Good and bad eggs

Wise Words: eggs

I’ve just come back from the shops with a bag of Easter eggs for my children — as well as one for me. Despite growing up in an Irish-Catholic household, I’m not a religious person. There are some traditions, however, that I don’t mind upholding. But don’t call me a hypocrite!

For me, a hypocrite is someone who outwardly pretends to fast, but is secretly wining and dining every evening. More dangerously, it’s someone who pretends to have higher moral standards than everyone else, but is abusing vulnerable children at the same time, only to feign ignorance of the fact for years.

No, I’m not a hypocrite. I just recognize the importance of eggs at this time of year, particularly in expressions that we can use to talk about recent events in the Church. 

a good egg
Someone who is a good egg is a dependable person.

• “He says he’s a good egg, but the children say otherwise.”

have egg on one's face
If you have egg on your face, you are embarrassed by something you have done or said.

• “They were completely wrong about that priest. Now, they have egg all over their faces!”

rotten egg
A rotten egg is a bad person and, usually, an evil influence.

• “That priest was a real rotten egg. I can’t believe what he did.”

walk on eggs/eggshells
If someone is walking on eggs (or eggshells), that person is in a very precarious position.

• “You’re walking on eggs when you start criticizing the way the Catholic Church has handled the scandal.”

You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.
This proverb means that is it is difficult to do something important without causing any negative side effects.

• “The Catholic Church will have to make some radical changes — and these will hurt some people more than others. But you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.”

Finally, the next expression is quite unusual and is very British; however, it can be used to describe perfectly the situation in the Catholic Church at the moment.

a curate's egg (UK)
This is something that has both good and bad parts. A curate is a member of the clergy, usually an assistant to a priest or a vicar. According to The Oxford Dictionary of English, the expression originates from a cartoon. Punch, a satirical magazine, featured a cartoon in 1895 in which a curate was served a bad egg. He assured his host, a bishop, that parts of it were good.

• “The Catholic Church is a bit of a curate’s egg. We can only hope that the good parts will prevail.”

And I wish you a Happy Easter — whatever your beliefs and whether or not you enjoy chocolate eggs.