#emo emi

Yeah, it's a short comic. So what? Ya gonna sue me? Ya gonna send a guy flying just 'cause his week got a little overbooked? Ya gonna call a guy out just for phoning it in? Ya gonna throw shade at a guy already caught in the dark? I'm just a man. I'm just an ordinary man.

2. In this cartoon, Jesus says the opening line from this hard saying. In the future, that verse is read in Mass, and Emo Emi (a reoccurring character in my comics) is reading along and agreeing with the surface-level hate-mongering of the Lord. She verbally concurs, and her mother groans at how it seems Emi's only scriptural epiphanies are those which center around singular, radical, out-of-context verses.

JOKE-OGRAPHY: 1. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, a Catholic season of contemplation, preparation, sacrifice, and humility. If you go to Ash Wednesday Mass, you get ashes on your forehead in the shape of a cross. Catholics are supposed to fast (eat less than normal) and abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday. 2. In this cartoon, Emi tests Agnes on some made-up Ash Wednesday terminology. Not one answer in this whole thing is a real term, though some of them are probably things that exist. For example, priests must have some sort of ash stash for all those ashes, though they might not call it that. 3. At the end of the cartoon, Emi implies that she's taught Agnes that, if she eats meat on Ash Wednesday, she'll be whipped by "the ash lash." Emi's mother finally hears what the girls are talking about and yells at Emi for making stuff up.

JOKE-OGRAPHY: 1. Emo Emi is a snarky teen who enjoys being edgy and showing her parents just how silly their Christian faith is.  Unfortunately, she lacks enough philosophical depth to engage in theological debate.  As such, her attacks are the strawest of men, but her dear mother puts up with them out of love. 2. The chosen verses are not nearly the edgiest quotes the Bible has to offer. 3. Emi asks her mother if these verses have challenged her faith, as if an out-of-context Bible quote is all it would take to shake someone to their foundation.  Her mother says the verses are nothing compared to the constant spiritual battle she wages simply by being the mother of a teen.

JOKE-OGRAPHY: 1. The girl, Emo Emi, declares that she's going to call her father by his first name instead of by the title "Father."  She says she's doing this in obedience to Jesus, but actually, she's just trying to use the Bible as an excuse to be rude to her parents.  Unfortunately, before she can have a debate with her parents about the verse in question, her mother tells her that she's using the wrong first name for her father. 2. The verse Emi references is part of a scathing speech Jesus gives against the Jewish leaders (Matthew 23:1-36).  He tells His disciples that these leaders sit on the seat of Moses, so their words should be followed, but not their actions.  They're hypocrites who preach but do not practice.  They value their positions only for the prestige. 3. Jesus says not to call people "teacher", "father", or "master" in these verses, but titles like these are part of common speech, and the disciples continued using them after Jesus said this, so what gives?  It's important to remember that Jesus uses exaggeration to make important points several times in scripture.  "Cut off your hand!" (Matthew 5:30) and "Hate your families!" (Luke 14:26) are other such exaggerations.  Jesus doesn't want us cutting off body parts, but He wants us to strive for a radical detachment from sin.  Jesus doesn't want us hating our families, but He wants us to keep God at the forefront of our priorities, because then everything else falls into place.  In this exaggeration, Jesus isn't banning titles, but rather warning against the pride that comes with them, which has poisoned the scribes and Pharisees and made them forget Who they serve.