Trust Is the Coin of the Realm

Image: Enlargement of the 20-dollar bill, downloaded from Wikimedia

Around the turn of the century, I encountered a man who signed his forum posts with: “Trust is the coin of the realm.” It has captured my imagination, and I ponder over the truth of it. After a meeting with fellow Republicans, I blurted out, "yes, it's important to get the message out, but it's also important that people trust the messenger." Sometimes I surprise myself.

I've often prayed for a Great Awakening (a religious revival is a grand American tradition), but I've recently read an article about how church membership has dropped below 50% in America. It's worse than that. Besides the demographic implosion the West is heading towards, most children are rejecting the faith of their parents (even when these parents are deeply committed to their faith in practice, that is, these are not lukewarm Christians).

Now, it's all in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and we accomplish nothing without God. I take that as a given. I don't take that as an excuse not to try, but I recognize that my evangelization efforts are not about me. As Mother Teresa said, we're not called to be successful, we're called to be faithful.

Faith has two major meanings: it can refer to the teachings of Christ, what we believe, and it can refer to trust. Trust in God is faith in God. Insofar as we are close to God not only in orthodoxy but also in practice (Thy will be done), we are building up a trustworthy society. In an early Internet handle—"a hermit from Hudson"—I was announcing a temperament; I'm an introvert. That is, I found it tiring to be around people because I don't trust people. As fallen people, we are unworthy of trust. I find it amazing that other people trust so readily. Generally, I've found that on average, Christians are more trustworthy. But we are all prone to sin, and we wouldn't be able to help ourselves if it were not for God.

Still, Christianity as a religion (or a group of denominations, if you prefer) is not a magic cloak. Merely denoting oneself as a Christian, and attending church services every week (or every day) is not enough to protect oneself from the fires of hell. "Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 7:21). So conversion and repentance are necessary, and I personally find it to be a daily battle.

In America, this spills into politics, because as John Adams noted: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." It makes sense. As a result of our nation's collective trust in God, God provides the grace so that we might trust each other. But it's easy to see that this trust has broken down. And that leads to a high level of polarization, which furthers the distrust of others.

To throw another quote in the mix, Solzhenitzen explained:

More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”

So I see the need for change. The temptation is to make it external: "you need to change, I don't." I think this is a huge problem right now. The left thinks the right should change, and the right thinks the left should change. Well, that should change. I'm not referring to ideology here. I'm talking about the initial proclamation of the Gospel: "repent!" And insofar as ideology is taken above the Gospel, that ideology needs to bend a knee to the Gospel.

So I see two things in tension. I recognize that God is Almighty, that He could, if He wills, to effect great change in America and in the entirety of what used to be recognized as Christendom. But in God's loving plan, He gave us free will, such that He will let us reject Him. In the contest of the soul of the country, it is the trustworthy God against fallen men with hardened hearts. Who will win? I recognize that if fallen men "win," they really don't win, but I have a certain confidence in the stupidity of mankind as species.

And here's a final problem. I've long recognized that we cannot use Christianity as an instrument to improve the country. I think this has been a problem on the right for religious conservatives, for a long time. That is, others see Christianity as part of the conservative ideological program. That is, Christianity is a truncheon to get everyone in line. In the film, The Book of Eli, the antagonist seeks the last surviving Bible in order to use it to gain power over others. And I think it's possible that there are those on the right, and even those who are professed religious leaders, who also think in this cynical fashion. That is, I see that this is one way in which all the messengers, the evangelists, are seen as untrustworthy. The Church is entirely God's, and it is His instrument on earth, not to make America better, but to bring souls into Heaven. That is, we should evangelize a person out of love for that individual, rather than salvation for the nation. It's a tricky problem for American Christians, because we know an important side effect of helping souls get on track toward Heaven, trust is restored as the coin of the realm.

Think about it. It took our Lord and Savior to get nailed on the Cross for us to get it through our thick skulls that He loved us so much. I'm thinking that martyrdom, red or white (i.e. death or persecution short of death), that is, dying to self, is probably the only way for one thick skull to really trust the unworthy Christian: "I do this out of love for you, not love of me." Anyone who says Christianity is an easy religion, or about certain happiness in this life, is a fool. Christianity is hard, so hard that we couldn't do it without God's help. 

(note: this was composed in early September before the prior post "Kiss of Jesus," even though it is published after it. As such, I think it reflects a darker state of mind, and I held off posting it until the storm clouds had dissipated somewhat.)

Kiss of Jesus

Painting: Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Ludolf Bakhuizen (1695), downloaded from Wikipedia

Before Mass today, I received an incredible consolation from this passage of St. John Henry Newman, at time an Anglican writing in 1837, before his reception into the Catholic Church on 9 October 1845:

But in truth the whole course of Christianity from the first, when we come to examine it, is but one series of troubles and disorders. Every century is like every other, and to those who live in it seems worse than all times before it. The Church is ever ailing, and lingers on in weakness, "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in her body." Religion seems ever expiring, schisms dominant, the light of Truth dim, its adherents scattered. The cause of Christ is ever in its last agony, as though it were but a question of time whether it fails finally this day or another. The Saints are ever all but failing from the earth, and Christ all but coming; and thus the Day of judgment is literally ever at hand; and it is our duty ever to be looking out for it, not disappointed that we have so often said, "now is the moment," and that at the last, contrary to our expectation, Truth has somewhat rallied. Such is God's will, gathering in His elect, first one and then another, by little and little, in the intervals of sunshine between storm and storm, or snatching them from the surge of evil, even when the waters rage most furiously. Well may prophets cry out "How long will it be, O Lord, to the end of these wonders?" how long will this mystery proceed? how long will this perishing world be sustained by the feeble lights which struggle for existence in its unhealthy atmosphere? God alone knows the day and the hour when that will at length be, which He is ever threatening; meanwhile, thus much of comfort do we gain from what has been hitherto,—not to despond, not to be dismayed, not to be anxious, at the troubles which encompass us. They have ever been; they ever shall be; they are our portion. "The floods are risen, the floods have lift up their voice, the floods lift up their waves. The waves of the sea are mighty, and rage horribly; but yet the Lord, who dwelleth on high, is mightier."

It's strange to those outside the faith—and indeed, even to some of those who profess faith in Christ—to find joy in suffering. It's not the joy of suffering, but the peace found within the eye of the storm.

For an example outside of a religious context, I think Ross Viner's brush with fame, and singing on stage with Sting might help. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJqQjMpgNcA

On stage, it's a moment of joy, but it's obvious that Sting wrote the song at a painful moment in his life. And even within the song of pain, Sting relates the moment when he smiles:

I took a walk alone last night
I looked up at the stars
To try and find an answer in my life
I chose a star for me
I chose a star for him
I chose two stars for my kids and one star for my wife
Something made me smile
Something seemed to ease the pain
Something about the universe and how it's all connected

In the moment of suffering, a person connects with transcendence and finds joy.

In 33 Days to Morning Glory, Fr. Michael Gaitley repeats a famous story told by St. Teresa of Calcutta: "At times you come so close to Jesus on the cross that he can kiss you. I once told this to a lady who was suffering very much. She answered, "Tell Jesus not to kiss me — to stop kissing me.'"

To be sure, consolations don't always come, and they cannot be expected, but sometimes, one can be so close to the Cross, that Jesus can kiss you. It's not the suffering that brings joy, but the intimate kiss of Jesus.

Thanksgiving

Painting: Gang nach Emmaus by Robert Zünd (1877), downloaded from Wikimedia

It's a good day when one recognizes God present in his life. As I was walking to Mass, I was thinking of the problem of how I might teach the faith to those who might not be receptive to the teachings of the Catholic Church. Ultimately (I was thinking) it comes down to the recognition by the person—who might receive the gift of faith—that he or she is in need of Christ. We're in a time of widespread complacency, when many are taught to accept their vices and flaws (of course, there are exceptions). And so many us aren't concerned about the need to repent.

After walking through the church doors, I was pleasantly surprised by the first reading at Mass, Ezra's prayer to God (Ezra 9:5-9):

At the time of the evening sacrifice, I, Ezra, rose in my wretchedness,
and with cloak and mantle torn I fell on my knees,
stretching out my hands to the LORD, my God.

I said: “My God, I am too ashamed and confounded to raise my face to you,
O my God, for our wicked deeds are heaped up above our heads
and our guilt reaches up to heaven.
From the time of our fathers even to this day
great has been our guilt,
and for our wicked deeds we have been delivered up,
we and our kings and our priests,
to the will of the kings of foreign lands,
to the sword, to captivity, to pillage, and to disgrace,
as is the case today.

“And now, but a short time ago, mercy came to us from the LORD, our God,
who left us a remnant and gave us a stake in his holy place;
thus our God has brightened our eyes
and given us relief in our servitude.
For slaves we are, but in our servitude our God has not abandoned us;
rather, he has turned the good will
of the kings of Persia toward us.
Thus he has given us new life
to raise again the house of our God and restore its ruins,
and has granted us a fence in Judah and Jerusalem.”

Completing the triple, the homily on humility was based on Ezra's prayer.

And God pried open my eyes that I might glimpse Him. It seemed to me that humility is the recognition of the truth about one's relationship with God. Of course, God loves all of us. This is a constant. But we do not always love God as we ought. Humility is the recognition of our dependence on God, and of our smallness before Infinite Love. "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed." We cannot make demands upon God. We cannot march up to God and demand Heaven as if it were a matter of justice.  Rather it is a matter of Mercy, a gift freely given, and hence, it is a matter of thanksgiving on our part. And so humility is a gateway to thanksgiving and joy at being united to Jesus, where we've a foretaste of that perfect divine union in the Eucharist.

Ite, Missa Est

Painting: The Visitation by Raphael (1517), downloaded from Wikipedia

When the Mass ends, the deacon or priest will say: 

Go forth, the Mass is ended.

Or:

Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.

Or:

Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.

Or:

Go in peace. 

First dismal in Latin is "Ite, missa est." It's probable that the word "Mass" is derived from this dismissal. This "going forth" suggests that what we take what we receive in the Mass out into the world.

It seems to me that the second Joyful Mystery, the Visitation, closely ties in with this dismissal from Mass. Like the Blessed Virgin Mary, we receive Jesus within us, and we bring Jesus within us to others. As Mary bears Christ, we too bear Christ after receiving the gift of Jesus in the Eucharist. This means that our worship is brought out into the world.

But I also think that this mystery of the Visitation gives another perspective. As Saint Elizabeth and John in her womb recognize their Lord Jesus in Mary, we can also recognize Jesus within others (see Matthew 25:31-46). We are all in need of help from Jesus, and often this help comes through other human beings carrying out the will of God. And as you did it to one of the least of these His brethren, you did it to Jesus. 

The mystery of the Visitation is one of bringing Jesus and help to our fellow men.

The Curse and the Blessing

Painting: The Visitation by Raphael (1517), downloaded from Wikipedia

In Deuteronomy there is a section of curses: what God will do to the chosen people if they fail to keep the covenant. The following verses pierced my heart (note to myself: must remember gratitude!). I'm giving two different translations; both are from Dt 28:47-48.

(RSVCE2) Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and in want of all things; and he will put a yoke of iron upon your neck, until he has destroyed you.

(NABRE) Since you would not serve the Lord, your God, with heartfelt joy for abundance of every kind, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and utter want, you will serve the enemies whom the Lord will send against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck, until he destroys you.

This is explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

710 The forgetting of the Law and the infidelity to the covenant end in death: it is the Exile, apparently the failure of the promises, which is in fact the mysterious fidelity of the Savior God and the beginning of a promised restoration, but according to the Spirit. The People of God had to suffer this purification. In God's plan, the Exile already stands in the shadow of the Cross, and the Remnant of the poor that returns from the Exile is one of the most transparent prefigurations of the Church.

The Babylonian exile stands in the shadow of the Cross. It seems that the curse of God is ultimately a blessing.

Some more from the Catechism:

716 The People of the "poor" - those who, humble and meek, rely solely on their God's mysterious plans, who await the justice, not of men but of the Messiah - are in the end the great achievement of the Holy Spirit's hidden mission during the time of the promises that prepare for Christ's coming. It is this quality of heart, purified and enlightened by the Spirit, which is expressed in the Psalms. In these poor, the Spirit is making ready "a people prepared for the Lord."

And this paragraph from the Catechism reminds me of this (from Lk 1:46b-55 RSVCE2):

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is on those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm,
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,
he has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent empty away.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his posterity for ever.

Father Jerzy Popiełuszko

Andrzej Iwański CC BY-SA 3.0 downloaded from Wikimedia

At a recent Bible Study, I found out about the late Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko who was murdered during the Communist regime in Poland. He was a chaplain to Solidarity. It's a coincidence that at the same time I'm conversing with several people about the moral licitness of violence. It's not a question if violence can be licit, but rather when and in what circumstances. And so I've collected a few quotes related to the topic.

From JPRS (Joint Publications Research Service) dated 1 March 1985, it has these excerpts from devotional meditations, 19 October 1984. This is the day Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko was killed.

To preserve dignity in order to increase good and over come evil is to be guided in life by a sense of justice. Justice flows from truth and love. The more truth and love there is in a man, the more justice there is as well. Justice must go hand in hand with love, for without love one cannot be totally just. Where love and goodness are lacking, hatred and violence come to take their place, and if one is guided by hatred and violence, one cannot speak of justice.

To overcome evil with goodness is to remain faithful to truth. Truth is a very fragile possession of our reason. It was God himself who planted the will for truth in man; that is why man has a natural striving for truth and an aversion to falsehood. True, like justice it is linked to love, and love has a price. True love is self-sacrificing; therefore truth too must have a price. Truth always unites people and brings them together.

In order to over come evil with good, one must care about the virtue of courage. The virtue of courage is the overcoming of human weakness, especially fear and dread. A Christian must remember that he should only be afraid of betraying Christ for a couple silver pieces of sterile peace. To merely condemn evil, falsehood, cowardice, coercion, hatred and violence cannot suffice for the Christian; rather he himself must be a true witness, advocate, and defender of justice, goodness, truth, freedom, and love. He must boldly claim these values for himself and for others.

The following comes from "Fr. Popielusko and Communist Poland" by Robert Royal, Arlington Catholic Herald (2000).

Do not struggle with violence. Violence is a sign of weakness. All those who cannot win through the heart try to conquer through violence. The most wonderful and durable struggles in history have been carried on by human thought. The most ignoble fights and most ephemeral successes are those of violence. An idea which needs rifles to survive dies of its own accord. An idea which is imposed by violence collapses under it. An idea capable of life wins without effort and is then followed by millions of people. 

Who Rules?

Christ Pantocrator, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, photo by Andrew Shiva

I think the Declaration of Independence represented an advance for all mankind, and I think that the Gettysburg Address put a right focus on those words: "All men are created equal." Those words are true in a metaphysical sense, that is, all human beings are equally human beings, or one human being is not more human than any other, or some humans are not less than human. No one can truthfully claim that any human being is subhuman or superhuman. Once we step below the metaphysical, inequalities are everywhere. Morally, some people are inhuman and some people are fully human in living their lives as they are meant to. Some are short; some are tall. Some are smart; some are stupid. Some have more talents than others (indeed, recall the parables of Jesus about the talents).

Then there is the spiritual battle beginning with Original Sin. We're at war with evil. But as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn noted, the battlelines of good and evil cross through every human heart. It seems to me that this is why Jesus in the parable of the wheat and the tares (or weeds) had the harvest workers wait until the harvest (meaning the time of Judgment) before separating the wheat from the tares (see Mt 13:24-30). Evil will be with us until the Judgment. Repentance or succumbing to evil are the choices ever before us. This means that all men will stumble into sin; this means governments and cultures will fall. Furthermore, there is no perfect government, and utopia is impossible for as long as men's hearts remain impure. At best, we can design governments to account for human fallness, but there is no guarantee that any government won't fail. It's always "a republic, if you can keep it."

And so governments are set up to keep order and peace. And the better governments will strive for justice (but perfect justice in this world before the Judgment will never prevail). And while with the help of technology, modern governments will increasingly look to police minds and hearts, such efforts will always be totalitarian and inhumane. Liberty will only be found when individuals police their own minds and hearts. "The truth will set you free" (from Jn 8:31-32, Jesus then said to those Jews who believed in him, "If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free").

And the truth is key. Rod Dreher's latest book is titled, Live Not by Lies. I've not read the book, but what I've read from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Václav Havel about life under tyranny, its broad thesis is not hard to discern. We cannot accept the lie. Jordan Peterson passionately expressed this regarding the use of pronouns for transgender and the like, "If they fine me, I won’t pay it. If they put me in jail, I’ll go on a hunger strike. I’m not doing this. And that’s that. I’m not using the words that other people require me to use." But there is something deeper than mere thoughts and words. It's personal integrity, how one lives his or her life. After the Holy Spirit descends upon the Christian disciples, after Peter heals a cripple, the Jewish authorities told them that they must stop preaching about the Christ, to which they replied, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

Jesus Christ is King. But he is not like other human rulers, he will not force himself into a human heart. Indeed, in the battle of good and evil within our hearts, we must invite Jesus into our hearts if we ever hope for the battle to be won by Goodness and Truth. We must pray and ask that God transform our hearts that it might be a suitable throne for the King; "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (Ez 36:26).

CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
by Andrew
modified by adding text