Catholic Ragemonkey

Accidental Convergence

I was working arranging the third part of the first year of the Borromeo Project, when I stumbled upon a funny convergence in the Catechism and a little bit of my past.

In my younger days, i.e. high school, I flirted with rock groupie status for RUSH. One of their great concept albums was titled 2112. The story line revolved around a totalitarian theocracy which had banned rock music. (Old folks in the back, sit down and stop clapping.) One lone hero discovers an electric guitar and liberates everyone through 3-chord power rock.

As I was working I came across paragraph 2112 of the Catechism. It reads in part: "The first commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, (of) silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see." These empty idols make their worshippers empty: "Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them." God, however, is the "living God" who gives life and intervenes in history.

The convergence just sort of came to me. In 2112, the lone hero reminds man of his fundamental dignity through the rejection of the theocracy. In paragraph 2112, the Christian is reminded to reject all the false gods and discover his true identity as one created in Love and worship the one, true God. Granted the analogy limps a bit in that you get the impression from the song that somehow rock music is to be the new form of worship, it still is a funny occurance.