Jewish Odysseus: WFB, RIP

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

WFB, RIP

William F. Buckley, Jr., 1925-2008

I can't hope to match the pearl-like words that are being strung together today and from now on about the life and career of the fabulous, trailblazing Bill Buckley. But allow me a personal comment on the man and his faith.

A lot of Jewish people were, and remain, resentful and suspicious of the Cathlic Church, and of devout Catholics. There are inarguable reasons rooted in ancient history for this.

William F. Buckley, Jr., was a proud and devout Roman Catholic whose magazine was always informed by a familiar Roman Catholic tilt. The man's transcendent decency and love for his fellow man simply blazed forth whenever you watched him speak, or read his words. I came to conclude that Bill Buckley represented the best and truest teachings of Roman Catholicism, and that I would take those Catholics I encountered as sharing his spirit. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it then appeared to me that a large portion of these people lived up to that high standard.

I hope that my Jewish brethren will do William F. Buckley the honor of extending a friendly and helpful hand to our Catholic comrades, as the late great William F. Buckley so routinely did for us.

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The Odyssey by Homer, Chapter 21:

For long Odysseus stood with the bow in his hands, handling it as a minstrel handles a lyre when he stretches a cord or tightens a peg. Then he bent the great bow; he bent it without an effort, and at his touch the bow-string made a sound that was like the cry of a swallow. The wooers seeing him bend that mighty bow felt, every man of them, a sharp pain at the heart. They saw Odysseus take up an arrow and fit it to the string. He held the notch, and he drew the string, and he shot the bronze-weighted arrow straight through the holes in the back of the axe-heads. Then as Eumæus took up the axes, and brought them outside, he said, ‘Thou seest, lord Telemachus, that thy guest does not shame thee through foolish boasting. I have bent the bow of Odysseus, and I have shot the arrow aright. But now it is time to provide the feast for the lords who woo thy lady mother. While it is yet light, the feast must be served to them, and with the feast they must have music and the dance.’ Saying this he nodded to Telemachus, bending his terrible brows. Telemachus instantly girt his sword upon him and took his spear in his hand. Outside was heard the thunder of Zeus. And now Odysseus had stripped his rags from him and was standing upright, looking a master of men. The mighty bow was in his hands, and at his feet were scattered many bronze-weighted arrows.