Wednesday, October 7, 2015

In Which I Attempt to Emulate a Marshwiggle

During the past week or so, mostly in conjunction with the pope's visit I think, I have begun to sense an almost palpable darkness in the hearts of several people whom I know. If it were one or two people I would just shrug it off because most everybody is in a gloomy mood now and then, but it's more widespread than that. This morning I was thinking it reminded me of something, and I realized it was this.
Now the Witch said nothing at all, but moved gently across the room, always keeping her face and eyes very steadily toward the Prince. When she had come to a little ark set in the wall not far from the fireplace, she opened it, and took out first a handful of a green powder. This she threw on the fire. It did not blaze much, but a very sweet and drowsy smell came from it. And all through the conversation which followed, that smell grew stronger, and filled the room, and made it harder to think. Secondly, she took out a musical instrument rather like a mandolin. She began to play it with her fingers--a steady, monotonous thrumming that you didn't notice after a few minutes. But the less you noticed it, the more it got into your brain and your blood. This also made it hard to think. After she had thrummed for a time (and the sweet smell was now strong), she began speaking in a sweet, quiet voice.
"Narnia?" she said. "Narnia? I have often heard your Lordship utter that name in your ravings. Dear Prince, you are very sick. There is no land called Narnia." 

I think that if we know that where sin abounds grace doth much more abound, we have to also realize that the converse is true. Where grace abounds, the purveyor of sin is eager to get in his innings. Thrum, thrum, thrum it goes. The pope is about to do something that will destroy the Church. The synod is rigged. How can so-and-so can say thus-and-so? And the smoke whirls and thickens, and we stumble on almost to the brink of despair.

In all the confusion, it's difficult to know what is true and what isn't, but what we know for sure is this. Jesus did not wake up this morning and say, "Hey, what's going on? How am I ever going to deal with this mess?" And we also know this. None of us is living in this particular place and this particular time by mistake, and each of us is called in some specific way to shine among [a warped and crooked generation] like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. Phil 2:15-16.

Note that I am not saying that these are not dire times for the Church. They are. But if we constantly let ourselves be distracted by our fears, and doubts, and the opinion of everyone on earth who has access to a computer, it will be impossible to emit even a very dull glow. We need spend much more time on prayer, on what we know to be Truth as we do on the spurious news of the world. We can't afford at this time be muddled in our thinking or troubled in our hearts. We need to quiet the thrum, thrum, thrum and listen for the still, small voice.

Chapter 1 of 2 Peter tells us this:
...[W]e possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable. You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
Do it. We don't have time not to do it.

AMDG
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Isaiah 60:2

15 comments:

  1. That green is really nauseating. I guess that's appropriate.

    AMDG

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  2. I've thought often in recent weeks and months about what (if I remember correctly) follows pretty closely on that Narnia passage: the smell of burnt Marshwiggle. I certainly need something like that from time to time. Preferably not involving actual burning.

    By the way, if I'm one of the people you're thinking about, I'm really not very troubled at all about the state of the Church, a potential catastrophe at the synod, whether the Pope fears God (see URL below--I don't know if Blogger allows html), etc. I'm gloomy about the future of the United States of America, and oppressed by the cultural darkness. But not about the Church. If anything the opposition has a somewhat invigorating effect on my faith, such that I need to beware of feeling overly warlike.

    Talk about alarmism:
    http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/does-the-pope-fear-god

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  3. No, I really wasn't thinking about you in that way. As for the rest, well that's my next post. The last line in the paragraph is pretty much what I would like to see. I'm fairly warlike myself.

    As for the cultural part, I'm working on that post now.

    AMDG

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  4. Re that link: Whoa. Dare I read the comments?

    AMDG

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  5. I read the last couple of dozen, and they were nowhere near as hysterical as the post itself.

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    1. I sampled a few and that was enough. I don't even know what made me do it.

      AMDG

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    2. I saw two or three that were quite intelligent. But it's not worth wading through the rest to get to those.

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  6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  7. Now all your friends think you are talking about them.

    I still love that photo, green or not.

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    1. Well, I surely wasn't talking about you because we haven't had that kind of conversation at all.

      AMDG

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  8. Something else to keep in mind from a piece up at the Catholic Herald today, "For many Catholics following the synod too closely is a path to sorrow":

    “Mgr Ronald Knox, the Catholic convert, once advised that ‘he who travels in the barque of St Peter had better not look too closely into the engine room’. Maritain [when he was de Gaulle's ambassador to the Vatican] saw altogether too much of the engine room and concluded that ‘Catholics are not Catholicism. The mistakes, the clumsiness, the inefficiencies, the lack of concern of Catholics do not involve Catholicism itself. It is not the responsibility of Catholicism to furnish an alibi for the shortcomings of Catholics.’

    It struck me that Knox’s mordant remark, as well as Maritain’s disillusionment with the goings-on that he observed at the Vatican, are as relevant today as when they occurred. The 'barque of Peter' is a telling image: when St Peter jumped out of the fishing boat to walk over the water to Christ, he began to sink only when, rather than keeping his eyes fixed on the face of Christ, he started to look down."

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    1. Thanks Marianne. That is really true. And thanks for commenting.

      AMDG

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    2. Here you go, Marianne: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/cosmostheinlost/2015/10/08/cradle-catholic-open-letter-stop-protestant-splaining-synod15/

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  9. That's excellent, apart from the "cafeteria Catholics" digs. Just in case y'all aren't as familiar with Star Wars as I am: the "Their lack of faith disturbs me" is an allusion to what Darth Vader says before he telekinetically chokes the lackey who doubts The Force.

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  10. I think that piece would have been a lot better if the author hadn't based it on his off-putting "attitude" about non–Cradle Catholics.

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