Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Sweet Jesus

Chocolate Jesus Show Canceled – washingtonpost.com
The artwork was created from more than 200 pounds of milk chocolate, and features Christ with his arms outstretched as if on an invisible cross. Unlike the typical religious portrayal of Christ, the Cavallaro creation does not include a loincloth.

Gee, it’s not too often I write a blog that fits in both the “religion” and the “food” categories.

This “artwork” was supposed to be showing during Easter week. Roman Catholics, who are probably more often especially attached to the image of the “Corpus” were outraged. The show has been cancelled. The director of the gallery has resigned in protest.

Those are the basic facts of the story. A person has to wonder, though, what was the impetus behind scheduling this show for Easter week. At first, I couldn’t think of anything other than that the intent was to offend. (And, because I’m from Minnesota, I’m usually against intentionally offending people.) I gave it a little more consideration, though, and I can indeed see a legitimate artistic reason for the creation of a chocolate Jesus. Perhaps the artist’s intent was to contrast the secular Easter celebration (bunny, candy) with the religious holiday (horrible death, resurrection).

Perhaps.

If that’s the case, though, I think it would have been MUCH more interesting to dress an Easter Bunny up in a loincloth, slap a crown of thorns on its head, and nail it to a cross. Not a real bunny, for Pete’s sake! What kind of person do you think I am? A pretend bunny. Maybe pink.

This all reminds me of a pink Easter Bunny I once had — that I liked far too much to ever nail to a cross.

My sister, a wonderfully crafty person even as a child, made the bunny for me. It was sewn from pink cotton fabric and had long floppy ears. The night before Easter, she put bunny “footprints” down on the floor using powder of some kind so, when I got up in the morning, I just had to follow the footprints to my Easter basket and my new bunny. I must have been pretty young when she did that for me because I don’t remember any of the details except that. I really liked that bunny and I wonder whatever happened to it. I suspect I must have just loved it until it fell apart.