We’ve reached the halfway point in our Lenten journey, and this past Sunday the Church provided for us a measure of relief and consolation. For this is the week of Laetare Sunday (taken from the first word of the Introit, “Rejoice!”), the third week before Easter, and as a sign of that upcoming joy, the organ is played, flowers adorn the sanctuary, and the priest dons the rarely used rose vestments.. No doubt many of us heard our priest reminding us, in varying tones of exasperation, that his vestments were rose, not pink. The masculinity of our clergy aside, there is undeniably something particularly feminine about this particular Sunday, on which, traditionally the Pope would bless a golden Rose, and on which, even to this day, the U.K. still celebrates Mother’s Day.
As for the reason, we need look no further than the Epistle traditionally assigned to this day, taken from St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians:
“Brethren: It is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a slave-girl and the other by a free woman. And the son of the slave-girl was born according to the flesh, but the son of the free woman in virtue of the promise. This said by way of allegory. For these are the two covenants: one indeed from Mount Sinai bringing forth children unto bondage, which is Agar. For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, which corresponds to the present Jerusalem, and is in slavery with her children. But that Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother. For it is written, Rejoice, O barren one, that do not bear; break forth and cry, you that do not travail; for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that has a husband. Now we, brethren, are the children of the promise, as Isaac was. But as then he who was born according to the flesh, persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the slave-girl and her son, for the son of the slave-girl shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. Therefore, brethren, we are not children of a slave-girl, but of the free woman - in virtue of the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free.” (Gal 4: 22-31)
It is this epistle reading, drawing us to contemplate the Heavenly Jerusalem, Our Holy Mother Church, that forms the cornerstone of Laetare Sunday. The Station Church, that is, the church in Rome where the Pope celebrates Mass on certain days, is for this day that of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, which counts among it’s relics a portion of the True Cross and earth from the Holy Land, and has stood since it’s founding under Constantine as a sort of mystical embassy in Rome for Jerusalem. The Psalms and Antiphons of the Mass reflect this, referring again and again to Jerusalem and the glory of Our Heavenly Mother. Even the themes of the Divine Office (Moses encountering God in the burning bush and leading the Israelites out of Egypt) and the Gospel (Our Lord feeding 5,000 men with five loves and two fishes in the wilderness near a mountain) reinforce this focus on the Jerusalem above, for Israel of old and Mother Church at present owe their glory entirely to their husband, the Eternal Word of God, Jesus Christ. As such, I have chosen this epistle to be the focus of my reflection here.
Now it has repeated far too often that this epistle, and the theology behind it, is anti-Jewish. It is not, nor could it be. St. Paul was a Jew, as were the other Apostles, Our Blessed Mother, and Our Blessed Lord. One can better understand the writings of the Apostles in light of the heresy they were fighting against: namely, that of the Judaizers, Christians who held that being a Christian meant keeping the entire Mosaic Law, and held that keeping the Law made them superior to their fellow Christians who did not. Like the Pharisees featured in the readings last week, these Judaizers got their sense of righteousness by comparing themselves favorably against other people, and become rabidly angry at anyone who tries to take that specialness away from them.
This is hardly an exclusively Jewish trait. Humanity operates this way by default. Whether one looks at the nationalists of the 20th century, the Woke brigade of today, or nasty Christians of all ages, the common factor behind all of these is the adherent’s belief that, by nature of what they are, they are superior to everyone else, and therefore matter more than everyone else. But holding to such expectations of “perfection” is unwinnable and unloving: being imperfect by any standard, we are bound to fall short, at which point our comrades will turn on us too, with the same furious judgment that they treated others. This is why the mother of such people is a slave: for they (and we, if we are honest) are slaves to unforgiving ideals, the passions, and, above all, the ego.
It is not so, or should not be so, with the children of Mother Church. The very requirement of entering the Church via Baptism and/or Confession is admitting that one has fallen short, that one is a sinner, unable to do anything or change anything without Divine Grace, and damnable and lost without it. And because She takes humility as her starting point, She is truly free. For She has not a harsh Master but a kind Husband, who has and continues to wash her clean, that her virginal purity, like that of the Blessed Mother, may be fruitful, and bring forth the mystical Body of Christ in her many children. And far from the weak and servile thing her enemies imagine Her to be, She is a valiant Shield Maiden, a mighty warrior, a patient martyr, and a slayer of sin and death at the side of Her Spouse. Indeed, Her very soul is the Holy Ghost (Pope Leo XIII, Divinum illud munus) that Spirit that turns cowards into martyrs, that gives Her the Wisdom of God, the compassion of the kindest of mothers, and the ferocity of a she-bear towards those who harm her children, that makes her come forth “as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array” (Song of Songs, 6:9). For in Her, as in all great women, kindness and strength are not opposed to each other, but build up and reinforce each other.
Which leads into this week’s anime: Girls und Panzer.
Girls und Panzer takes place in a world very much like our own, with one major exception: mock tank fights are a popular girls sport. In this world, sensha-do (“The Way of the Tank,” or “Tankery”) is a martial art regarded as particularly suited to young girls and women. How? Well, the trailer says it best:
(Most of the voiceover was taken from a propaganda presentation in the first episode, but I wasn’t able to find that particular clip.)
The show follows Miho Nishizumi, a shy and clumsy high school student and recent transfer to the Oarai all-girls academy/aircraft carrier. Despite, or perhaps because of, her awkwardness, Miho quickly makes friends at her new school, especially with boy-crazy Saori Takebe and Hana Isuzu, the daughter of a professional flower arranger. Miho’s peaceful school life comes crashing down when the student council announces that they are reviving Oarai’s tankery program, and the President, the smug Anzu Kadotani, wants Miho to lead the team. Miho, it turns out, is the daughter of Shiho Nishizumi, the head instructor of a rival school that boasts the strongest tankery team in the world. In fact, Miho’s family have been tankery legends for generations, and Miho herself was part of the team before she transferred out.
Miho, however, is adamant about staying away from tankery. In her last match, Miho abandoned her post in the lead tank to save some of her teammates from drowning. She saved her teammates, but her action cost her team the match. Her own mother practically disowned Miho over it; the Nishizumi philosophy of tankery is to always advance and to win at all cost. Miho, hurt and angry, responded by quitting the team and transferring to a school without a tankery team.
The President, however, will not take no for an answer, and threatens to expel Miho if she won’t lead the team. Saori and Hana stand up for her, but Miho, touched by her new friends’ dedication to her, agrees to lead the team so she won’t have to be separated from them.
But the task before Miho and her friends is enormous. Oarai hasn’t had a tankery team in twenty years, and the only tanks they have left are the ones they weren’t able to sell. Still, Miho does her best to assemble a winning team, and there are no shortage of volunteers, including the entire student council. Among these are Yukari Akiyama, a shy tankery fan-girl, and the lazy teen genius Mako Reizei.
Now, at this point, any western show with this plotline would have started off with a half-season or full-season arc of “Smash the Patriarchy” and “Girls Do It Better.” What I like so much about Girls und Panzer is that it doesn’t do this at all. From the get-go it’s established that tankery is exclusively a girls’ sport; boys just don’t do tankery. Speaking of boys, there are hardly any male characters in the series. There are maybe five men who have speaking parts in this series, and of these, only three of them have names. And all of these are so inconsequential to the plot that each could be replaced with a potato and no one would notice.
Since the Evil Patriarchy doesn’t exist in this show, Miho and her friends have an entire season to fight female-kind’s real natural enemies: other women.
Joking aside, the main attraction of Girls und Panzer, aside from the epic tank battles, is the sheer variety of female characters in it’s cast. Naturally, the main five (Team Anglerfish: Miho, Saori, Hana, Yukari, and Mako) and their mighty Panzer get the most attention. But Oarai’s Tankery Team includes, by the end of the series, eight tanks with full crews, with the full team numbering over two dozen. In addition to the student council, there is the recently disbanded volleyball team (hoping to get their club reinstated), the auto club, a team of eccentric online gamers, a team of first-years who love war movies, and the mop-topped “Public Morals Committee” (glorified hall monitors).
My favorite, though, has got to be the Hippo Team, made up of four passionate history nerds who always cosplay as their favorite military leaders. Of these, my favorite is the bombastic Riko Matsumoto, who goes by the name of Erwin. As in, General Erwin Rommel.
This variety extends to the enemy teams they encounter as well, from the elegant, tea sipping St. Gloriana Girls Academy, the friendly Saunders University High School, who embrace the typical American attitude of having fun, being good sports, and looking the other way when their teammates cheat, and the Russian Pravda High School, lead by a short, cocky Ivan Drago wannabe.
It is during the tournament match against Pravda that the Student Council President reveals her true motives behind reviving the Tankery Team: Oarai Academy is broke, and unless they can do something spectacular, like win a Tankery Tournament, their school will be shut down at the end of the term.
Thankfully, Miho and her rag tag team are up to the task, going from victory to victory, outwitting their opponents in rapid succession, making it all they way to the finals, where they must face off against the fearsome Kuromorimine Girls School (Miho’s Alma Mater) and their team of twenty heavy tanks (including a nigh invincible Maus) lead by Maho Nishizumi, Miho’s own sister. It’s a nail-biting match, but in the end, to the surprise of everyone, Miho and her team emerge victorious.
What’s particularly touching about Oarai Academy’s victory is not only the fact that their school is saved, but that Miho, at long last, is vindicated in the eyes of her family. Rejecting the ruthlessness of her family motto, Miho embraces a philosophy of compassion and loyalty, and her opponents are so overwhelmed by her skill and sincerity that she manages to earn their respect and friendship, even the icy Pravda captain. Miho’s sister goes out of her way to let her know that she bears no hard feelings, and Miho’s mother, steel-faced and stern until this point, smiles and claps with everyone else at her daughter’s victory.
Not bad for an underdog sports show with tanks. (Also, those end credits! So cute!)
Like Miho with her Way of the Tank, we face many obstacles and doubts as we attempt to live out the Way of Christ in our daily lives. We fight not only our own passions and doubts, but any number of people trying to convince us we need embrace this or that fad or philosophy, that we need to be angry and vicious, or that we need to just give up before the vast array of temporal and spiritual forces arrayed against us. But we can safely ignore all of these naysayers. For we and our Mother have been set free by Christ, and if we persevere in our faith and our disciplines, if we recognize charity and compassion and strengths, we, like Miho and her teammates, will be vindicated with everlasting victory.
Panzer Vor!
I hope you all enjoyed this week’s bit of sweetness and light. It’s going to get much darker over the next two weeks.
If you’d like to support me, and are into epic romances, check out my novel, Cain Son of Adam: A Gothic Tragedy, available in paperback and eBook formats on Amazon, and free to read on Kindle Unlimited.
Stay tuned for next week’s article: Infinite Sacrifice: Passion Sunday and Attack on Titan.
Blessed Lent!