Mark Shea on the Benedict Option

Since my friend Joseph is always bringing up the somewhat relevant Catholic author Mark Shea, I thought I should check out what Mark Shea recently had to say about the Benedict Option:

Instead of withdrawal from the world, how about sharing the fruits of prayer and contemplation with the world? God did not so love the world that he hunkered down in Fortress Katolicus seeking the perfect liturgy, scrutinizing people for heresy, and repelling everybody who sought him as an invader.

The world is to be loved, not feared or worshiped. Father Dominic got this.

Seriously. Who at this point hears Benedict Option and doesn't think "bunker"? If the so-called Benedict Option was truly a strategic withdrawal then no one would even know about it as I've said before. Conceding defeat in the war of ideas isn't strategic. How can you even purport to be a standard-bearer for Burkean ideals and leave the fight?

Shea and I disagree on many things and his reflexive moral equivalency in the political sphere is tiresome, but we agree (along with Tom) that the so-called Benedict Option isn't to be considered either because it isn't really Christian or it doesn't really exist. Or... maybe a bit of both.

"Everything's amazing... nobody's happy."

I made my kids watch this on Friday.

This is medicine which can help people of any ideology. It's best delivered to kids in a comedy routine format with lots of audience cheers for affirmation. The grouchy old dad has a higher chance of being summarily dismissed.

I like how he busts on us Gen-X-ers for complaints about those people with the irritating phone numbers with the high numbers and zeroes. Making the 30-year trip across the country kind of puts the "making sparks" style of dialing into perspective as well.

I remember an old priest, Father Murphy, who was on a pilgrimage to Rome I made in 1998 talking with amazement about our flight. "Isn't technology wonderful to have enabled us to come to this ancient city?" He was talking the way everyone should be thinking (thank you Nicholas Cage.) People need to be more amazed and more content. Or if they aren't content with their devices, go build a better one.

Ed Peters on the Perpetual State of Collapse

Ed Peters provides a useful antidote to the pessimism that Rod Dreher wallows in, and it's based on historical perspective as well as Christ's promise about the Gates of Hell. Excerpt:

Consider: Dreher ably traces the unraveling of Christianity in America, as represented in a special way by the battle over “gay marriage”, to a 1993 article in The Nation, springing from forces formally noticed in a 1966 book, in part unleashed by the Enlightenment in the late 18th century. He paints a plausible scenario. But why stop at the Enlightenment?

What was the Enlightenment except an exploitation of the disorder sowed by the Protestant Revolution? What was that religious revolution except a misdirected reaction to corruption in the medieval papacy? What was that papal corruption except a pernicious consequence of Papo-caesarism? What was that unbalanced ecclesiology but a short-sighted way to protect the Church against invasion by civil rulers? What was that regal invasion but . . . and so on and on and on—all the way back to Adam’s choice to believe what was nothing less than Satan’s Lie?

Simply put, the world is always in a state of collapse. Century after century after century. Catholics, or at any rate the Catholic Church, know this.

Then Peters goes on to say that capital-C Christianity isn't threatened by all the gay nonsense and that our marching orders to remain faithful are clear-cut, never mind the odds. Peters attitude is that of the soldier, and it's the one I'm trying to live. It's hard; pessimism is easier. Throwing in the towel is much easier than continuing to throw punches. Peters concludes:

Toward the end of his essay, Dreher holds out some hope for a recovery of moral senses, but it’s not much hope, and it is easy to miss his point. So let me sum up my way: things don’t always turn out as badly as we think they will turn out, and even if they do, so what? Our job is to shoulder on.