In Christianity, we say we have one God revealed in three Persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. They are distinct in their relationship to each other: the Father generates, the Son is begotten, and the Holy Spirit proceeds. Yet They all fully embody the same divine nature and will. The Trinity is the central mystery of Christianity, which proclaims that Jesus is fully God and fully man and came to marry our human nature to His divine one, inviting us into the eternal reality of God through mutual love.
In this cartoon, a child articulates the Trinity according to her limited understanding by relating each divine Person to one of the priests in her local parish. She thinks of God as an old man, as depicted in art like "The Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo, and compares Him to the oldest priest. She thinks of Jesus as a kindly teacher, as depicted in many child-focused Bible studies, and relates Him to her favorite priest. And since education about the role and power of the Holy Spirit is often lacking or puts less focus on Him than on the creator Father or savior Son, she thinks of the Holy Spirit as a tiny and unimpressive dove, and compares Him to the youngest and least impressive priest, saying he's "small and doesn't do a lot." The young priest is shocked at this harsh assessment. Meanwhile, in Heaven, the Holy Spirit is similarly mortified by the naive critique, which almost causes Jesus to fall over laughing.
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John 14:15-18 takes place during John's version of the Last Supper, where a bunch of Jesus's teachings are rolled into one big dinner discourse. It's where Jesus promises that, once He's gone, He'll send a paraclete (a Greek word meaning "called alongside," like a helper, advocate, or counselor) to stay with and guide the new Church. As Christians, we know this paraclete to be none other than the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Holy Trinity.
In the Book of Acts, we see the Holy Spirit come to the disciples about 50 days after Jesus's resurrection, and about 10 days after His ascension to heaven, on the feast of Pentecost. In Acts 2:1-4, He enters the house where the twelve apostles and other disciples dwell, first as a howling wind, then as tongues of fire reaching out and granting the faithful the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Animated by the Spirit, the disciples all go out and preach, each being understood by everyone they speak to, even those who speak different dialects and languages. It's like their union with God is beginning to heal the disunity of ancient Babel.
In this cartoon, the Holy Spirit politely knocks on the door before entering. Peter notes that Whoever's at the door must be the paraclete Jesus promised to send. John admits to Peter that he originally misheard the word "paraclete" and thought Jesus was sending them a "pair o' cleats," which sounds similar. In the English-speaking United States of America circa 2003 (and culturally adjacent eras and areas), the word "cleats" was generally used to mean "sports shoes equipped with pointed grips" (even though the word "cleats" technically refers to the pointed grips themselves). This is quite a humorous twist of circumstances, for Peter and John do not live in an era NOR in and area that is culturally adjacent to the English-speaking United States of America circa 2003, so they would never use the term "cleats" to describe sports shoes, at least not the brands we're familiar with today.
Anyway, since Jesus obviously said He'd send the disciples a paraclete (the Holy Spirit), and not a pair of cleats (spiked sports shoes), Peter and John smile at the absurdity of John's misunderstanding until Peter opens the door and sees the Holy Spirit in his dove form standing outside in a fancy pair of cleats. This is funny because birds don't normally wear cleats when knocking on doors, meaning He probably had to put them on very quickly after knocking.
The Great Commission
This Bible story is from the very end of Matthew's Gospel. Jesus has risen from the dead and has asked His disciples to meet him on a mountain in their homeland of Galilee. There, He gives them what's known as the Great Commission: the mission to go out into the world, teach God's commandments, make disciples of all nations, and baptize all people in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
I Am With You Always
Jesus ends the Great Commission by promising to be with the disciples always. This may seem a little ironic, because we're told in the Book of Acts that Jesus ascends to heaven shortly after making this promise. Of course, while Jesus leaves them in a certain sense, He also sends His Holy Spirit to guide them to all truth (as He promised in John 16:7-13), remains with them in the Eucharist, and dwells in the hearts of all the faithful on earth.
Until the End of the Age
"And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." In this verse (Matthew 28:19-20), Jesus is saying He'll remain with His disciples until this era has come to a close. In this cartoon, I pull from a different translation of this verse. Some older English translations, like the King James Version, say, "...until the end of the WORLD." The word "world" actually comes from Old English and used to mean something like "age of man," but nowadays we use "world" to mean the physical earth. So, in modern English, the verse is simply translated to "age," because that conveys Jesus's focus on the end of a certain era rather than implying the destruction of the planet. That being said, the end of the age is assumed by many to come at the end of humankind, and isn't that kind of the end of the world anyway? For this cartoon, I wrote "THIS world," which I think still implies the passing of a certain state of things while also allowing clarity for the joke, which reads better if "world" is used.
The Joke
In this cartoon, Jesus delivers His line about being with the disciples "until the end of this world." Peter assumes "until" means that Jesus will leave them at the end of the world, and asks who will take His place and remain with the disciples AFTER the end of the world. Jesus clarifies to Peter that everyone will be dead, by which He means the faithful will have passed on to the next world, where they'll be fully united to Jesus in heaven forever. Peter, however, takes it to mean that everyone will be gone from this world except for him, so he thinks he'll be all alone in the empty, ended world with no friends and no Jesus. Jesus clarifies that Peter will ALSO be dead (i.e. passed on) just like everyone else. This is a source of comfort to Peter, and of hilarity to all good-natured viewers, like you.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Look at you, alone at the end of these words. Could it be that you recognize that this was a "Tomics Resurrection," where I go out, take an old comic of mine, and baptize it in my updated style? The original is from 2017 (9 years ago!), but behold, now it will be with us always, even to the end of the age (of my current style, when I'll have to redraw it again)!
In this Bible story, Jesus is giving the disciples a sense of assurance before His passion and death. He explains He'll be leaving them soon, but once He's gone, He'll send them a paraclete (or an advocate) to guide them to the truth until He returns. This paraclete is understood to be the Holy Spirit, Who comes to the disciples as tongues of fire after Jesus's ascension to heaven.
Jesus's line in the first panel of this cartoon is a direct quote from John 14:20. The exact wording of the quote sounds a little like a paradox, since He says, "You are in me and I am in you," but Jesus is saying that the disciples will remain in His Body, the Church, and He will remain in the disciples' hearts in spirit.
In this cartoon, Peter's reaction to Jesus's apparent paradox is a full-on mental breakdown as he imagines him being within Jesus while Jesus is within him while he is within Jesus and so on and so on into maddening infinity. This is, mathematically, very funny and simply the cleverest.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This is yet another "Tomics Resurrection," where I take an old cartoon and make it new. The old version is from about 9 years ago -- crazy! -- but while the character designs and colors in the new version have been updated to match my evolved style, the writing and pacing of the comic have remained substantially the same. So you realize that the old is in the same script and the new is in the old and the old is in the new.
JOKE-OGRAPHY:
This cartoon references a lot of verses, so here's an explanation for them all:
Matthew 1:18-24 is about the Annunciation (Gabriel announcing to Mary that she will bear the Son of God). This takes place "when Mary and Joseph were betrothed but before they came together." In this context, the word "betrothed" is being used for the stage of ancient Jewish marriage where the bride and groom had entered into the marriage contract but did not yet live together. So Mary and Joseph are legally a couple, but Joseph doesn't take her into his home until the end of this section after the angel reassures him in a dream. The taking of the bride into the groom's newly built home was the final stage of the marriage.
Matthew 22:1-2 is the beginning of one of Jesus's parables where He likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a king preparing a wedding feast for his son. The Bible is just lousy with wedding imagery when it comes to God's relationship with mankind; or rather, marriage is lousy with imagery pointing to the ultimate destiny of humanity to unite entirely with God in life-giving, self-giving love.
Matthew 26:26-28 is where Jesus lifts the bread and wine at the last supper and declares them His Body and Blood of the covenant. Jesus's cup is the cup that all other cups and covenants reflect all throughout the Bible. THIS is the big one, where God pledges Himself once again to mankind, IN THE FLESH!
John 13:33 and 14:1-3 are where Jesus talks about leaving the disciples for a time, then assures them that He's going to prepare a dwelling for them in His Father's house. He adds that, once He's done, He'll come back for them, to take them to Himself. In light of the other verses compressed into this fun little amateur Bible study, we can see Jesus is once again using very wedding-coded imagery to speak about heaven and the anticipated union with the Divine.
Thanks for reading! As a reward -- and because I can't post something without a joke (per MY covenant with my patron, St. Lawrence) -- here's a classic: "What do you get when you eat all the potatoes?"
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This Bible story occurs just after Jesus heals the man born blind (John 9). If you'll recall, Jesus healed the man on the sabbath, and while the Pharisees bickered about what this might mean, the healed man recognized Jesus was the Lord and worshiped Him. After this miracle, Jesus teaches the public, and some Pharisees are among them, listening and taking offense to His words. Now, in John 10, Jesus uses a metaphor, saying that those who enter a sheepfold (a safe enclosure for a flock of sheep to spend the night) by climbing the wall are thieves and robbers, and the sheep do not recognize their voices, but the true shepherd of the sheep comes through the sheepfold's gate, and his sheep recognize him and come in and out to pasture and thrive. Jesus identifies Himself both as the gate and the "good shepherd." By extension, we see that the healed man -- who recognized Him as Lord -- is one of His flock.
In this cartoon, we focus on Jesus's line about being the gate. Reading this passage is a priest, Fr. Mark, practicing for his homily. He concludes that Jesus identifying Himself as a gate is why we call worship of Him "a-DOOR-ation." Now, "adoration" can be used as a synonym for "worship," and a gate is a kind of door, so Fr. Mark says "a-DOOR-ation" to fuse the two concepts together like some kind of chimeric abomination. His fellow priest, Fr. Books, wonders if he ought to do the homily instead, to spare their flock of this awful wordplay.
In this Bible story (Luke 24), Jesus has risen from the dead and is appearing to various disciples. Two of these disciples (one named Cleopas, and another unnamed) are leaving Jerusalem on the road to a town called Emmaus, still sad about Jesus's death. Suddenly, He appears beside them and asks what they're discussing. They -- being supernaturally unaware that this is, in fact, Jesus -- wonder how this guy could've missed the news of the huge execution in the city, and explain it to Him. Jesus then travels with them for a ways, but they only realize it's Him when He breaks bread over dinner and disappears.
It's worth noting throughout the Gospels that sometimes, when people see the resurrected Jesus, they know Him right away, and other times, they mistake Him for a gardener or a random traveler. Jesus going around pranking folks with His resurrection powers is canon. Make of that what God wills.
In this cartoon, Jesus appears to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and, instead of them being supernaturally unable to recognize Him, He simply puts on a set of goofy glasses. Maybe there's still some supernatural stuff going on, though, because I've depicted Him in His full glory with a halo over His head and a glow around His body, adding to the whimsy of the disciples not recognizing Him right away.
The flow of the cartoon essentially matches the marked verses (Luke 24:13-21). However, when the disciples are surprised by Jesus's apparent lack of knowledge about the recent crucifixion, the woman asks, "Where've you been? Under a rock?" This is an idiom that implies the person would have to have been buried underground in order not to have heard some widespread news. Jesus's reply -- "So what if I was?" -- is based on the fact that He actually WAS buried during the last couple days, laid in a tomb with a large stone over the entrance. So, by technicality, yes, He was under (or buried behind) a rock.
The exact identity of the two disciples in this story is not too important, but it's an interesting place where different interpretations open different dimensions of meaning. In this version, I depicted the two disciples as a married couple who share a resemblance with two other characters in my comics, because where one couple walked with God until their eyes were opened to their sin over shared food (Gen 3:6-7), this couple also walks with God until their eyes are opened to their salvation at the breaking of bread (Luke 24:30-31). This interpretation is borrowed from Dr. Tim Gray and Jeff Cavins (authors of Walking with God: A Journey Through the Bible). Again, it's only an interpretation, so take it or leave it. I thought it was cute.
In this Bible story (John 20), Jesus has just risen from the dead, but the disciples don't realize it yet. They're still afraid that the Jewish leaders and the Judeans who had Jesus crucified might also come after His followers. So they hide and lock their doors.
In this cartoon, the disciples hide from the Jews (as we read in John 20:19) and Peter locks the door, sighing with relief that no Jews can find them now. Sometimes, when John writes about the Jews, the word he's using is actually referring specifically to the Jews of Judea as opposed to Jews in general or, say, the Jews of Galilee, where most (if not all) of the apostles were from. In this cartoon, I still translate it as "Jews" and not "Judeans" because in order for the joke to work, the term has to encompass the apostles as well. Anyway, after Peter locks the door and sighs that no Jews can get them, John points out that the apostles are also Jews. Peter panics and leaves the room to hide from the apostles. As he locks the door from the other side, John reminds Peter that he's also a Jew, and so his attempts to avoid ALL Jews can never succeed. This is (structurally speaking) quite whimsical and, dare I say, even a mite silly.
In this Bible story (Matthew 28), Jesus has been crucified on Friday. Because Jews can't do work (including burying the dead) on the Sabbath (which is Saturday, but technically starts at sunset on Friday), when Jesus dies, He's hastily taken down from the cross and laid in a new tomb just before sunset. The Jewish priests also convince the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to place a guard in front of the tomb to make sure Jesus's followers don't steal His body and claim He rose from the dead, as He prophesied that He would. After the Sabbath, some women come to Jesus's tomb to mourn Him and perform a belated anointing, as per Jewish funeral custom. However, when they arrive, an angel appears like lightning, frightens the guards so bad that they faint, and rolls back the stone that covers the tomb's entrance. Inside, Jesus is gone. The angel tells the women to go and tell Jesus's disciples that He's risen and will meet them all up north in Galilee.
In this cartoon, Mary Magdalene and another Mary (probably the wife of Clopas and mother of James the Less) show up at the tomb. As in the story, an angel then appears to roll back the stone, reassure the women, and terrify the guards. However, instead of his mighty appearance frightening the guards in itself, the angel in the cartoon makes a joke, pretending that he's going to kill the guards as a magical sacrifice to awaken Jesus from the dead. The guards, already frightened, faint in a fit of terror before the angel reveals he was joking.
I've been informed by some great artists and adamant articles that ethnically Roman guards were a rarity in Judea in Jesus's day. Instead, most Roman soldiers there would be auxiliaries -- non-Romans from Roman-conquered areas who would pledge themselves to Rome's military to earn Roman citizenship. It's likely that the auxiliaries in Judea were a Samaritan or maybe a Syrian cohort. They also wouldn't have worn the classic segmented steel armor that I love drawing, but would instead (most likely) wear chainmail. Things can never be easy, can they?
No cartoon on Good Friday, as usual for Tomics. Instead we'll have an Easter Sunday cartoon. See you there!
___
NOT-SO-JOKE-OGRAPHY:
In Matthew 26, Jesus sits to eat a holiday meal with His closest disciples. As they begin eating, He reveals that one of them will betray Him. They argue, each one insisting they would never do such a thing, but Jesus assures them His betrayal is foretold in Scripture. However, He adds, "But woe to the one through whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born." To me, this is the most chilling sentence ever spoken, particularly because it's said by Jesus, Himself. For Him to declare that someone's fate is so bad that NEVER EXISTING would be preferable is straight up horror so vast I struggle to grasp it.
Psalm 41 contains a poem or song by King David about a betrayal he suffered. Jesus reflects on this song while He faces His own betrayal at the hands of His disciple, Judas.
The last few weeks of this Lent have been filled with pretty serious or contemplative cartoons, so here's a little levity to get us over the hump to Easter: Someone referred to my Jesus as a "Soyjak" because I depicted Him smiling with His mouth open, so remember to keep your Jesus's mouth shut at all times, sinners.
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In this Bible story (John 11), Jesus's friends, Martha and Mary of Bethany, send Him word that their brother, Lazarus, is very sick. Jesus tells His disciples that this illness won't end in death, but in glory for God. However, by the time Jesus decides to go to His friends, Lazarus has already been dead for four days. Obviously Martha and Mary sent word to Jesus hoping He'd come and heal their brother. Instead, Jesus seems to arrive too late. However, as Jesus said, Lazarus's illness wouldn't END with death. And so, after being moved by the mourning of His friends, and even weeping Himself, He does what He came to do. He orders the tomb to be opened, calls Lazarus by name, and the dead man emerges from the tomb, fully alive and well.
It's important to note that, despite Jesus knowing that He's going to raise Lazarus, He's deeply troubled by the mourning of Martha and Mary, and even weeps for his friend, Lazarus, when he visits his tomb. The story gives a potent glimpse at Jesus's divinity with His prophecy (that Lazarus's illness would end up glorifying God) and His power (to raise Lazarus from death), but it also shows the fullness of Jesus's humanity, with all the emotions that come with being invested enough to really love or truly lose someone.
In this cartoon, Jesus receives word from the Bethany sisters of their brother's illness. Jesus knows how this illness will cause His friends to suffer, and though He knows that suffering is only temporary -- and even necessary for a greater purpose -- He experiences its fullness alongside them.
In John 9:1-7, Jesus heals a man who was born blind. He does this by spitting on the ground to turn some dirt into clay, then He rubs the clay on the man's face and tells him to wash. When the man washes, he can see.
In Genesis 2:7, God takes some dirt and molds it into the first man, then breathes the breath of life into his nostrils to make man a living being. It's a beautiful marriage of humility and dignity where mankind is made of the same basic particles as the rest of creation while also being elevated over the rest of it by a touch of the Divine.
In this cartoon, the narrator, Boethius Clunderwink (a storied stage name) wonders if Jesus meant to harken back to one of His fathers in the action of using dirt to heal to blind man. In a way, Jesus was giving new life to the blind man, and as with all His signs on earth, this act was a way of ushering in a new creation, so it makes sense to refer to Genesis 2:7 as a potential parallel. On the other much more mundane hand, a popular pastime of earthly parents upon seeing their child get not-too-badly-scraped is to tell them to "rub some dirt on it." This might not be sound medical advice per se, but the idea is to encourage children get up and handle minor pain so they can continue having fun. It's possible that old St. Joseph encouraged young Jesus in the same age-old way when He was young.
Of course, this cartoon also outs Boethius Clunderwink as a potential logical and religious heretic, because the binary question he's posed falls into a logical fallacy called the False Dichotomy IN ADDITION to falling into the classic heresy of Nestorianism. You see, Jesus wasn't imitating God OR man. He was both fully imitating God AND fully imitating man.
In this Bible story (John 4), Jesus rests by a well while His disciples go to buy food. It's near noon, so the sun is hot, and when a Samaritan woman comes to the well to draw water, Jesus asks her for a drink. She's surprised, because He's a Jew, and the Jews of that time famously hated the Samaritans, who were seen as half-breeds and heretics. The story continues with the woman opening up about her life of adultery, and Jesus offering her water that will never leave her thirsty again. The story is filled with powerful imagery of salvation, marriage, mercy, and evangelism, but I can't do it all justice here, so here's a short video about it that I absolutely loved: Bishop Robert Barron on The Woman at the Well.
In this cartoon, the Samaritan woman (later dubbed "St. Phontini" by some Christians) sneaks out of her home and out of town to draw water from the well alone. Normally, drawing water would be done in the cooler parts of the day, and you'd go together with friends to socialize as you walked, but this woman goes alone at high noon. She's clearly ashamed and chooses to come to the well when no one's around. Alas, on this lonesome journey, she happens to find a tired but driven Messiah waiting for her.
You may be asking yourselves, "Tom, have you not sworn a blood pact with St. Lawrence to include comedy in all your cartoons? Yet this one is played so straight. Will you not suffer your patron's wrath for this subversion?" Too true. I'll add a joke here as a consolation, then. "Why did the banana cross the road? Because it was stapled to the chicken." Are you not entertained?
In this Bible story (Genesis 12), an old man named Abram (meaning "exalted father") is told by God to leave everything he knows and go on a whimsical adventure to a new land. Abram obeys God, and later (in Genesis 17), God changes Abram's name to Abraham (meaning "father of nations") because God forms a covenant with him and promises to make Abram's descendants as numerous as the stars.
In this cartoon, God calls to Abram as He does in the Bible story, but Abram isn't sure if God is saying "Abram" (his name) or "Ab Ram" (his muscular sheep companion). "Abs" refer to the abdominal muscles on your stomach that form a six-pack if you eat well and exercise your core, and an adult male sheep is called a "ram"; hence "Ab Ram" being a ram with sick abs. God then announces He's gonna change Abram's name, as if the only reason to do this would be to differentiate our father in faith from his well-toned pet.
Ab Ram is historical fiction and cannot hurt you... physically... while you're looking directly at him... in broad daylight... on a weekday.
Of course, if he did exist, Ab Ram would have no weak days.
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give Adam [the fruit before offering it to his wife]."
___
JOKE-OGRAPHY:
In the first few chapters of Genesis we read about God creating the world, a perfect little garden, living creatures, and the first man and woman. In this part of the story, a cunning serpent seeks to draw the man and woman into eating fruit forbidden by God. He lowers their guard with doubt then stokes their desire with half-truths and empty promises, and finally, they fall for his scheme, bringing sin into the world through their first disobedience against God.
In this cartoon, the serpent (Satan, depicted as a snake with a sock-puppet head) begins peppering the first couple by questioning the intelligence of God's design. Why'd He plant the forbidden "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" right next to the humans He forbade to eat from it? Why plant an evil tree at all? The answer is that the tree itself wasn't evil; God doesn't create evil things. It wasn't touching the tree that cursed Adam and Eve, but disobeying God and seeking satisfaction and wisdom apart from Him. Adam basically spells this out in the second panel, musing that the tree is a symbol of their free will, which allows them to disobey God's commandment, or willingly love and obey Him. This is a very astute biblical observation from someone who might have actually been born yesterday, and it catches the serpent off guard for a moment, but then the serpent rallies and points out how tasty the fruit looks, completely undermining Adam's intellectual argument.
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Gospel: In this Bible story, Jesus is giving His famous Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). During one part, He warns people not just to avoid sins like adultery and murder, but to avoid even the disordered desires that LEAD to those sins, like lusting after a woman or being angry with your brother. This warning culminates in His famous hyperbole, "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better to enter heaven crippled than to go into the fire whole." Of course, as said in the comic, your hand can't CAUSE you to sin. It's just a part of you. But if it COULD, then you'd best Bruce Campbell that sucker, baby. Same with all the disordered thoughts and habits that lead to sin. Cut 'em off!
Pun: In this cartoon, Fr. Mark confronts Tom about his self-mutilation. Tom has sinned, and so he cut off his right hand, assuming it to be the cause. The priest corrects him, then offers to take him to the hospital to reattach the severed limb. Tom thanks him for the "hand" (as in "assistance," but also as in the limb he hopes to have reattached).
Style: Hi, my name is Tom, and I draw Tomics. The Tom in the comic is me (in the Trinitarian sense) and since he's cut off His right hand (the one I draw with), I've drawn this cartoon with my left hand, hence the wonky style, and the Tom in the comic mentioning not being so good at drawing without his right hand.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:This is yet another "Tomics Resurrection," where I redraw one of my old comics for the modern era. The original (below) is from 2017! Usually Tomics Resurrections are my chance to update an older comic of mine to keep up with my slowly evolving style. The hope is that the comics I redraw improve with each iteration. Of course, since this particular comic was drawn with my untrained left hand SPECIFICALLY to look awful, redrawing it with my left hand again to "improve" it undermines the joke of the comic. Worse yet, my test audiences and shareholders have informed me that my left-handed style HAS ironically improved, further undermining the original joke, and forming a sort of meta-joke. Today, I have transcended; I am the Joke-ography.
Matthew 5 contains the Sermon on the Mount, a series of Jesus's most famous teachings. After the Beatitudes, Jesus encourages His disciples to be the flavorful "salt of the earth" and the guiding "light of the world," letting their works and lives be evangelizing beacons to those around them. His line, "But if salt loses its saltiness, with what can it be seasoned? It's no longer good for anything but being trampled underfoot," is a warning not to become complacent in living our faith and leading others through actions that glorify God.
In this cartoon, a scientist cites Matthew 5:13 where Jesus asks, "If salt loses its saltiness, with what can it be seasoned?" The scientist explains his lifelong research into answering this question to undermine Jesus's metaphor, and presents his finding that potassium chloride can act as a substitute for normal salt (sodium chloride). Jesus appears in the flesh to ask the scientist what happens if the salt substitute loses ITS saltiness as well, a question which the scientist has no answer for.
The scientist ends the cartoon in a state of hollow, impotent despair as he realizes his lifelong research has all been for naught, but honestly, if it took him his whole life to find out that potassium chloride exists as a salt substitute, he probably wasn't going places anyway. And actually, since Jesus is appearing to him bodily, we can probably assume the apocalypse has come, and EVERYONE'S research is about to be for naught as well. So he's got that going for him... which is nice.
