CDXXIII – Rules for Catholics to Grow in Self Mastery (Pt 2)

On revisiting my previous article suggesting Rules for Self Mastery, I found the general theme to be focused on interior mastery, mastery of mind. One of the things I am working on right now is mastery of body. The previous version, if you follow it, will help you to be virtuous, thoughtful, and giving. Here, I hope to suggest rules for self mastery which will help you (and help me) to be mentally, spiritually, and physically tough. Please let me know what you think.

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1.) Master the Fundamentals

I. Keep A Routine. Get into the rhythm of life. Have something to occupy every moment of your day. Examine your day and consider how you spend your time. Fill your day with good work and a smaller dose of healthy recreation. And keep this routine.

II. Keep Your Commitments. Do the things you say you will do. Become reliable and dependable. Be careful in what commitments you make, so you can be sure to keep them. Treat your commitments seriously, even (especially) the commitments you make to yourself.

III. Challenge Yourself. When you are making a routine and choosing commitments, Challenge yourself to do things that are outside your comfort zone, that stretch your capabilities, that push you to be more to more people. Make Christ your example, and push yourself prayerfully.

2.) Deny Yourself

IV. Endure Suffering. Suffering is sanctifying. Suffering is purifying. Suffering is growing. Your routine should include some productive suffering. Endure it, persevere, prove to yourself that suffering is not greater than you are.

V. Choose Suffering. Do not look at suffering as something that happens to you; look at suffering as something you choose. If you are working out, choose suffering until your work out is complete. If you are studying, choose to suffer through your studies until you have accomplished your goal. Choose to suffer, and choose it joyfully.

VI. Offer Your Suffering. Suffering is meaningful–if you choose frequent or intense suffering, offer it to God for reparation for your sins, or the sins of others; offer it to God as thanksgiving. Offer it to God to relieve the suffering of another. Suffering can help save you and can help save others.

3.) Humble Yourself

VII. You Deserve Suffering. Do not avoid suffering because you think it is beneath you. Do not avoid suffering because you feel you do not deserve it. Call to mind your many sins, and remind yourself that you do deserve to suffer. God willing, you can do some share of suffering now to shorten your wait in Purgatory before achieving the Beatific Vision. Consider suffering in this life as a foreshortening of purgative suffering in the next. You are not exempt–you will suffer the exact amount you are supposed to. Choose to endure it now, rather than then.

VIII. To Suffer Is Glorious. Suffering is an imitation of Christ, and that is a glorious thing. To be called to suffer, even in small ways, is to be called to the Cross by Christ Himself. Do not fear it, do not avoid it–embrace it, and see it as glorious. Christ endured everything that we might gain Heaven. Can you not endure this little suffering to gain a better future?

IX. To Suffer Is Helpful. Suffering makes us grow. It can make us stronger, tougher, better, more disciplined. Choose a routine, choose commitments, choose challenges which give you more opportunities to become stronger, tougher, better, and more disciplined. Know that while you suffer, you grow both spiritually and physically.

4.) Stay Grounded

X. God Sustains You Through Suffering And Through Consolation. Whatever you are enduring–be it good times or bad, suffering or joy–it comes from God. God sustains you through everything. Do not despair when suffering finds you. God is with you, and is doing the heavy lifting of your suffering. Give thanks to God when you are suffering, because it means He is closer to you. Give thanks to God when you are experiencing consolation, because it means He has blessed you.

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AMDG

CCXXVI – Rules for Catholics to Grow in Self Mastery

1.) Master the Fundamentals

I. Pray Often. No matter how much you pray, you can pray more. Make it a habit. Make it important. Pray like your life depends on it. Understand that your life does, in fact, depend on it.

II. Fast Regularly. Or practice self mortification, as appropriate or as advised by your spiritual director. Deny yourself little things, consistently. Train yourself to sacrifice, and train your mind to remember the purpose is Holy.

III. Avail yourself of the Sacraments. Go to Mass. Go to Confession. Be involved in your parish. Worry about your soul, and the souls which are daily around you.

2.) Invite God into your Life

IV. Acknowledge God in your Successes. All good things come from God. It is a privilege to experience success in this earthly life–we could all very well be tested the way Job was tested, we are blessed to experience anything else.

V. Invite God into your Failures. God can help us. We don’t have to go it alone. God knows the help we need better than we do. Ask God for help, and quiet your heart to hear his answer.

VI. Protect your Peace. Never let the daily highs and lows of life divert you away from the narrow path. You will be tempted by good things: Train yourself to decline them. You will be discouraged by bad things: Train yourself to see God working in them.

3.) Give your Life to God

VII. Find some way to work for the Church and do it. Forget yourself in the service of others. Train yourself to give sacrificially of your time and effort. Self Mastery is to ignore your own inclinations until you forget your own inclinations.

VIII. Detach from mere Things. Give sacrificially of your money and possessions in the service of God. Accumulate your treasure in Heaven, give away your treasure on Earth. Things are just things, souls are eternal.

IX. Ask your Priest what he needs. Support your priest, and offer your services to him. He will know best what problems exist in the community, or what problems exist in the parish. Find a way to help.

4.) Point to God through your Life

X. Treat your faith like it is important, and encourage those around you to do the same. Sometimes your example will be enough. Lead people to Christ, through your every thought, word, and deed. Practice your faith joyfully, never apologize for it, be willing to suffer socially for it. Stick out. People will notice, and ask you why you seem different.

AMDG

CXCVI – Training Self-Mastery

In my previous article I discussed how the interior life moderates the excesses of the exterior passions; the exterior life defends the interior life against disturbances. I suggested the best way to train these muscles is to act against your natural inclinations–unstated in that article was that eventually the desired inclinations will become natural.

This is something that I need help in, so what follows is an exploration of practical advice for training and moderating ones interior and exterior life. I hope you find it useful as well, which is why I am musing about it publicly; I don’t presume to tell you “BECOME A SAINT WITH THIS ONE WEIRD TRICK (Demons hate it!)” so ultimately you will have to find what works for you. I am speaking from my own perch, where all I can see is myself. I welcome any comments or criticisms anyone might have which would improve this concept of self mastery.

The Exterior Life is probably the easiest to understand and feel and attempt to control, and simultaneously the hardest to actually control because it is front-facing and battered by the winds of the world. Some people call an awareness of your exterior actions, presentations, words, and habits “mindfulness”, but I like the term “self conscious” better. The first step will always just be an awareness of what you are doing.

The second step, as I see it, is an awareness of what troubles your interior life. Again: part of the function of the Exterior life is to defend the interior life. The Exterior life cannot spare itself from itself, it must be directed to something else.

Think about what disturbs your interior life. An example from me: I get stirred up very easily by a particular colleague at work, whom I used to work for, and whom I have a very bad relationship with. I no longer have to work with this person but every jot of news I get, every slight interaction I might have in passing, stirs me up to bitterness. The background is irrelevant, whether my animosity is justified or not is irrelevant. The fact of that matter is that I do, in fact, feel bitterness and it takes very little to make me feel bitterness.

So lets say I wanted to utilize my exterior life to protect my interior life. The first and most obvious way to act against this bitterness is to bite my tongue. When I am stirred to bitterness it is tempting for me to turn to my friendly colleagues and give vent to my animosity. It is this act, more than the acts of my colleague, which disturbs my interior life. By holding my silence, my interior disturbance must remain an interior disturbance, and so starved of oxygen the fire burns out. That is a change in behavior and not necessarily a change in belief. The goal is interior peace, and to avoid disturbance into the future. Another exterior method is prayer–Pray for and about the things that trouble me. Prayer is never wasted, but exterior prayer, saying it out loud (whether in public or not) can help practice that exterior defense. Giving voice to this takes the prayer from an interior one to an exterior one, becomes a public expression that reinforces and is reinforced by interior belief. So in my next encounter, if I were to take this to heart, not only would I not speak ill of the comrade who has drawn my ire, but perhaps I can pray for them in a way that wishes their good–even something as simple as “May God bless xxxx”.

Another action that goes against this temptation to bitterness is to perhaps say something kind to the object of my animosity–rather than harboring interior bitterness, speaking some exterior kindness. Further still, performing some act of kindness would be an exterior action contrary to my interior belief. Consistently acting, speaking, praying in conflict with my interior life would be uncomfortable at first but with time and practice will soften my hardened heart.

In Summary: Pray, Speak, and Act against whatever troubles your interior life, and your exterior life will be strengthened and you will find your interior life decreasingly troubled.

The Interior life, in contrast to the Exterior, is very easy to control and very difficult to understand. Which seems counterintuitive, but if you’ve ever been struck by an inexplicable mood (for good or ill), you know how strange and unpredictable knowing the movements of your interior life can be. The word I would use to describe having an understanding of your interior life is introspection.

Like with the exterior life, the first step is an awareness of what you think and feel, and correlating that with activities in the exterior life. The interior life can moderate the volatility of the exterior life, and so an awareness of both is essential.

So think about what troubles your exterior life, which has its roots internally. Another example from my own life, when I am stressed I tend to have a shorter temper than when I am not stressed. Another colleague at work was a paratrooper in the Army and likes to walk by when I am stressed and remind me that nobody is being shot at. So the first practice to strengthen the interior life is perspective. Take a step back, take a deep breath, and keep focused the true measure of the source of stress. Prayer also is good to fortify and reinforce your interior life. Memorize some prayers, and keep them in mind, call upon them in times of trouble. A good way to accomplish both perspective and prayer at once is to contemplate the sorrowful mysteries: Whatever is troubling you, you aren’t being flogged at a pillar, nor crowned with thorns, nor crucified. Call upon Our Lady’s intercession.

There are more exterior ailments than just stress and a short temper. Acting against these troubles in the interior life involves maintaining a sense of calm, having an interior awareness of how the world wants you to react and how you want to react. It can also mean exercising the will to deprive yourself of some comfort: Fasting, abstaining from meat or sweets or anything you happen to want, while these may be exterior acts they are first and foremost acts of the will. As such, they are flexions of the interior life that helps temper and moderate your exterior life.

In Summary: Maintain perspective, pray, practice calmness and peace, and you will find it working its way up and out into your exterior life. Practice self mortification, fasting, abstinence from anything you find you desire, and you will find moderation in your exterior life as well.

I hope this has been a useful exercise!

AMDG

XCIX – Ontology of Failure

What does it mean for a life to be a success or failure?

lets look at success. Success can be in two flavors. Objective success, this person lived life well. And relative success, this person lived life better than others. Failure, then, follows the same rubric. This person lived life poorly, or this person lived life worse than others.

We know success and failure by the relative term most frequently. A successful businessman is one who is making more money than his peers. An unsuccessful businessman has lost money, and perhaps declares bankruptcy as his speculative venture has ruined his finances. Relative success has the connotation of building up; while relative failure has the connotation of ruination.

Objective success I can only conceive of as Sainthood. An objectively successful life leads someone to heaven. The pathway for this can lead through relative success or failure in equal measure. Objective success involves practicing virtue.

Objective failure, conversely, would be living a life of unrepentant sin, thereby permanently denying themselves the grace of God.

Objective success is still attainable to me, even if my life is relatively a failure. relative success does not translate to objective success, nor does relative failure translate to objective failure. Despair or Pride are the points on which relative success or failure pivot to objective success or failure. Both Despair and Pride are the thoughts that God is not present; the former because he has abandoned us, the latter because we are better than him. Said another way, We abandon God in both Despair and Pride, but in one because we believe we don’t deserve Him, the other because He doesn’t deserve us.

Relative success requires humility, and relative failure requires patience. Humility because God has blessed us and we don’t deserve it; Patience because God’s blessings are coming and we must wait for it.

Relative success can be turned into objective success with humility, or lost with pride. Relative failure can be turned into objective failure with despair, or corrected with patience.

AMDG

XCIII – Rules for Catholics After Things Go Bad

1.) How you relate to God

I. Keep a Holy Hour, and practice self mortification and penance. Pray and Fast. Offer yourself to God, and be open to whatever He may say in answer.

II. Be a priest or Beget them. The Church needs priests, and the best priests are formed in families. Discern carefully your Vocation, and that of your issue. If you are not going to be a priest, you still need to be well formed.

III. Remember the Four Last Things. Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell. Remember that you will die. Go to confession in preparation of your judgement. Aim for Heaven, but know that Hell is real and people go there, probably more people than we would like to think.

2.) How you relate to your Parish

IV. Shrink the Church. The Church manifests itself locally through your Parish. Be concerned about how your Parish is run, get involved with keeping your Parish run well. Be visible, be vocal, be active in the service of your Church, as it exists around you.

V. Find Fertile Soil, and set down roots. Be discerning about your Parish, and vote with your feet and your dollars. Find a Parish that is worth investing your time and money in. Send your kids to the Parish school, and get to know your fellow parishoners.

VI. Hold to Tradition. Tradition is what has kept the Church alive for 2,000 years. Hold it. Keep it. Make it your own. Bring it into your home. Bring it into your Parish.

3.) How you relate to The Church

VII. Ask God to fix it. Accept that you have no control over what is going on in the Greater Church. It is going to take a Miracle.

VIII. Be prepared for God to ask you to fix it. It is going to take a Miracle. Ask God for that Miracle. Be prepared for Him to ask you to be that Miracle.

4.) How you relate to the World

IX. Don’t Apologize for your Faith. Practice joyfully, and in full confidence that it is True.

X. Have an answer for why you love your Faith. Practice it. Be ready to answer. You never know when someone will ask. You never know how powerful your witness can be.

LXXXVI – On Resiliency, Through Christ

Some of you may share a bad habit that I have wherein I can crack my joints. If I contort myself a certain way, I can crack my back, too. I’ve been known to throw out my back on occasion, and for minor events I can stretch and twist and my back will crack back into place and I will experience instant relief. This is not healthy by any means, and I have some work to do to on prevention, this is secondary to the point. The point is, for some things, pushing through pain can bring greater relief.

Keen observers may have noticed that my regular schedule has been interrupted this month. I’ve been struggling with a number of things. Work has been challenging for a number of reasons, but in part because I have philosophical differences with my immediate supervisor. My kith and kin are not known for being agreeable, and unfortunately this is a trait I have also inherited. If I feel I am right, I am hard pressed to back down. I know there is an opportunity for a lesson in obedience here, but have some ways to go before I embrace it fully.

I have also been struggling with some personal matters. As you may recall, I converted to Catholicism in 2018. My family took this with benign indifference, but as more time passes and I remain unshaken from my belief, the more frequently this becomes a point of contention, the more intensely it becomes contested. There are a number of reasons why this is the case, and I know very few of them have to do with me personally. One morning I was greeted with a series of offensive remarks in continuation of a conversation which began the previous night. I mention it for this reason:

The point of all this is not to air my grievances to the electronic aether. The point is that after all the pain and frustration, pushing through this one last difficult conversation brought me relief instead of heartache. I learned something about Resiliency through this month. I offer my thanks to the intercession of Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, whose feast day is this week.

There are three key points to Faithful Resiliency. First: Maintain prayer through difficult times. You may have heard this, and you may have already learned this lesson on your own. For the rest of you, I hope I can spare you some grief: Tough times can be handled easier by continuing to pray, at all. No Prayer is wasted. Pray for unrelated things. Pray for other people, suffering the same way you are. Use prayer to get outside yourself–or not, as long as you pray. Keep praying. However much you pray now, try to pray more. Hard times are made harder without prayer. Hard times aren’t made any easier, but are given purpose, and with purpose, you can carry hard times to their conclusion, rather than endure them to their end.

Second: Don’t hurt yourself for others sake. My family caused me a lot of heartache because I would subordinate my faith for them, so as to not offend them. As a result, I wasn’t showing them the fullness of how Faith plays a role in my life, and they clearly feel I haven’t changed at all. I have changed. And it’s a good thing, too, as I was an unrepentant sinner before. Now I’m still a sinner, but a repentant one. They didn’t appreciate all my concern over how my Faithful practice was perceived, so now I feel relief that I can just do what I need to do, and they can respond however they would like to respond. Hopefully the unapologetic witness speaks louder than my timid, apologetic witness from before.

Third: Christ has suffered for us, so that we can unite our suffering to His. But if we keep strong in the Faith, we can avoid eternal suffering later. Whatever happens now is fleeting, and will hopefully seem to us trivial and pointless when we are laid bare before a perfect Judge at our end. Nothing on this earth can hurt our souls, which are our most precious gift.

I’ll add in a bonus Fourth option for free: Worship is a community endeavor. Build a community around yourself. Find like minded people who worship the way you worship, and who you can support and rely on to support you. Asking for prayers can be a humbling experience, but it’s also sometimes the most anyone can do.

Yours in Faith, – Scoot

LIV – Dear God: It’s Complicated

Prayer is absolutely essential to living. It is fundamental to faith (in the spirit of Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi) and fundamental to having a relationship with God. So, I ask: How do we pray?

Turn Around

The first question is, what is our current relationship with God? How we talk to a stranger is different from how we talk to a friend is different from how we talk to family. We need to identify where God fits into our lives and where we want God to be. God will meet us wherever we are. Conversion has it’s root in the latin convertere, literally meaning “To turn around”. God is a fixed point, we are fickle creatures that need to continually ensure we are aligned with God. Sometimes all it takes to break that inertia is a small step.

The best thing you can do is to rely on what already exists. Perhaps this name is not good branding, but ‘formula’ prayers are prayers which have already been written and can be found in manuals of prayer or other spiritual works. The “Our Father” was given to us by Christ himself. The “Hail Mary” was written by Luke, but is attributed by Luke to the Angel Gabriel. These are the basics. A step further, perhaps memorize some of the Acts of Faith, Acts of Hope, Acts of Contrition, for example. The Jesus Prayer is the shortest prayer I know (Besides, of course, ‘Amen’!).

The key is to do something. Maybe today all you can muster is a Hail Mary. Tomorrow, how do you feel about doing two? Push yourself, but not to the point where you spiral into despair when your prayer life flags. The Formula prayers help build a skeleton around which to hang the “Free form” prayers. There are 4 kinds of prayer, which can be remembered with the mnemonic ‘ACTS’: Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, Supplication (also known as petition).

• Adoration: Adores and glorifies God (Glory Be…)
• Contrition: Contemplate sins and ask God for mercy (O Jesus, Son of God…)
• Thanksgiving: Gratitude for God for our blessings (Thanks be to God!)
• Supplication: Bring your requests to God (…Give us this day our daily bread…)

I list examples of formula prayers that go with each of these types, so you can connect your free-form prayer to these.

So, where is the relationship?

Relationships build slowly over time. You will not wake up tomorrow and feel (as some do!) that God is their best friend and most ardent advocate. Imagine, for example, a relationship with a significant other or spouse. How did it begin? Perhaps you met first in passing, shared a few words. As you spoke more and more, you started spending more time together. As you spent more time together, you began to feel an emotional attachment and connection to each other. When you fall in love, you start to feel as if you are not complete without the other, wondering how you ever got by on your own! The parallels here are not hard to see. Start with prayer. Speak to God early and often. Spend time with God in Adoration, or even just in front of the Tabernacle: He’s there all the same. This is an investment and it will take consistent effort. Prayer alone can only get you so far. How many relationships flourish when a couple never spends time together EVER? How many relationships flourish if they spend time together but do not speak? How can you form an emotional connection?

Don’t begin by expecting to feel as if God is your best friend, the same way you don’t begin speaking to someone by asking them to marry you. Joan d’Arc has an excellent quote: “Act and God will Act”. Bring the raw materials to God, and God will do the heavy lifting.

Non Sequitur

I have not been feeling myself lately. My prayer life is the first thing to go when times get tough. In the young-adult group I attend, we were talking about prayer and I shared how I like to put Christ in a box, and only reach in when I feel like it but otherwise keep him tucked away out of sight. Today the clouds of my mind began to clear, and I can think with focus: How do I build my relationship with God? What does that word, relationship, even mean? At a minimum it means I can’t keep God in a box. I need to turn around and see how God is acting in my life, and reach out to God so he can work in my life.

Pray for me.
Pray for a special intention of mine.
Pray for spiritual growth.
St. Athanasius, Pray for us
St. Luke, Pray for us.
St. Joseph, Pray for us.
Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, Pray for us.

AMDG

 

 

 

 

(h) – Parable of the Ship

The captain of the ship was young once. Bright eyed, full of excitement, eager to explore the world. He had the means at his finger tips, he needed only to select the ends. He wanted to visit the great ports of the world, to cross the greatest seas. Boldly he would berth in the bustling Black. Swiftly he would sail the Suez. He would persevere across the Pacific; he would admire the Adriatic. The blustery Baltic would bear him to shore; the calm Caribbean would be his refuge. Berths in Manhattan, Singapore, Sydney, Buenos Aires, all had his name printed on them. The captain of the ship was young once, he dreamed all of these dreams. Now his ship is old and rusted, beached on a long sandy shore. His hair is grey, his skin wrinkled and stretched thin over his gaunt frame. The fuel tank in his ship is as full as the day he took the helm. His map is littered with erased paths, where his plans briefly took shape and were abandoned before they were begun. He tells himself, today is the day he will choose, today is the day he will get under way. He frowns at his map, and erases another line. Perhaps tomorrow.

XI – The Fallacy of the Abortionist

There are two questions you might ask in response to my ravings about privileges allowed by government. “Who cares? Sounds like you’re calling it six of one and half a dozen of the other.” Another question you might have is, “If it’s that bad, what can I do about it today?”

Why It Matters

The words we use to describe things are extremely important. It helps us frame ideas in a more accurate light. To lean on my recent Dictionary, a nominalist view describes reality in ways that conform to the describers personal biases about a thing. That is to say, if a nominalist is talking about Rights, they are talking about their idea of rights, which may not even be remotely the same as your idea of rights.

A Right to something is, in addition, ontologically different from a privilege. In short, a right is an entitlement: “You have to give me this”; a privilege is a responsibility: “I have this and you can take it away”. What people mean when they describe Rights is privileges, so why not speak about the thing accurately?

American society is built on this very fundamental idea, that has been disguised by mythos and personal bias tied to patriotism and politics. If we can liberate ourselves of that metaphysical baggage that constrains our thought. American society cannot change or improve if we remain tied to that baggage. And that is where we get to the crux of the matter.

American society and American Government are not properly oriented to lead citizens to Virtue. They are presently oriented to maximize choice, under the auspices of freedoms, disguised in the language of entitlement-rights. This is imprisoning.

Let’s look at an example:

Right to Choose vs. Right to Life. The reason abortion is even remotely an issue is because two groups are looking at a thing and calling it different names. One side believes a woman has a right to choose what she does with her body. They view restrictions on that as tyrannical, because they are taking away a woman’s rights. The other side believes a baby is a person, and killing it is an offense against God. They view prohibiting abortion as a virtue, the same way that the Government restricts a persons ‘right’ to murder at will, to drink and drive, or do other things that are harmful to oneself or others.

These two perspectives are not reconcilable by compromise or any other ‘middle way’. And there will always be tension unless Government adopts a view supported by faith; otherwise Faith and Government will be in opposition, because faith supersedes government.

Let’s examine this right to Choose, and a woman’s right to ‘choose what she does with her body’. First, let’s restate this using my earlier methodology: This side of the argument asserts that “The Government allows me to decide what to do with my body”. But lets restate this even more, because Abortion is the only choice they are fighting for. If they get pregnant, it is currently legal in all 50 states to carry it to term and have a live birth. So the only choice that is in question is the ability to get an abortion. So let’s restate it again: “The Government allows me to get an abortion.” And nowadays, that is an accurate statement. But a fertilized egg will become a person 11 times out of 10 (because sometimes they become twins!), and all people at all stages of life are children of God, endowed with a grace and dignity all their own.

So, to be brutally honest, what they really mean is: “The Government allows me to kill a person who is a gift from God.”

But what they are saying is: “I have the right to choose.”

The language we use is extremely important.

So What Can I Do About It?

Well, we really need to know what the problem is? I would argue the problem is that our government is not oriented towards virtue. And the solution to that must come from the ground up. We will not out-vote the masses, if one group promises ‘free choice for everyone’ and the other promises ‘limited choice, but for a good reason’.

So the answer is to live virtuously. Inspire your peers to live virtuously. Raise a virtuous family. The challenge is that this is more than a generational problem. This is a civilizational problem. So my answers to this question sound like platitudes. But all of these are things you can begin to work on today. 

Fraternal correction is an important part of Catholic Faith. If a fellow Christian strays, tell them so, bluntly and firmly. It is not easy. I have not fully grokked what it means to live this way. But that is what is required. It has it’s own set of challenges, but it’s not impossible to practice.

In order to remake the world, one must first see the world as it is. Grokking that is the first step.

AMDG

III – Idealism vs Pragmatism

Idealism vs. Pragmatism

I’m an idealist. That’s why i’m writing here: I believe that at some point, someone will read this and get something out of it. No one is reading it right now. But in the future, someone might. I consider my idealism to be borne out of the same part of me that held on to Faith through the years and the wax and wane of my fickle predilections. So, very naturally, I connect Faith and Idealism together.

However! There is another part of me that is very practical. When I finish asking “How should things be?” I tend to ask how to bring it into reality. My conversion to Catholicism was a very idealistic event, up until the big day. Then it became practical, and the character changed entirely. I had to shift gears from ‘learning’ about Faith to living faith. I had to really grok what it means to be Catholic. That took another period of some months and I suspect may never actually end.

This has all been very well and good, and has been very edifying. But where Pragmatism and Idealism collide in a–to me, so far–irreconcilable way, is politics.

Politics of Faith

Zippy has explained better than I ever could how Liberalism is a scourge^[1]. So how can it be corrected? An idealist would say we need a different system. A pragmatist would say we need to use the current system to adopt pieces of the ideal system. The former is not actionable and the latter is not consistent with ideals.

I still haven’t quite reconciled the two. I think the best answer comes from Scripture^[2]:

Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?
Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.

That is to say, when I begin to start thinking too big, I should ask these questions: Am I loving God with my whole being? Am I loving my neighbor as myself? Too often politics becomes divisive and tribal, and enacting these big changes doesn’t allow for one’s neighbors to correct themselves.

Advocate for the Truth, always. But don’t sacrifice loving thy neighbor for ideological consistency. By which I mean: Doing nothing because it doesn’t comply with how things should be is a political ‘Benedict option’ in which I would have to withdraw myself from political society because it is Liberal. That’s keeping your Gold piece hidden until the master returns, and not making an effort to multiply it. But we also cannot accept certain aspects of our society, which is abortive, homoerotic and usurious. Knights run into the breach, not away from it. So when I say don’t sacrifice loving thy neighbor for ideological consistency, please don’t mistake me for asking you to soften your stance for social convenience. I am saying your neighbors need you to lead by example.

AMDG

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[1] Note: Liberalism, here, is not to be confused with American Leftism, but rather the overarching philosophical umbrella in which all American politics operate. American rightists and American Leftists are both different flavors of Liberal. ‘Classical Liberal’ I think would also be appropriate.

[2] Matthew 22:36-40