The spirit of our age
They refused to love the truth (2 Thess 2:10b)
Sister Michelle was reading from Second Thessalonians today at Morning Prayer. Prior to that, as usual, I was reading the news and commentary. New York Times, Politico, The Bulwark, and the Seattle Times.
Frank Bruni started his column with this:
I keep flashing back to Ronald Reagan’s preternaturally smiley face. |
That’s not because I yearn for his presidency. It’s because his signature expression — his glow — provides such a clear counterpoint to the Republican mien of the moment, equal parts scowl and sneer. Reagan’s disposition was fundamentally hopeful. The Republicans in the foreground today are foundationally resentful. Recrimination, rage: Those are the fuels they run on. Those are the emotions they till. As Frank said, I do not “yearn for his presidency.” But he captured something about the spirit of our times. Ours is not a hopeful time. Ours is an age of resentment and grievance. Bruni focused his concern on the Right. I think he knows that the Left has made its own contribution. We grumble and moan about how unfair it all is. And, of course, there is much unfairness, much injustice. The struggle in the nation, and the church, is about which spirit we will give ourselves to. “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope.” (2 Thess 2:16) and “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) The Order of the Ascension gathered in retreat last week at the convent of the Community of Saint John Baptist. We spent a good bit of time exploring how we might seek truth in these times. We thought that prior to trying to address the issue in regard to the whole society, or even our own parish churches, we would begin with ourselves. We looked at how we could each broaden the news sources listened to. We planned to do more work in the coming months on spotting logical fallacies and what Ilana Redstone calls “the certainty trap.”[i] It’s a worthy project. Our starting place, however, wasn’t with those useful skills and stances. We began with Kirk and Thornton. We began with the Daily Office, Eucharist and reflection. The Vision of God: The Christian Doctrine of the Summum Bonum is the title of a 1931 book by Kenneth Kirk. Two quotes from the preface: Worship is the Christian’s first and paramount duty. The highest prerogative of the Christian, in this life as well as hereafter, is the activity of worship; and that nowhere except in this activity will he find the key to his ethical problems. Then Martin Thornton in Spiritual Direction: Aquinas got it right: prayer is ‘loving God in act so that the divine life can communicate itself to us and through us to the world.’ Christian action is not action of which Jesus approves but action that he performs through his incorporated, and therefore prayerful, disciples. And in Pastoral Theology, when Thornton explores how we are able to properly engage ethical and moral behavior he writes: It is true no doubt that this grace can be gained by no mere human effort; it is something the wholly from without; but man can so rule and order his life as to open it out to divine influence, and to give that influence the fullest possible scope when once it has been received. It is in the supreme emphasis laid upon this principle that Christian ethics differs from every other system.’ The principal to which Dr. Kirk is paying tribute is that although we are to make volitional battle against sins, our most potent weapon is the Rule of the Church. Our first task, primarily done by giving ourselves the church’s pattern of prayer is to “stand firm and hold fast” to the central truth that our hope is in God. It is in the ordering of our life to open ourselves to divine influence. When Sister Michelle and I say Morning Prayer, we follow the tradition of always using the Benedictus Dominus Deus as the second canticle. The Order did that last week on retreat. There is in that canticle a few lines that I look forward to saying each day. It is a joyful anticipation. Words that I allow to influence my spirit. In the tender compassion of our God * the dawn from on high shall break upon us, rag+
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[i] Redstone wrote, “The fight against mis- and dis-information—a worthy goal—is often based on two flawed assumptions. The first is that definitive answers are known to the disputed points. The second, related to the first, is that the right people to provide those answers can be identified and agreed upon. Both assumptions are themselves often steeped in the Certainty Trap—a resolute unwillingness to recognize the possibility that we might not be right in our beliefs and claims.” In “The Tablet”, May 6-12, 2022
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