Let me in! Or Come on out? A reflection on a reflection, 27 April 2025
You don’t know John Mercer or Robert Detheridge or Barry Cooper. Not the particular people of that name who feature in this ramble, anyway. They were among my playmates of almost 70 years ago. Why do they come to mind now? Well, a more recent and cyber playmate, Bob Chapman, a mate in the playgrounds of Facebook and Ship of Fools, in Real Life(™) far away in Washington State, USA, has posted about a reflection which then Archbishop Bergoglio offered at the last Papal Election Conclave, on Revelation 3:30, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.” We’re familiar with Holman Hunt’s representation of that scene. Some of us are familiar with a jokey caption accompanying it: Jesus: Let me in! Householder: Why? Jesus: I want to save you! Householder: What from? Jesus: From what I’ll do to you if you don’t let me in. A theology (if you can call it that) of soteriology to which I don’t subscribe, btw. In Revelation 3, St John has Jesus saying that he wants the door to open so th...