People either like or hate my food posts. Hence, I enjoy posting them.
But first, as I watch what’s going on in the Church right now, two paintings at the MET jumped to my full attention.
First, my necessary entrance hotdog. The cart in front of the Met has great hotdogs, and the proceedes go to a wounded Marine. Tell them Fr. Z sent you.
Here is a portrait of a German merchant of the Hanseatic League by the amazing Hans Holbein.
Look at everything in the frame.
Did you see the slip of paper in the book? It sports the words which might have been a moto of the sitter. It’s a line in Latin from Terence’s Andria.
Veritas odium parit.
Truth breeds hatred.
Today, if people speak about about real problems of ambiguity and confusion being caused in the Church these days, they get terrible blowback. Certain libs pour out their venom on the those who insist that mercy cannot be extended at the expense of the truth. Truth and mercy must go hand in hand.
And another portrait by Holbein of another well-to-do merchant.
He, too, has papers. I’m interested in the one at his elbow.
This one has a line from the Aeneid: Olim meminisse iuvabit. This is just enough of a famous line that everyone would know. When Aeneas et al. are shipwrecked, he utters: “Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit… perhaps someday remembering these things will give you joy.”
That is to say: Things are really bad now, but someday in the future we will look back on these events and will be able to find the good in them and how they were, ultimately, of benefit.
Going on. Brueghel’s great summer harvest painting has people eating.
Carpeaux’s magnificent marble of imprisoned and starving Ugolino, as he is faced with the horror of eating his own children.
Corned beef and Pastrami from the 2nd Avenue Deli. It was good…. but… I must admit that I’ve had better.
That was a fun experience, by the way. I went to the Deli with a cop on the NYPD who is fairly high in the ranks. He remarked that it was like a joke: “So, … ‘dis cop an’ a priest walk into a Jewish Deli….” Indeed we were the focus of the attention of many tables. A couple of very Jewish families with little kids came over to say hello when they were finished and departing. Delightful. A good moment of public relations, too.
Last night a priest friend and a couple went to supper and started with sea critters. The oysters were great.
So, I’ve been ticking off my errands and visiting some new and old dining places and seeing friends.
And today I made an interesting BREAKTHROUGH on the VESTMENT front! Stay tuned.
