The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott, c. 2017

Our Monday Book Club's selection for May was The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott. We had a lively discussion with some points mentioned, but not developed. This is a copy of my letter to the group to address some of the issues.

Before I returned the book to the library I wanted to check 2 things—Sally’s reason for leaving Chicago as soon as she got there, and Sister Jeanne’s statement, “I gave up my place in heaven a long time ago.” I’d also like to address the concern about theology of the characters/the writer.

The first is summarized on pages 153-159. Sally is thinking at night on the train about her father’s job on the BRT, dozes, sees the little boy, and muses on “She was going to give her life to others, in the name of the crucified Christ and His loving mother. She was going to join the Little Nursing Sisters of the Sick Poor, Congregation of Mary Before the Cross, Stabat Mater, which Sister Jeanne thought the most beautiful name of all the orders. Because it reminded us all, Sister Jeanne said, that love stood before brutality in that moment on Golgotha and love was triumphant. Love applied to suffering, as Sister Illuminata put it: like a clean cloth to a seeping wound.” (Then images of the convent laundry where she’d spent her most formative years with the nuns). Then she physically attacks the disgusting woman who tormented her. She sees she cannot live up to her images of the nuns who helped raise her.

The second is the death of Mrs. Costello. “Her troubles were endless and her care was endless.” Both Sister Jeanne and Sally love Annie who will not be moved from her sinful behavior. Sally’s intentions are preceded by a few signs, like leaving the food uncovered and leaving the apartment before taking care of Mrs. Costello’s fever (p. 208) and her easy lies (p. 211). The writer repeats the “butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth” line she used with the disgusting woman on the train. It sounds minor but it shows Sally slipping away from her values. We already know the details of the poorly prepared applesauce, and how alum can kill, although we don’t know why we have those details. If Mrs. Costello died, then Annie would be free to marry Mr. Costello, Sally could have her mother back, and the sinning would stop. “Her plan was to exchange her own immortal soul for her mother’s mortal happiness.” (p. 225) Four times on one page this plan is called ridiculous. However, if you read p. 224-226 carefully, neither Sally or Sister Jeanne actually carry out their plan—or at least we don’t see it and the narrator (Sally’s children) doesn’t either--one with poisoned tea and one with applesauce. Sister Jeanne stops Sally with her arm movement, Mrs. Costello is coughing, gulping and choking. We never see/read (in the writer’s words) Sister Jeanne give Mrs. Costello the applesauce, she has the cup and spoon in her hand, and Sally is looking at the photograph of the wedding photo. When she turns and sees what is happening the spoon is still poised in sister’s hand. Sister Lucy arrives and the 2 nuns begin to slap and pounded on her back in a last attempt to restore her breathing.

McDermott’s skill as a writer and plot developer is incredible. It’s very spare; every detail matters. Her use of words, even reusing phrases and simple thoughts over, seems appropriate for the simple life of the characters—not rich, not educated, not clever. Short, crisp phrases and sentences, words that are not multisyllabic. We never could pin down the era or dates, but did you notice WWI, The Great Depression and WWII do not appear as characters or even a back drop. The Civil War figures in slightly to show another kind of substitutionary behavior. Their world is very self-contained and small.

As far as theology goes, I do see a serious lack on Sister Jeanne’s part, in that Confession (called the Sacrament of Reconciliation) could have absolved her of her guilt. Same with Sally. I think they knew that, but chose not to seek forgiveness. With Sister Jeanne it might have been her less than generous opinion of the parish priests. Even if they didn’t actually do the deed (and that’s up to interpretation) they had planned it, and in the heart according to Jesus it’s a done deal. Jesus gave that authority to his disciples who pass it down to priests today. It’s even that way in Lutheran and Anglican churches. Lutherans (I be one) say it every Sunday and the pastor says, “As a called and ordained minister of the Church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (sign of the cross).”

As far as the differences between Protestants and Catholics, it is more common for Protestants even if not openly Calvinists, to believe in “imputed righteousness” and Catholics to believe in “infused righteousness.” Catholic theology would take very seriously the words of Jesus in the sermon on the mount and Matthew 25, that one meets Jesus in person while offering aid and comfort to the hungry, thirsty, imprisoned, etc. The nuns in McDermott’s novel live out this theology, they meet joyfully Christ in the suffering of the people they help. Whether or not McDermott is only nominally Catholic she accurately portrays Catholicism.

Thank you, Margie, for bringing this book to us. I really enjoyed it.

https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/artsentertainment/alice-mcdermott-talks-about-latest-novel-the-ninth-hour/ 

https://www.thenationalbookreview.com/features/2017/11/15/review

Obamacare mandate is a threat to religious rights guaranteed under First Amendement

It's the erosion of your religious rights, also. Big unions were adamantly opposed to ACA until they got their exemptions. But nuns taking care of the elderly poor? A threat to the most powerful government in the world.

"First, given how politicized the Affordable Care Act has become, it’s important to clarify that our case is not a challenge to the act, and winning our case in no way endangers it. We’re merely asking the court to ensure that Health and Human Services adjust...s a regulation it developed that would force us to change our religious health plan and start offering benefits that violate our religious beliefs.

Second, some have mistakenly claimed that we can just sign a piece of paper and receive an exemption. Indeed, Health and Human Services claims it “accommodated” our religious beliefs and offered us an “opt-out.”

I wish that were true. In fact, the government has candidly told the Supreme Court that we “don’t get an exemption” at all. Rather, what Health and Human Services is calling an “opt-out” is really an “opt-in” — a permission slip where we authorize the use of our religious health plan to offer services that violate our beliefs and waive our protections under federal civil rights laws. That’s why they need our signature." http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/19/opinion/obamacaresbirth-control-exemption-still-tramples-on-rights.html?referer&_r=1

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jan/4/little-sisters-poor-nuns-will-take-obamacare-birth/?page=all

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/obama-beats-the-nuns-on-contraception/398519/

Government gangs up on Little Sisters of the Poor

Little Sisters of the Poor vs. Obama/Sebilius: "The Little Sisters of the Poor arrived in America in 1868. Currently, there are thirty homes in the United States where the elderly and dying are treated as if they were Jesus himself and cared for with love and dignity until God calls them home. The Little Sisters serve more than 13,000 elderly poor people in thirty-one countries around the world." And the U.S. government plans to punish and fine them for not providing contraception and abortifacients--because they aren't religious enough to get an exemption.

 http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/367509/central-deception-obama-administrations-case-against-little-sisters-poor-david-french

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/03/259378425/nuns-objection-to-health-care-law-is-unwarranted-justice-says

Not much has changed in a thousand years

When you have access to a library of a few million books and journals just two miles away and freedom to browse in the stacks, it is easy to come home with topics about which you never gave a thought, such as The reformation of the 12th century by Giles Constable (Cambridge University Press, 1996). So far, I've only made it through the preface and introduction, the extensive bibliography and index, and skimmed a few chapters, but I've seen so much that looks familiar in the religious and secular life of the 11th and 12th centuries that reminds me of the 21st. Other names, titles, and concepts are totally unfamiliar like names of monasteries, phrases in Latin that don't translate well into English, places, and Roman Catholic theology. Even when I get out the dictionary, or check the extensive index, I don't have a frame of reference to understand. A Cluniac is not someone obsessed with movie star George Clooney, nephew of Rosemary, for instance. And black and white monks have nothing to do with race. And then there's the internet problem, always there when I read a book, finding things like The Medieval Sourcebook, which I didn't know I needed until I started browsing.

But before I run off on another tangent about medieval times I'll just note a few phrases that caught my eye, that reminded me that everything we (or at least I) think is contemporary, happened before, because human nature really doesn't change that much.

• . . . reform and revival was seen as a result of the increasing population and approaching end of the world. Whether you're a global warmist fanatic follower of Al Gore, holy Cap and Trade, robed in the vestments of green hype or a Christian dispensationalist scanning the headlines to compare with the Books of Daniel and Revelation--this should sound familier
  
• whether the reformers were from wealthy or humble origins, their followers were often well off [and from my cursory reading, feeling a bit guilty about it], but since it is the writings of the reformers that are available, the diversity and equality that is described may be the exception rather than the rule
  
• charismatic preachers [politicians] recruited actively for converts to their reform movement--transfers from one house or community to another created personal, legal and political problems
  
• rules circulated in written form, such as manuscripts and letters, but were carried out mainly through associations, personal contacts and visits--personal influence and connections were paramount
  
• opponents of reform were not necessarily bad men, but they were set in their ways and opposed to change in principle as well as in practice
  
• when faced with change, they resisted both passively and actively
  
• resistance to change has been recorded by the reformers, not the resisters so is distorted or left out of the record
  
• it was easier to start a new house than reform an old one
  
• reforms of existing institutions and communities almost always involved some pain and difficulty, occasionally with activie resistance and open violence
  
• an involuntary reform or change of order was a blow to the self-esteem of members and resistance was not always selfish or unreasonable
  
• even the poorest monastic community needed land, buildings, books, vestments and other supplies, thus it needed patrons as well as spiritual founders, and these patrons often claimed rights over the community so the interests often clashed
  
• even the most generous patrons hoped to get away as cheaply as possible
  
• some reformers removed existing settlers
  
• recruiting the next generation [of the reformed group] was always a problem when the first generation died out--newcomers didn't share the memories and ideals of the early years. The second generation was often the most dangerous period of institutional development
  
• almost every new, reformed house that survived and flourished later went through a painful period, even a crisis as it grew in wealth and numbers
  
• the new orders and reforms created diversity in the 12th century, with unforeseen consequences of competition and eventually greater uniformity and traditional solutions, so that as the age of experiment drew to a close, the traditional ideals and institutional patterns reasserted themselves within the monastic order and brought the period of change to an end.

Ah, change. It's an interesting concept, isn't it?