Presented to:
Christ the King Banquet
Christ the King Festivities of the New Christendom
"How We Build It"
November 18, 2000
I am deeply honored
indeed to be asked to give this talk to all of you gathered
here for the 2000 Christ the King Festivities, who are interested in and
participants in
the building of a New Christendom. I am happy to present my ideas in response
to the
question and the assertion, "How we build it", depending in great
measure upon the
inspiring words and teaching of our present Holy Father, Pope John Paul
II, over more
than two decades.
There are a variety
of factors, in my view, that are necessary either as a
preliminary ground©breaking activity, or as an actual accumulation
of appropriate
construction material that a New Christendom might be erected.
I personally have had
the great privilege of hearing Pope Paul VI speak often
about a new civilization of love, and I think, that the two, a New Christendom
and a new
civilization of love, certainly can be a dual name for the same reality.
The building
project to construct a New Christendom requires first, a renewed and deepened
understanding on the part of those working in this project of the spiritual
dimension of
humanity, and this understanding must then, be extended in the largest way
possible to
the larger portion of humanity which has no interest in, or concern about,
the
construction of the New Christendom.
The second undertaking
must be a grasp of the supernatural order on the part of
those involved in the project, its gratuitous nature, and how Christ must,
if there is to
be a Christendom, stand at the center of each human being's personal history
as well as
the history of the human race on the planet.
The third necessity,
in my view, is a strengthened and renewed sense of docility,
particularly to the Church and to those who have been entrusted with the
custody of
Divine Revelation within that Church.
The fourth need is to
place into the proper perspective the relationship of freedom
and truth and the interplay between those two vital qualities.
Finally, I would like
to speak about a series of obstacles that are likely to impede
the success of those who are undertaking to build a New Christendom.
First then, to speak
about the spiritual dimension of humanity is, in some ways,
extraordinarily difficult today. Both the information and entertainment
media, as well
as the predominant philosophical and ideological outlook, tend to see humanity
as a
purposeless and goal-less product of a biological evolution. This being
done in a blind
and materialistic way has no known future: man is nothing more than one
of the higher
primates who is existing for no discernable reason. Therefore, pleasure,
the acquisition
of power and possessions are able in this perspective to be the ultimate
goals of a human
person, and as a result, the whole spiritual dimension is seriously diminished.
Beauty,
Goodness, and Truth are not essential qualities of man's being, and, as
a matter of fact,
are considered by many people today as simply evolving qualities which,
in a relativistic
perspective can be changed 180 degrees. Therefore, what is true or good
or beautiful
today can be considered bad, or ugly, or false tomorrow. Without a spiritual
dimension
in one's ideological perspective, it is impossible to see any such thing
as objective truth,
or moral absolutes. The rational part of the definition of a human being
as a rational
animal is open, without understanding the intellect as a dimension, along
with free will
of the spiritual nature of a human being to be nothing more than an externally
stimulated
piece of meaningless brain matter.
Even people who agree
about the existence of an immortal soul, will sometimes
have grave doubts about what they agree to, and will have, of course, a
distorted
perspective of what the spiritual realities really are. We, who profess
in our Creed every
Sunday that we believe in a God, Who not only created visible things, but
also invisible,
must insist and prove with every logical tool at our command, that that
which is material
is only an horizon which is the limit of our vision, and that if we have
that vision which
is given to us by our human reason, and even more so by our faith, we can
see an
invisible world that is every bit as real as external and materialistic
reality grasped by
the perspective of our senses.
To build a new Christendom also requires, I believe, an understanding of
a
supernatural order, and this requires that we place Christ in the center
of all of Divine
Revelation: the center of Sacred Scripture, the center of Sacred Tradition,
and
consequently, the center of each life, and the center of the human enterprise.
The
Church as the extension of Christ in time and place as His Bride and His
Body, shares
this centrality. To understand the supernatural order in its gratuitous
aspects and to
understand the supernatural order as beyond the capacity of human beings
to grasp, it is
necessary to accept with the appropriate obedience of faith, that which
revelation tells
us, principally the story of the creation, the elevation, and the fall of
the human race in
its primordial stages, and consequent upon that, the realities of sin and
grace, and most
important, the reality of Redemption.
If a person were to
accept the spiritual dimension of humanity and to understand
and accept the existence of the supernatural order, it follows as a logical
consequence
that such a person must then live a life of profound humility which virtue
must include
a docility to the teaching authority of the Church which Christ founded.
So in addition
to the first two points of the spiritual dimension and the supernatural
order, I would
include the necessity of being docile as the central point in the construction
of the New
Christendom. Docility to the Church does not mean an abdication of our own
understanding, reasonable and logical conclusions, nor does it mean any
repudiation of
our learning derived from experience. Most important, I think, it is necessary
to
emphasize that it does not mean any retreat from what the Second Vatican
Council
appropriately called, the lay vocation which is the sanctification of the
temporal order.
As a matter of fact, docility to the Church, her teaching authority or Magisterium,
must
be understood in that perspective. It is not the duty of priests or bishops
or religious to
sanctify the temporal order; that is, the order of family life, politics,
social interactions,
labor, management, commerce, industry, agriculture, the secular professions,
and the
like. It is lay people who have not only the right, but the obligation to
bring Christ into
those parts of human endeavor. It is the duty, of course, of the clerical
order and
religious communities to animate, inspire, and to touch with the supernatural
dimension
of human life on our planet, every aspect of profane and secular undertakings.
However,
it is lay people who must be leaders in this great work of sanctifying the
temporal order.
And done then, in a spirit of docility, but in a spirit that does not allow
docility to be a
cloak for inertia or sloth or cowardice.
The successful construction
of a New Christendom that will not be subjected to
easy foundational or structural undermining, requires also, in my view,
a particular
understanding of the relationship of freedom and truth. In our country,
and because we
are in the United States the predominant superpower of the world, freedom
is always
understood as a paramount value. Our soldiers are said to struggle and fight,
sometimes
die, to preserve our freedom. Unfortunately, however, in our country and
in other parts
of the world, freedom is mistakenly understood to be an ability to do whatever
one
desires or wants. That is not freedom. Freedom is certain liberty from some
kinds of
external coercion, but we are never truly "liberated" from that
which is the truth. If we
attempt to unhinge ourselves from the truth, then we are in effect forfeiting
freedom and
entering a situation of slavery.
Slavery can be of different
varieties. There are those who are slaves to
intellectual error. A child who thinks that 7+7=15, is not free. That child
is a slave
to an error, and because of that slavery, that child's entire mathematical
enterprise will
be a journey down the road to greater and greater error. In another perspective,
many
people today who believe they are free, are actually enslaved. They are
slaves to
hormones, to a vast variety of manipulative procedures©©many of
them unconsciously
chaining them without their even knowing it. People can also be slaves to
fashion, to
public opinion, the opinions of others, and the like. If the point I mentioned
of an
understanding of the supernatural order is taken into account. It can be
easily seen, how
perduring effects of original sin, even after that sin is eliminated, allows
the effects,
namely concupiscence to remain in human hearts, and so human beings can
become
slaves to some very base urges that distort and confuse the idea of true
liberty and
genuine freedom.
To make a New Christendom
then, means a strong dedication and devotion to
truth. This involves, then, for those who are in this project, the determination
to seek truth in its fullness, as that which is revealed to us by the teachings
of Jesus Christ, and
beyond that to see the truth in its fullness in the very person of Christ
Himself. This
Divine Person, with both a human and a divine nature, declared that He was
the Truth.
He told Pontius Pilate, despite Pilate's sarcastic question, that this is
why He was born
and came into the world, to bear witness to the Truth. If people with a
worldly outlook
claim they are searching for the truth, the construction of a New Christendom
will
depend on the eloquent ability of those in the project to proclaim that
Christ, then, is
what they are looking for, and that He and His teaching occupy the center
stage which
goes by the name of Truth.
In his encyclical letter, Faith and Reason, the Holy Father wrote the following,
"In the encyclical letter, The Splendor of Truth, I wrote that many
of the problems of the
contemporary world stem from a crisis of truth. I noted that once the idea
of a universal truth about the good, noble life of reason is lost, inevitably
the notion of conscience also
changes. Conscience is no longer considered in its prime reality, as an
act of a person's
intelligence, the function of which is to apply the universal knowledge
of the good in a
specific situation, and thus, to express a judgment about the right conduct
to be chosen
here and now. Instead, there is a tendency to grant to the individual conscience
the
prerogative of independently determining the criteria of good and evil,
and then acting
accordingly. Such an outlook is quite congenial to an individualist ethic,
wherein each
individual is faced with his own truth, different from the truth of others."
Those who are constructing
an engineering project, a bridge, a large building, etc,
must continually take into account, those elements which may be confronted
by this
object; wind velocity, seismic situation of the place of location, and similar
considerations. Therefore, those who are in the construction of a New Christendom
should, I think, take into take into very clear account the impediments
and obstacles, or
at least, the opposition that might be confronted.
In the encyclical, Faith
and Reason (Fides et Ratio), the Pope lists four major
impediments which serve as a warning to those engaged in the construction
of a New
Christendom. To a proper understanding of the relationship of faith and
reason, as well
as the relationship of philosophy to theology. "The first," he
says, "goes by name of
eclecticism, by which," he says, "is meant the approach of those
who would in research
teaching and argumentation, even in theology, tend to use individual ideas
drawn from
different philosophies without concern for their internal coherence, their
place within a
system, or their historical context. They, therefore, run the risk of being
unable to
distinguish the part of truth of a given doctrine, from elements of it which
may be
erroneous or ill-suited to the task at hand. An extreme form of eclecticism
appears also
in the rhetorical misuse of philosophical terms. Such manipulation does
not help in the
search for truth, nor does it train reason to formulate arguments, serious
and
scientifically."
I think the example
I like to use which was offered to me some time ago by an
old farmer who said it is always useful to remember that rat poison is 90%
good,
wholesome, and nourishing food; it is the 10% of the arsenic in the mixture
that does the
killing. We have, I think, to understand that in relationship to the new
declaration of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which has been completely and
totally
supported quite vocally by our Holy Father, called the Lord Jesus, Dominus
Jesus. In
speaking about the uniqueness of Jesus as the only Means of salvation and
of the Church
which is His extension in time and place.
Another obstacle which
the Pope points out, and which I would certainly say is
serious danger to the construction of the New Christendom, is what he calls
scientism..
He says, "This is the philosophical notion which refuses to admit the
validity of forms
of knowledge other than those of the positive sciences, and it relegates
religious,
theological, ethical, and aesthetic knowledge to the realm of mere fantasy.
In the past
the past this idea emerged in positivism and neo-positivism."
The work of a New Christendom,
to inculcate into humanity an understanding of
the spiritual dimension of the human race, and to bring to others an acceptance
of the
existence of the supernatural order with its accompanying docility to the
Magisterium of
the Church, and with its clarity in discerning the relationship of truth
and freedom will
be utterly frustrated if scientism is allowed to take the question of the
meaning of human
life and place it in the realm of the irrational and the imaginary. From
a moral point of view, of course, which is very acutely discussed today,
scientism will also teach that
whatever is possible is therefore moral to do, and as a consequence, particularly
in
medical technology and in matters pertaining to life issues, and to the
ante-road to life,
that is to say, sexual morality, scientism constitutes a particularly grave
danger.
The Pope then goes on
to talk about pragmatism which in making choices
preclude theoretical considerations or judgments based on ethical principles.
With special
relevance to our own situation, the Pope says, "In particular, there
is growing support
for a concept of democracy which is not grounded upon any reference to unchanging
values, whether or not a line of action is admissible is decided by the
vote of a
parliamentary majority. The consequences of this are clear. In practice
the great moral
decisions of humanity are subordinated to the decisions taken one after
another by
institutions or agencies. Moreover, anthropology itself, is severely compromised
by one
dimensional vision of a human being, a vision which excludes the great ethical
dilemmas,
the existential analysis of the meaning of suffering and sacrifice, of life
and death."
Finally the Pope points out that unless these impediments and obstacles
are
overcome, our human race faces the dreadful philosophical outlook of nihilism.
I think
that the Columbine massacres are an illustration of what will be the consequence
of
nihilism. This is why, particularly, I see a dreadful and awesome urgency
in the work
of constructing a New Christendom, so that we are not overtaken by the negation
of all
objective truth, and to the circumstances which would reduce the human family,
as the
Pope points out, to either a destructive will to power or a tragic solitude
without any
hope.
If then we are to build
a New Christendom, and we are to do this by means of
placing into human conscientiousness a renewed understanding of the spiritual
dimension
of humanity, an acceptance in the obedience of faith of the supernatural
order with Christ
as the center of all human history and each individual person's history
with a humble
grasp and practice of docility to the Church which speaks in the name of
Christ Who
said, "He who hears you, hears Me", with the ability to confront
and overcome the
obstacles and impediments that make the construction of a New Christendom
more
complicated, and to live personally and to bring into the lives of others
a correct
understanding of the interaction and relationship of freedom and truth,
it will be
necessary for the construction crew to have in their possession the gifts
of the Holy
Spirit: In our time in a special way, the gift of Fortitude, valor and courage
are
particularly needed because of the inevitable misunderstanding of the intentions
of those
who see the importance of the common good, of those who question the utter
and
absolute autonomy of each individual, and those who are daring enough to
struggle
against the spirit of the times which is so alien and foreign to Christ
and His truth, and
the Spirit of Wisdom to see things from God's perspective and to be able
to understand
that it a person who is truly wise, accepts and welcomes truth and lives
by its precepts.
Finally, it is vital
that we look on our enterprise in its true and integral
perspective, which is to say, something that is ultimately of God, and only
in a secondary
and instrumental way our doing. The psalmist's words are particularly vital
for all of
us ever to keep in mind, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who
build it, labor in
vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, those who guard it, guard it in vain."
Prayer and
the eloquence of our own personal convictions will sometimes be able to
accomplish far
more than our own feeble efforts could do. St. John the Baptist says in
the Gospel that
God can make children of Abraham out of the stones, and He certainly can
do whatever
He is pleased to accomplish. It should be our prayer that He makes us a
little less
unworthy to be the channels of His grace and the instruments of His pleasure.
As was
said with great vehemence and great eloquence at the beginning of the great
movement
we call the Crusades, "God wills it!" May this, then, be what
inspires our labor and our
work to build a New Christendom, and to ascertain how this is to be built.
God wills it!
Thank you.