Last weekend, I found myself listening to a discussion of baby names. A lady stated her fondness for the name Veronica. Upon hearing this, a fellow said to me, "Stay out of Riverdale!," a reference to The Simpsons & through the show to Archie Comics. I replied:
"Yeah, but then you need two girls, a Betty & a Veronica." The fellow & I both chuckled.
The lady, picking up on the Archie reference, said, "I meant Veronica from the Bible." Her tone was haughty, condescending.
She meant of course the Veronica who offered the Christ, on His way to Calvary, a veil with which to wipe His brow, a veil on which an image of His Face appeared; Saint Veronica in Catholicism, featured in the Sixth Station of the Cross, betwixt Simon of Cyrene helping carry the Cross & Jesus falling for the second time. The only problem, of course, is that this account of Saint Veronica is not Biblical. We Catholics have no problem accepting Sacred Tradition, of which this account is part; Sacred Scripture instructs us explicitly to honor the Sacred Tradition that has been handed down to us. The lady in question, however, whose tone chastised us as fools for not knowing Scripture as well as she, is a Protestant, whose denomination makes loud & hypocritical protestations of "Sola Scriptura!," the bizarre & counter-Scriptural claim that Scripture is the supreme authority on all doctrinal matters.
"I meant Veronica from the Bible," she said. I'd give her five dollars if she could point out to me where this Veronica appears in the Bible. In the meantime, "Stay out of Riverdale!"
2 comments:
You should've called her out on it!
While I do not disagree, in context I have in the past been accused of being uncivil in the same company & so wished to bend over backwards not to cause offense. 'Tis true that no one should take offense at having an error corrected, in practice that is often the cause of many hard feelings.
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