Are you old enough to remember the classic Hanna Barbara “Scooby Doo” cartoons?
Or maybe you’re a bit older and your introduction to Scooby and the “Mystery Incorporated” Gang was the more recent movie adaptations? (They were so bad that they were good, right? Maybe not…).
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| Mystery Incorporated unmasks the villain! |
As most of us probably know, at the end of every Scooby Doo episode or movie, there is always the scene where someone in the Gang (often it was Freddy) would say, “And now let’s see who this villain really is.” Then they would pull off a mask and all would seem astonished at who was underneath. Although by that time, the Gang had figured it out, so they could explain to the viewers the devious plot that had unfolded over the past half-hour (or stretched out to nearly two hours for over-the-top movie adaptations.)
I’ve been thinking about Scooby’ and the Gang a lot as Lent approaches this year. I’ve been doing quite a bit of unmasking in my own life. I’ve been engaged in therapy for over a year, and through that process I have learned that I have autism. While I don’t have a formal diagnosis (at least not yet), I’ve come to recognize that I am in fact “on the spectrum.” (Often Autism Spectrum Difference, or ASD, is self-diagnosed.)
I am curious how people that have known me a long time who are reading this receive this news? Are you surprised? Or have you always known there was "something different" about me? (Honestly, this is kind of how I have felt after my diagnosis.) Whatever your reaction, I disclose this in hopes of being transparent and giving you better insight into who I am—and because I think there’s power in bringing things into the light. Maybe me doing so will give others courage to bring who they truly are into the light.
I don't mean to make it sound like this has been easy for me. I admit that receiving an ASD diagnosis at 53 was, in some ways, unexpected. Honestly, I’ve wrestled with accepting it because it challenges me to face up to my limitations once and for all. But at the same time, it’s been somewhat liberating to realize this about myself. This is a fundamental part of how God has created me. As I hinted at earlier, having a diagnosis has helped me to better understand some things that have always been true about me and made me feel different from most people—and not always in a good way. There has been shame—hat feeling that who I am was somehow "wrong."
I also realize that while this diagnosis does give me an explanation for things I do—it is not an excuse for any of the negative impacts my behavior might have on others.
As part of my journey of discovery, my therapist recommended a book called Unmasking Autism by Devon Price. It was an enlightening read! Hearing the stories of others with an ASD diagnosis, and what life has been like for them helped to illuminate – and validate – my own experiences.
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As the book title suggests, the author stresses the importance of unmasking. The theory is that we learn to mask aspects of our personality to be socially accepted as “normal.” While all of us may mask some aspects of ourselves in certain situations, this behavior is particularly prevalent among neurodiverse individuals. We initially don the mask for many reasons, whether it be to be accepted socially, or professionally, or romantically. In a world that tends to view neurotypical behaviors and mindsets as orthodox, masking can be a survival strategy for a neurodivergent individual. But sometimes we continue to wear the mask long after the need for it is gone. I think that description rings true to my experience.
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In an online sermon from 2011, Rector Adam Thomas observed that Moses did something similar to what I’ve been doing when he encounters God in the form of a mysterious Burning Bush early in the Old Testament book of Exodus. Only instead of removing facial covering, Moses removes feet covering. The Scripture tells us that upon approaching the bush, a voice called out to Moses saying: “take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.”—Exodus 3:5. It’s only after the shoes come off that God begins to speak in more detail about what he is calling Moses to do – namely go to Pharaoh and demand that he let God’s people go.
Adam Thomas observes that, like Moses, “We wear these invisible costumes and affix invisible masks to our faces in order to set up buffers between ourselves and other people. If other people get too close, then they might impel us to change, to see the world differently than we desire, to remove ourselves from the centers of our existence. Our costumes are our first line of defense to remain the people we’ve always told ourselves we want to be. The trouble is that the costumes also disguise us from ourselves. And so, we stumble into God’s presence wearing carefully crafted costumes and masks that create barriers between us and everything that is not us. And just as God commands Moses to remove his shoes, God tells us to take off the costume.”
And so, like the climax of a Scooby Doo episode, through therapy and lived experience, I’ve been learning to remove the mask(s) I’ve worn for a long time. But here’s the thing, I find this kind of mask doesn’t come off all at once.
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As I have been thinking about this gradual process of unmasking, C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia came to mind. In “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” Eustace Scrubb is a reluctant participant in the adventure. He’s the disinterested, lazy, self-centered cousin of Edmund and Lucy Pevensie (two of the rulers of Narnia). In essence Eustace is a royal pain to the rest of the crew of the of The Dawn Treader. And as the ship gets further and further away from Narnia his attitude only gets worse and worse.
The Dawn Treader eventually comes ashore after weathering a brutal storm. One day, to avoid a day of labor repairing the ship, Eustace sneaks away from the ship and in the course of events he stumbles onto a hoard of treasure, which he promptly falls asleep upon. Unfortunately, despite all the academic books he’s read, Eustace has never read about dragons. So, he’s unaware that he who falls asleep on a dragon’s hoard is himself transformed into a dragon. In fact, he doesn’t even realize he’s taken on this hideous form until he sees his own reflection and reacts in horror at what he sees.
Toward the end of the story, Eustace returns to the Dawn Treader – as a human. He tells the story of what happened to Edmund and Lucy. He recounts how after he realized what he had become a Lion came to him and told him to undress. He began stripping off layer after layer, only to find another layer of dragon scales underneath. No matter how many layers he removed himself, he could not escape the dragon’s form. it was only when he allowed the Lion (who is Aslan, the Christ-like figure in Narnia) to undress him that the dragon scales finally fall off and he becomes who he truly was all along. Here’s how he describes the experience to his cousins:
The very first tear [the Lion] made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart… Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt – and there it was, lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been.
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I wrote the first draft of this reflection on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent 2025. For centuries, the season of Lent has been a time when followers of Christ intentionally focus on undressing (or unmasking) before God.
Like Moses, and like Eustace Scrubb, we realize that we can only truly encounter God — and encounter what theologian Howard Thurman describes as “the genuine” in another person – when we ourselves allow our unique, unapologetically, unmasked, undressed genuine selves to be seen.
The classic Threefold Way is often discussed during Lent. It calls Christ-followers to journey toward the heart of God. It consists of three movements: purgation, illumination, and union. Purgation can be likened to unmasking or undressing, as we remove whatever prevents us from bringing who we truly are into God’s presence – warts and all From that place of vulnerability we are ready to receive illumination, as God reveals more of who God is to our genuine Self, which in turn leads to an ever-deepening state of union with God.
We have a Prayer Garden at our church that my son created for his Eagle Scout project. It occurred to me recently that its design resembles the Threefold Way in how it's built.
When Brady envisioned his project, he wanted there to be a path off the sidewalk that runs along busy thoroughfare in our community. That way, one has to choose to leave the "busy road" to enter the garden. There's a symbolic stepping off the main road to reach this peaceful place on our church's front lawn. I see purgation in the choice to leave the sidewalk and step onto the Narrow Path to enter the Garden and focus on God for a time. After one exits the sidewalk, they walk down the stone walkway toward the center of the Garden where there are two benches, an Angel statue, and a stone Cross, which in encircled by evenly spaced stones with words inscribed that include the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19–21) and the tenants of the Scout Law – some of which overlap. Walking this Narrow Path makes me think of illumination, as we intentionally move further down the Path and the center of the Garden comes into clearer focus. To me, reaching the Center of the Garden represents union, where we can simply sit on a bench in God's Presence or perhaps kneel at the foot of the Cross.
There is a QR code on a nearby tree offering prayer resources and more information about our Church for any who may be curious. But, to be clear, the point isn't evangelism, as much as it is to simply welcome people in our neighborhood onto our property in a non-threatening way. There's no expectation of anything in return. Simply an opportunity to draw closer to God—which is the essence of Lent, and really of the Christ-life in general.
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| The Lenten Journey: The Prayer Garden at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church Waldorf, MD |
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| Purgation: Leaving the sidewalk |
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| Illumination: Walking the path. |
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| Union: Reaching the Center. |
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| The Labyrinth: The Real-Life Threefold Way |
The challenge for Christ followers during Lent is to be like Mystery Incorporated at the end of a Scooby Doo episode when it comes to our spiritual journey. We too need to unmask the villain! And that requires us realizing that the worse Villain of all often lives within us. It is that Villain who robs us of the abundant life (zoe) we’re meant to live in Christ—John 10:10.
Now I want to be clear. We need to be shrewd and discerning about how and when we unmask, and before whom we undress. But having said that, I’m convinced that the world gains little from us continuing to hide who we truly are from one another – and from God (as if we could do that if we tried). The journey is not easy; it’s not without risk, but it’s what God calls us to do.
I pray for us that this year’s journey to the Cross is one of shedding another layer of scales and moving closer to the true Human that God has created each one of us to be.
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