Cannibalism
In a piece in America today, the feast of the Transfiguration, the Jesuit Anthony R Lusvardi comments incisively on the Olympic opening ceremony. Going beyond hurt exasperation (he admits that his first response to the most offensive scene was a yawn) he invites us to set out from what we have seen to reflect on the society we live in, which require a creative, deliberate response from us. He concludes: ‘Years ago, when visiting Paris — as beautiful as its reputation is — I remember going to the Eiffel Tower and, when I got up close, thinking, “It’s impressive from a distance, but up close it’s just a lot of steel girders and empty space.” What the organisers of the Paris Olympics put on display was their empty space — the vacuousness of the secular cultural project. In the end, that vacuousness is what makes the mockery of Christianity at the Paris Olympics so dull. Even with all the resources at their disposal — mounds of corporate funds and French tax euros — all they could do was cannibalise Christian forms.’
