explanation of mankind’s downfall and consequently nature’s fall from the goodness, order and sublime beauty of Eden. 

Caution: Do not underestimate the fundamental importance of this event. The danger is to dismiss the story of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit as a child’s story, a fairy tale or a mere myth. 

The religious truth of this story is carefully and emphatically stated with much clarity in the Catechism. While Genesis uses poetic and figurative language, it is made clear in the Catechism that the Church understands this as a real event that, in a mystery, unfolded in time. 

“The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents” (CCC 390).

Genesis chapter three is the most relevant piece of writing to your life. It is the key to understanding reality. If you miss Genesis three you miss the lense through which the hole takes shape. In this story we discover the root and source of our unhappiness.  If you miss the significance of this story then you miss the whole meaning and mission of both the Incarnation the restoration and divinization of the material world and Jesus as Messiah, the savior and the New Adam who through the Paschal Mystery reverses the fall into redemption, elevation, and sanctification.