18 July 2018
Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
One of three detective stories from the pen of Edger Allen Poe describes the exploits of a fictional detective, August Dupin, in a story entitled The Purloined Letter. A compromising piece of correspondence must be found, the stability of the country is at risk, and by means of the astute detection of Dupin (whose character serves as a model for a more famous Victorian detective) finds the letter which has eluded the most vigorous of searches. Dupin finds the letter “hidden” on top of a desk with other letters, a common place where he knew no one would look. The book ends with the Latin admonishment nil sapientiæ odiosus acumine nimio, a quote from Senneca translated as: Nothing is more hateful to learning than too much cunning. Today’s readings recall the words of Jesus admonishing that the Kingdom of God is missed by the wise and the learned and instead known by children. Children would know that you put an envelope on a desk with other envelops. Just seven years before the publishing of The Purloined Letter, Hans Christian Anderson in 1844 published the now famous story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. In this now classic story, a child blurts out the truth that everyone, because of their vanity, was afraid to admit. When we confuse our lives with various and conflicting goals we often miss the obvious and important, things often seen and presumed by children.