ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
June 23, 2025
I really enjoyed the Academy Award-nominated movie, Conclave. One of the main characters, Cardinal Aldo Bellini, makes a sort of confession to his friend, Cardinal Thomas Lawrence. Bellini says, “Thomas, I’ve come to ask for your forgiveness. I had the temerity… to tell you to examine your heart, when all the time it was my own that… It’s shameful to be this age and still not know yourself. Ambition, ‘The moth of holiness.’” The actor, Stanley Tucci, plays Bellini, and this short monologue is really quite extraordinary, in both the writing and acting. But I was struck by the idea that ambition is the moth of holiness. Holiness is this garment of the sacred that we spend a lifetime seeking to wear it more often and with more faithfulness. Yet there are too many things that can entice our ego, and though they might appear insignificant, they are like moths that ever-so-quietly begin to eat away at that garment that we believed was ours to wear. Along with ambition, what are some of the other ego-inflating characteristics that can leave the garment of holiness with some rather embarrassing holes?
Continue to help me, Merciful God, as I seek to clothe myself in the attributes that represent and give witness to Jesus. Amen.
