’Gone with the Wind’
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1900, Margaret Mitchell was the daughter of an attorney father and a devoutly Irish Catholic mother.
Margaret was always interested in her city’s history. At one time she wrote feature articles on Atlanta’s historical roots for the Atlanta Journal’s Sunday magazine.
In 1926 she left this job to become a full-time housewife, doing some free-lance writing on the side. When one day, she broke her ankle and was confined to her small apartment, she voraciously read the countless library books her husband would bring home to her. Jokingly, he told her that if she was going to have anything left to read, she’d have to write a book herself.
So she did. It would take her 10 years to finish it, but Margaret Mitchell sat down and began to write “Gone with the Wind.”
The movie “Gone with the Wind” starring Vivian Leigh as the Irish Catholic Scarlett O’Hara premiered on this date in 1939.
“I wrote about people who had gumption and people who didn’t.” (Margaret Mitchell)
If Matthew’s Gospel were being performed as a drama, this is the point where the orchestra would suddenly strike an ominous chord. Something bad is about to happen.
Up north in Galilee, Jesus had been confronted at times by Pharisees and scribes. But how he is in the big city, and in the Temple area. Suddenly, for the first time, the chief priest and the elders appear on the scene.
These people have power. These people are the most threatened by what Jesus has just been doing – entering the city like a messiah, predicting the destruction of the Temple, driving the sellers and buyers from the Temple area.
These are the people who will succeed in having Jesus executed. And now, here they are looking him in the eye.
Why do we have a Gospel like this – which seems like it belongs in Lent – when we’re 10 days away from Christmas?!
Because we’re preparing to celebrate the birth of the child whose death will make our death a birth.