You try walking on water

At the heart of every X File there is usually a human story, trying to get itself noticed - not an easy thing to do when standing in the shadow of Clyde Bruckman and coprophages and trying not to have one's DNA filed away by the Syndicate.
It's also no small miracle that ’Revelations' is as good as it is despite the errors. There are a number of Saints called Ignatius, but none of them appeared in the Bible and, despite their wondrous feats on behalf of the Church, I don't recall any bi-locating. (St. Ignatius of Antioch was devoured by lions in the Colosseum, so I suppose he got to be physically in more than one place at once.) This may be a small matter, but if, as seems now the case, Scully is Catholic then her mother should have given her a crucifix on her fifteenth birthday. But being Catholic might explain her limited knowledge of the Bible, because we don't have sola scriptura and other brands of Christianity do like to poke fun at the average Catholic's lack of familiarity with the Good Book.
It may be true that "According to certain religious lore, at any given time there are twelve stigmatics in the world, representing the twelve apostles," but this is not Catholic teaching, so while it sounds good in the context of the X Files, it's a tidbit that should come from Mulder, not the Catholic Scully.
On the plus side, it is awfully nice to have the scientist Scully as the believer in God. (cf. New Republic, “The Catholic Church Is Not an Enemy of Science”, 2015) One up for those of us who see absolutely no contradiction between science and the Church.
But, let's return to our human story. Poor Kevin! In a few more years he'll be a teenager and want to be different. He probably will still be displeased with the holes in his hands, but he'll not go unnoticed.
(Ever hear that joke about Jesus? After his stint on Earth, he's back up in Heaven with His Father and it's God's birthday. He asks His Son, "Do one of your miracles for me." "Which one?" asks Jesus. "Walking on water. I always liked that one." "But…," begins Jesus, but God snaps His fingers and a huge body of water appears. "Okay," says Jesus, "but I'm warning you." "Oh, go on," says God. So Jesus walks out into the water, but he sinks. After they've fished him out, God asks, "What happened? You did it so well down there." To which Jesus replied," "You try walking on water with holes in your feet!")
Kevin, as a bearer of the stigmata, has been called by God to bear witness. It is the cruelest of callings and no ordinary person should wish it upon themselves. But only those able to cope are so called. And Kevin proves himself able to cope. What begins as something which is happening to him becomes, very quickly, something he can control and use. He is able to bi-locate in order to lead Gates, "a powerful and respected man," away from his mother.
Ironic really. Mulder chases around the country looking for evidence that will bear witness to some vast human cover-up and here's a young boy displaying the wounds of Christ for all to see. And it is Mulder who doesn't believe!
Mulder's attitude is perfectly understandable. His flippancy - "And now you're suggesting that this is St. Owen?" - is perfectly in keeping with his own belief system. After all, belief in extraterrestrials and their abduction of human guinea pigs is nothing but a substitute for true faith. Having enlightened ourselves in the 18th Century, we witnessed the death of God in the 19th so, by the 20th Century there was little to believe except something that at least sounded scientific.
Again, I say that this is a very human story. On the one hand we have the undying faith in a God who's Son died for our sins competing with modern scepticism, which has become a kind of faith in itself. It is entirely human to want to believe, Mulder himself has it pasted to his wall. It is only a question of what to believe and being able to see the evidence as it is presented.
Is Kevin blessed or cursed with the stigmata?
Are we blessed or cursed with the ability to see - or not - only what we want?

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