Monday, October 15, 2018

Literature Paper on Dido


Literature. Week 3. Semester 1.
Could Dido have avoided falling in love with Aeneas? Do not say, ‘in some ways yes, but in some ways no.’ Give proof.

Where fate and gods are considered, who could tell the end of Dido’s passion for the heart of Aeneas would be anything but suicide. Until Aeneas had arrived in Carthage, Dido’s thoughts and feelings were focused only on the building of her triumphant city. Since the death of her first husband, she had refrained from a marriage with any man, showing her self-control and loyalty to her fair city.
But when a man like Aeneas arrived on the scene as though he had been dropped from the sky by the gods, what woman could have restrained her emotions upon seeing such a warrior? Combined with the power of Juno and the love of Venus working upon the heart of Dido, it is no wonder the poor woman was driven mad with love for the Trojan warrior. Even her sister, Anna, was swayed into confirming Dido’s greatest fear and rekindling the fire of love within her bosom. All those years Dido spent without the company of a king came back to haunt her. It was either Aeneas’ love or death.
Dido could have remembered Aeneas’ god-given duty to found Italy. She might have resisted her sister and found strength in the memory of her deceased husband.
To her credit, She did appeal to the gods by visiting and sacrificing upon many altars. She tried studying the moving entrails of newly sacrificed sheep, trying to discern her future. Dido would lead Aeneas through the city, displaying the wealth of Sidon, all the while biting her tongue to keep from baring her heart. However, when Aeneas would leave his couch at the end of the day, Dido would be overcome by her emotions, fling herself upon the deserted couch and see her warrior in her dreams. The years Dido spent with no king at her side only added to the confusion of Dido’s conscience. Her city went unguarded and the walls were not raised any higher because Dido had lost all sense of direction.
The hunting party, the day which Juno and Venus had planned so carefully in the clouds, was the queen’s eventual downfall. Aeneas led his retinue with all the glory his mother had bestowed on his golden features. Dido, robed in purple, her hair clasped with gold came riding with her party of soldiers, looking every bit of the queen she was.
I think Aeneas could have payed more attention to his son when the storm came up. After all, Ascanius was his flesh and blood. Instead, Aeneas fled to the nearest cave in the company of the queen. There, they were joined by Venus and Juno, while nymphs wailed on the mountain tops(Book 4, verse 169).
A once coercive queen, Dido chose her own fate by letting her actions be ruled by her emotions. Her love was self-destructive and later, destroyed her whole kingdom. Marriage should not primarily be for the satisfaction of our desires. Dido shows so vividly that marriage needs three people. God, Woman, and Man.
Aeneas was not ready to join into a union at the time. Dido gave herself up to the feelings of the moment, and the two goddesses Juno and Venus were only concerned with a) the usurping of a city more powerful than Carthage; and b) the safety of Venus’ son, Aeneas.
We usually think of divinities as being sources of peace and security. In Book 4, we see how Juno and Venus are only after their own desires and are only to willing to create chaos and be the reason for suicide. Would Dido have given in to her admiration for Aeneas if the gods were not in the equation?


Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Baby Bee





Why did Jesus have to die?


Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? It is a question that is pondered by each one of us.  
Why did Jesus have to suffer such agonies if He was the Son of God? Why couldn’t He have shown Himself as the Son of God to all mankind and save us all in a burst of light and a trumpets blast?
Fleming Rutledge argues in her book, The Crucifixion, that crucifixion was ‘specifically designed not only to intensify and prolong agony but to be the ultimate insult to personal dignity, the last word in humiliating and dehumanizing treatment. For love of us, Jesus chose to suffer this unimaginably painful death because ‘no other mode of execution would have been commensurate with the extremity of humanity's condition under Sin.’ The love that God has for us is so deep, so true, so infinite. He gave up Himself in the person of His Son as a sacrifice of insurmountable love.
Francisco DeOsuna reminds us in The Third Spiritual Alphabet, that God wished to mitigate the multitude of suffering symbolized by a bitter sea by taking the trials on himself and leaving the travelers behind with only a drop of bitter water, which in comparison with what He drank and suffered was little. God couldn’t bear seeing his children suffer. He is a God of mercy. In order to save his children from the devils grasp, He humiliated Himself in the most horrible death known to man by being nailed to a cross and used as a warning to anyone who dared put himself as the Messiah.
In those days, priests would offer sacrifices of animals to God for atonement for the sins they had committed. This sacrifice was symbolic of the punishment deserved by the people for their sins. The sacrifice made peace with God and ‘brought’ the people back into that divine relationship. In dying on the cross, Jesus, the God man offered Himself to the Father as our sacrifice. In His divine human nature, Jesus was ‘the outward sign instituted by God to give grace’. He was the physical Sacrament and Sacrifice offered to the world. St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, ‘We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ is the power of God and the Wisdom of God.’ (1 Corinthians 1:23-24) This passage from Paul captures the meaning of the cross so beautifully. Through Jesus’ death on the cross, He saved us from a death much like His own. The cross is our symbol of salvation.
Man cannot make up for the sins he committed against God. We cannot overcome death. We will be raised only through Jesus Christ and not ourselves. We do not have the ability to redeem because we are rooted in original sin. Jesus was able to offer the sacrifice of Himself to God since He was free from all sin. He took on the human nature to represent us but His divine nature interceded for us. Human kind committed the offense against God and God came down to forgive the offense man had committed by taking the form of man.
God could have shown His love in a myriad of ways, yet He wanted to be like us. He took on our condition so that He could become the head of who we are. In the way, everyone who suffers sees in the cross themselves. A man just like us in body, bleeding, scarred and almost dead, lifting us up so that His sheep could be found.