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THE  RESTLESS  FLAME,  DANIEL  LORD,  S.J.

Thinking Big in a Parochial World


Chapter 11    Chapter 13


EXTRA   MATERIAL

Chapter Twelve - 1928
For Flag and Cross and
A Fantasy of the Passion

A Story Told by Daniel Lord

Ocular Demonstration

Father John told me the delightful story of the little boys that he recently came upon in the basement of his church.

One of them had the other firmly gripped by the neck and the wrist, and he was pushing him ahead of him into the coalbin when Father John discovered them.

What’s going on here? demanded Father John.

Without relinquishing his grip, the offender looked up in fiery indignation.

He says—and he tightened his grip perceptibly on his victim’s neck—that we keep guns in the basement of our church.  So I dragged him down here, and I’m poking his nose into everything in the basement.  And if you’ll excuse me, father, I still haven’t made him look inside the furnace.

And he resolutely marched his captive off literally to poke his head into the mouth of the church’s large heating plant.1

More on Lord’s Pamphlets of 1928

A quote from Christ and Women:

Certainly no hero in all the world has won such loyalty and faithful service as women have given to Christ.  In His name and for His love they have served the poor, taught little children, nursed the sick, made their houses like the holy house of Nazareth, taken penitents in their protecting arms, kept devotion to Him flaming high in convents and in private homes.  Modern history is lighted by the glowing lives of women kindled with a spark of the love of Christ.2

In The Pure of Heart Father Hall stated:

It’s only when sex is abused, turned from its tremendous purpose, used, not like the creative power of God, but like the blind and selfish instinct of beasts, that it is cheap or common are vulgar.3

According to Father Hall, the unbelieving modern wants the pleasure of sex without recognizing its greater purpose.

At this point enters the strangely vulgar, common, corrupt part that spoils so much of the beauty of love and so often thwarts God’s design.  Men feel this attraction for a chance woman acquaintance; women feel drawn, sometimes slightly, sometimes strongly, to men they just happen to meet.  Then without stopping to ask if this be the great love, or without admitting that love is a great responsibility and a reward given for the fulfillment of a sacred trust, they accept the attraction, gratify more or less the momentary whim, drag the manifestation of love down into the common uses of a casual acquaintance or the base uses of sin.4

And the pitiful little children whimpering in hospitals, with nothing but sickness and idiocy ahead of them, deserted children on doorsteps, slain unborn babies, millions of infants never allowed to see the light of earth or feel the hope of heaven may blame their fate on sins against love and life.  Not important?  Good God!  What damnable liars these men and women are when they defend this sin!5

(A product of his time, Lord held the view that immoral sex could lead to children being born who were damaged physically or mentally.  The real problem is that sometimes a woman with an unwanted pregnancy fails to get proper pre-natal care.)

This conversation takes place during a walk in woods.  The beauty of nature is described as Father Hall comments:

I love to think of the moment when God sent the universe flying out into space and, where just a second before there was nothing, the first star dust began to whirl and the light picked out and played upon the stuff of future worlds.  I love to think of the moment when the first flower lifted its head on the cooling earth and when the first tiny animals wriggled feebly in the mud.  God’s tremendous act of creation making all this world with its beauty and its powers!6

Daniel Lord believed in God the creator, but did not take the first chapter of Genesis literally.  In this passage Father Hall sounds like a religious Carl Sagan.


In These Terrible Jesuits Lord stated: points out that Jesuit obedience is not as it is described in novels.  The Jesuit constitution includes the phrase on obedience: wherever there is no sin..  Lord describes his own experience that orders are rare and that they are usually given as requests.

As for rumors of Jesuit wealth, Lord notes that he has only two suits: one summer, one winter.  Lord also notes that Jesuits have a rule forbidding Jesuits from trying to influence someone to join.  When one enters the Jesuits he is asked: Has anyone induced or persuaded you to take this step?.  If the answer is yes he is sent back and told to wait.

A Fantasy of the Passion

Lord wrote A Fantasy of the Passion at the request of FitzGeorge Dinneen, S.J. to be performed by the Loyola Community Theater of Chicago.  The Introduction says the play has received stage presentations from hundreds of amateur and professional drama groups throughout the United States.  Lord also created a radio version.

The script contains detailed scenery and lighting directions.  The show takes place in a hospital with a man reliving his past and having visions.

Synopsis


Hospital Scene

It is Good Friday and in the chapel of this Catholic hospital the nuns pray and the music of Stabat Mater is heard.  The SURGEON says the patient (the MAN), worth 10 million, will not live beyond three o’clock that afternoon.

The MAN speaks to the NURSE: I’ve seen the world and beaten it, and I don’t want to give it up.  Love and life and money and power. . . .8.  He becomes delirious and sees his past life.

Laboratory Scene

The MAN (O’Kelley), an ex-Catholic, works with JORDAN, an atheist scientist, who is trying to revive dead cells.

MAN: Well, damn it all, Prof, I don’t believe.  I’m as cold a reasoner as you are.  I don’t need God any more than you do.  If you’ve got no soul, then neither have I.  If you don’t believe in Jesus Christ, what’s Jesus Christ to me?9

The MAN in the hospital bed now sees Phyllis.

Stage Dressing Room Scene

The MAN is madly in love with Phyllis.  She invites him to Crystal Beach.  He wants to marry her even though Sanderson is sending flowers and calling her.  The MAN talks of marriage but she tells him she is already married.  He decides to leave because of honor and decency.  Then she starts to call Sanderson to take her to the beach.  The MAN stops her: he will take her.

The MAN in the hospital: (Passionately, but in delirium): Phyllis, I love you.  . . .  What difference does honor make, or hell, or decency? . . .  I love you. . . . I love you.  . . .10

The Pullman Washroom

The MAN joins a group of salesmen in a Pullman railroad car telling dirty jokes.  He says he owns O’Kelly Silk that makes High Luster Silk.  He talks about his business success, all built on honesty.

The Office

In this scene the MAN and his partner steal the formula from a CHEMIST for High Luster Silk.  As the company’s stock soars, they become rich.

The Living Room

The MAN had promised to respect his wife’s faith and allow their children to be brought up in the Church.  The WIFE confronts him because the MAN talked their 19 year old son out of his faith: Before my eyes, under the very gaze of the wife you have said you loved, you have murdered the soul of the boy I bore to you.  And I shall go through life knowing that I have married a murderer.11

The MAN in the hospital now sees a crucifixion scene.

Gethsemane Scene

The scientist JORDAN and the MAN enter the garden where Peter, John, and James are keeping watch.

JORDAN: And when, my boy, we’ve finished the experiment and made life itself, we’ll know that God isn’t necessary and this new world of ours, self-reliant, powerful, strong, needs no Savior.

(He holds up a test-tube toward the light.).  Out of this, like the jinnee from the bottle, shall come a new age, powerful, self-reliant, strong, free from credulity, needing no God and no Christ . . . no religion.  Any you shall lead it.12

JORDAN tells the MAN to kiss Christ (hidden behind the rock at the back of the stage) to prove he is a myth.  Hesitantly the MAN kisses Jesus: I kissed Him, and He called me Judas!.  JORDAN calls in the soldiers to arrest Jesus: Bind him fast.  His age is over, and now ours begins.13

The MAN in the hospital sees the crucifix on the wall and cries out: I want Phyllis.  Phyllis, save me!.  I want your beauty, not the horror of that thing.  Your loveliness, not the hideousness of death.  Phyllis . . . Phyllis.14

At the Pillar

Roman soldiers, played by the salesmen in the Pullman scene, tie a man to a pillar.  He is behind the pillar and the audience can only see his elbows.  The MAN rushes in chasing the married Phyllis and expressing his love for her.  A voice is heard Thou shalt not commit adultery..  When the MAN holds back she demands he prove his love by whipping the man in the shadow.

The MAN in the hospital bed laments: For her flesh, a blow on His flesh.  For her kisses, His back cut and torn . . . For her love, His tortures . . . This blow for this kiss . . . and for this . . .15

The Crown of Thorns

The soldiers start telling bawdy stories: About a little Tuscan girl and a Roman soldier who stayed overnight in her village.16.  They weave the crown as they joke.  They invite the MAN to join them.  Because the MAN told the dirtiest story he gets to crown Jesus with the thorns.

For the Seamless Robe

The soldiers cast dice for the clothing of Jesus.  The Chemist enters and a soldier throws the seamless robe at him.  The MAN and his partner appear.  With loaded dice they steal the robe from the Chemist.  The Chemist speaks: You have thrown your loaded dice to win His seamless robe.   You have robbed the poor.  No, you have robbed Christ, the poor Christ.  Take your cloth your stolen cloth, with you into eternity.17

The Spear Thrust

The MAN is going to prove that Jesus is not God by spearing him.  He goes up to the figure on the cross and pulls back to thrust the spear.  His son rushes in to stop him and is speared by the MAN.

WIFE: Don’t touch him!.  Don’t touch him!.  You have killed his soul.  You have killed more than his soul. . . You have killed the Christ in his heart.18

The Hospital Again

MAN: Then I am the one who slew him.  I am Judas.  My hand wielded the scourge.  I plated the crown of thorns.  I stole the seamless robe.  I drove the lance into his side.  What hope for me?.  What hope for me?19

Asking for a crucifix, he begs Jesus for forgiveness and dies.

Other Lord Plays

Lord created Round the Clock with Claire: A Dramatized Day in the Life of a Girl which would have five printings into the 1940s and be produced at hundreds of girls schools.20.  This small one act play covers a day with Claire, a high school girl.


Synopsis

6:45 A.M.

7:00 A.M.    Claire Rises

9:00 A.M.    Claire Comes to Class

12:00 M.      Claire Prays

2:00 P.M.     Claire Plays Bridge

7:00 P.M.     Claire Plans the Evening

10:00 P.M.   Claire Concludes the Day

At the back of the stage is a large clock with movable hands.  On a raised platform in back an ANGEL and impish DEMON keep track of CLAIRE’S good and bad deeds during the day.

In the classroom scene CLAIRE starts copying the Latin assignment of a friend, but the angel convinces her to stop.  Although CLAIRE is the most popular girl in class she nominates ESTELLE for the Class Presidency and allows her to get it.

At lunch she goes to the chapel to pray.  However, once there, she dreams of hats and movies: a movie villain and a heroine appear.  Later at the Bridge party CLAIRE avoids the gossip, partners with the bad player, and leaves early to help her mother.

In the evening she lies to her mother, saying she is going to study at a friend’s but instead starts to go a party.  She comes back to her mother and admits she lied and apologizes.

That night, sleepless, she gets up to make an Act of Contrition for all she has done that day.  The angel wins. 

DEMON:  All my work lost!.  All my work lost!21

Lord also The Day We Graduate for Nerinx Hall high school.22


Synopsis

A curtain opens to show portraits of three GRADUATES from the 1880s which come alive as actresses step from the frames.  The GRADUATES are baffled by the modern language they have heard: Peg gave her stepper the gate because he was just a cake-eater, and she hates patent-leather-haired sheiks that think of nothing but something on the hip, and Come on, Sue, let’s chase the Stutz down to the soda fountain and lap up a few banana splits.23

The GRADUATES comment on modern fashion; girls doing athletics; and modern studies of biology, sociology, and paleontology.  They compare their world of servants to modern women in the workplace.

The figure of ALMA MATER appears followed by the GHOSTS of wasted hours who haunt a student who did not study for her test:

THIRD GHOST: If Caesar won the Trojan War in 1492, what is the perfect infinitive of rosa?  Ooooooo!

FOURTH GHOST: Who killed Cleopatra, and if so, why not?  Ooooooo!

FIFTH GHOST: Give the chemical formula of a maple nut sundae.  Ooooooo!

Other memories of high school are recalled such as the Chaplin talking about the missions.  A CHINESE MOTHER with a child appears.  A man takes her child.  Money given to missions allows her to buy the child back.

A track race and first dance are acted out.  The May Crowning of Mary and Dieting Club are remembered.  The play closes with the appearance of FATHER TIME and girls in caps and gowns.

For Flag and Cross

Lord wrote For Flag and Cross: A Demonstration of Catholic Educational Loyalty as a surprise demonstration at a banquet.  It was used widely at Sodality events.24


Synopsis

As the SPEAKER talks on Loyalty to Flag and Cross two COLLEGIANS in the audience get restless and taunt him.  SPEAKER: And to think that in Catholic schools there are such as you!.  The COLLEGIANS admit they came to college to party.

The SPEAKER gives a history of Catholic art and education that goes into making a Catholic student.  He hangs a cross on the curtain.

SPEAKER: There is the symbol that shall ever rise above our colleges.  Within their walls God is ever welcome.  In their classrooms Christ is the first and greatest teacher.  (He picks up the Flag and drapes it on the cross.).  And with the cross, the Flag.  First God, then country.  Hail to the cross!.  Hail to the Flag!

SPEAKER: And, now laggard and unworthy sons of such a heritage, do you see what importance there is in your Catholic education?25

A figure barges in: Call me the new thinker if you wish, the agnostic, the skeptic, the polite scoffer, the atheist.  God is dead.  Your God is dead.  Science has slain Him.  Your Bible is folklore, silly, stupid folklore.  Your Church was once a beautiful woman, but she’s a barren mother now.  I am unbelief.26

UNBELIEF declares he will: Drive God from the world, Christ from the lives of men, the Ten Commandments from the memory of mankind and the cross from every school.27.  He takes the stage and tears down the cross and the flag.

The COLLEGIANS try to retake the stage.

FIRST COLLEGIAN: I’m a slacker, a student who hasn’t known what it means to be a Catholic college man.  I’ve not valued the cross that is over my alma mater.  But I do now.  Are we going to let unbelief pull the cross down from our schools?.  Are we going to allow Christ to be banished from the classrooms?.  Are we going to let God be driven from our colleges? Then we, the united Catholic Students of the America, we’ll drive out Unbelief and put back the cross and Flag.28

The COLLEGIANS drive out UNBELIEF who runs wildly through the hall and out the door.  The COLLEGIANS rehang the cross and flag and lead the audience in the pledge to flag and cross: We the united Catholic Students of America (or of the school) will keep the Flag and the cross above our schools, God in our classrooms, Christ in the chapel, loyalty to country and religion in our hearts, Amen.29


William Halsey describes Lord’s production for the National Catholic Alumni Federation in New York City in 1928 of The Battle Called Life.30.  It is Daniel Lord’s For Flag and Cross which had many performances at Sodality banquets.  Halsey dismisses the show as patriotic nonsense..  Halsey has a right to his opinion.  However, it was not nonsense to the many people who saw it.  Very likely it was very meaningful.  Also, this show must be understood in its historical context.  The show was created in 1928 when Al Smith was running for president.  In the virulent anti-Catholic mood against Smith, many Catholics were eager to affirm their patriotism.

A Random Thought

In the March Lord wrote on The Milwaukee Passion Play written by Michael H. Gorman S.J.  Lord noted that each year they struggled with how to play Judas.  What was his motivation?.  The gospels do not explain why Judas did what he did.  Plays, movies, and musicals such has the 1970s Jesus Christ Superstar have to create a motivation for Judas so he becomes a plausible character.



NOTES



Chapter 11    Chapter 13

  

Copyright 2021 Stephen Werner