27 February, 2007

Catholic Woman "Baffled" by Mold Spot That Looks Like Martin Luther

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Maria Sanchez is admired by many of her fellow parishioners for her devotion to the faith. She never misses a Sunday mass, and she usually attends several others during the week. She can often be seen at her local parish during the early morning hours praying, and she volunteers each week to help feed the homeless. So when a mysterious image appeared on her bathroom wall last week, strangely resembling a human face, Sanchez was both terrified and excited.
"I have been having mold problems in my bathroom, and so I went in there to clean last week and suddenly I see this face on the wall!" Said Sanchez. "My heart leaped within me. I thought that maybe the Virgin was showing herself to me in the mold. But something looked very strange. I began to think to myself that this was not the face of a woman."
Sanchez then stared at the alleged image in the mold for several minutes.
"I concluded that this was not the face of a woman at all, but the face of a man, but I did not recognize who this was."

After taking a picture of the spot, and contemplating what it might mean Sanchez called her neighbor, Elizabeth Lawrence, a professor of religion at Orange County Community College, to come over and see the site for herself.
"I immediately knew who it looked like." Said Lawrence, "The image strongly resembled the Reformer Martin Luther. It was uncanny!"

Now Sanchez is faced with a "crisis of faith" of sorts. Being a devout Catholic she is torn in how she should respond to the appearance of Protestant Reformer on her bathroom wall.

"I don't know what to think now." Said Sanchez. "Why would I have this miraculous appearance of a man who left our faith and despised our truth?"

Sanchez has turned to a number of priests in the Diocese of Orange for help interpreting the matter.

"I think this is just a coincidence." Said Fr. James Reily, pastor of St. Augustine's Church, Sanchez's parish. "I see no reason to think this is some kind of miraculous appearance of Martin Luther on her bathroom wall.

Still others offer a different interpretation.

"The appearance is indeed a miracle but also a warning." Said Fr. Francis McAdory. "The fact that this mold spot appeared on the bathroom wall is indicative that the teachings of Luther belong in the toilet. There is no other explanation for this."

But Sanchez has been reluctant to draw any solid conclusions.

"I'm just not sure what to do right now." Said Sanchez. "One person tells me one thing and another person tells me something else. I even visited a Lutheran church this Sunday just to see what it was all about. I'm not converting or anything like that, I think I just need to examine all of the facts."



21 comments:

SuzEQCitizen said...

Good one today!

PS: I emailed you about something and never got a response, so I will make my shame public.

I....umm, well, you see...

I CAN'T READ THE SMALL TEXT ON YOUR SIDEBAR.

Oh, the shame of it all...

Unknown said...

Hey Suzw,

I'm sorry. Everything looks fine on my computer. I can't seem to figure out what the problem could be. Is anyone else having the same problem?

-Tom

Unknown said...

Okay, I got it fixed now. I realized what the problem was.

-Tom

Stefan Ewing said...

Hah hah and hah! A good one today, Mr. Inthebox! The highly detailed image; a devout Catholic asking her Comparative Religion prof next-door neighbour to verify a miraculous vision; God's revelation of Luther...all brilliant!

Regarding the sidebar, I was having the same issue but was too ashamed to admit my inadequacy. (Well, I could read the font, but with difficulty.) Thank you for fixing it, and thank you, suzw, for speaking up!

Anonymous said...

It somehow reminds me about a funny story I read on Halloween of last year on one of the Christian blogs about a boy named Martin Erasmus, he was named after Desiderius Erasmus (proponent of free will) and Martin Luther (proponent of free grace) because his parents went to different churches and couldn't agree on the name for a newborn boy.
I googled and I found a link where you can read the whole story
http://4scores.blogspot.com/2006/
10/holiday-causes-moral-dilemma-for-area.html
the story called " Holiday Causes Moral Dilemma for Area Teen"

thanks for your post, I liked it.
May be next time she'll see the image of Calvin and visit a Calvinistic church.

Shep Shepherd said...

On my computer the text in your sidebar is HUGE - like size 48 font huge.

That story about Luther is nothing. I had some dust in my attic that looked like Pelagius.

Anonymous said...

AspiringTheologian said...
"That story about Luther is nothing. I had some dust in my attic that looked like Pelagius."

may be it is a warning that teaching of Pelagius is nothing but a dust of fallen human mind and will return to the dust, where free Sovereign Grace of God will endure forever.
Soli Deo Gloria

Stefan Ewing said...

"That story about Luther is nothing. I had some dust in my attic that looked like Pelagius."

LOL, as the kids say!

Stefan Ewing said...

Whoa, the links to other blogs and the archive links (Jan 2007, Feb 2007) are really, really big now.

Overall, the font elsewhere in the sidebar seems to be bigger and more legible than before, but at a more "normal" size.

I'm using Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP Service Pack 2 with a 17-inch monitor, if that helps....

Unknown said...

Well, I figured out the problem. It's called...

INTERNET EXPLORER 7!!!! which is completely of Satan. If you don't have Mozilla Firefox you need to get it otherwise you can't be saved! (jk) Make sure you get the 1611 version. It can be found at www.mozilla.org.

-Tom

Stefan Ewing said...

So... IE7 is the NRSV to the RSV of IE6? (From a Mozilla-onlyist's point of view....)

Anonymous said...

The picture actually looks like the man on a box of Quaker Oatmeal. No kidding...look for yourselves!

Stefan Ewing said...

So maybe God wants her to be a Quaker—or to eat more oatmeal....

SuzEQCitizen said...

Oh yeah, I can read it now WITHOUT Firefox!

Firefox is of the devil, I mean really, firefox? You think that's a coinky-dink?

I think not.

Stefan Ewing said...

Whoa, we both comment on the same blogs (this and Ben Witherington's)...spooky!

Hmmm, Firefox. Never saw it that way, but now that you mention it....

Unknown said...

suzw,

I'm sorry I have to say this but

Anathema!

Maranatha,

-Tom

Rev. said...

I once ate a tortilla that had the face of Knox appearing on it. Had it been Calvin, I would've probably saved it.

Anonymous said...

does someone know when people or church started to pay attention to so called "appearances", what century and who started it?

pilgrim said...

One of the best so far...
That would throw some people for a loop...

Amanda said...

Something tells me we might be seeing an anti-IE, pro-Firefox post soon. Personally, I don't subscribe to the Firefox-onlyism position. Although Firefox is my default browser, I will, in a pinch, use Opera.

Shep Shepherd said...

"may be it is a warning that teaching of Pelagius is nothing but a dust of fallen human mind and will return to the dust, where free Sovereign Grace of God will endure forever."

Victor - I think you nailed it. ;-)