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| Fiction
I'm going to see "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" tonight.
I thought it would be appropriate to explain why fiction is important
to us not only as humans but as Christians.
"Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity" is a seemingly
superficial quote from GK Chesterton. However, Chesterton was one
of the greatest Catholic minds of this past century. So what is
it about this quote that Chesterton found so important that it should
be put into writing? What is it about fiction that Chesterton
finds so neccessary?
I've been studying this topic for the past six months or so. It's
actually a topic that gets me quite excited; however, it is not a
matter that can be understood with the head as readily and as easily as
it can be understood with the heart. So bear with me as I attempt
to paint you a picture with words:
I am reading a book by Fr. Schall in which he says, "Ludere est
contemplari." This means, "To play is to contemplate." By
play, he is refering to escaping to the imaginative world of a child,
and by contemplation he is refering to a very advanced level of
prayer. Fr. Schall makes the claim that playing is the closest
most people ever get to contemplating, and playing very closely
parallels prayer. If we are completely unable to lose ourselves
in a daydream, how can we ever be capable of losing ourselves in God
while praying?
Having a healthy imagination is good for us for other reasons.
When a person participates in something that taps into the imagination
(like singing, dancing, teaching, painting, sailing, hiking, etc.) he
is participating in something that the world considers
unnecessary. And because we do not HAVE to do them, we experience
true freedom when we choose to do them.
"They may take from us our very lives, but they'll never take OUR FREEDOM!!" - Braveheart
When we participate in the arts in any of its forms, we are
participating in something beautiful. True art (and the keyword
being "true" art) always points the mind and heart toward God.
Any beauty that we experience here on earth is a mere shadow of the
infinite beauty of God.
We tend to get so wrapped up in the world of work, that we fail to
realize that it is through the world of beauty, imagination, and prayer
that we truly start to understand, appreciate, admire, and fall in love
with God.
The ancient philosopher Plato said that the most important things in
life are "sacrificing, singing, and dancing." How true. We
can even elaborate on that list. Hillaire Belloc, who was a
contemporary and friend of Chesterton, said that the most important
things in life were, "singing, drawing, painting, hammering, sailing,
riding horses, running, leaping, having love in your youth, and having
memory in old age." There was a quote by Chesterton that went
something like this, "The world is a relatively joyful place." I
first stumbled upon this quote a few years ago. I was actually
quite enraged at the very notion. I was in college experiencing
the epitomy of stress and hating my life. I thought, "And after
college, then what? I get to work 40 hours a week and be enslaved
to a job for the rest of my life? What gives Chesterton the right
to say such a thing!?" But as a couple years passed, through
prayer and by slowing down my life enough to appreciate the beauty
around me, I am able to admit that this world is a joyful place.
The world was created to be good; it is us humans that have warped and
uglied it. Belloc has a similar quote; he refers to earth as "the
jolly world of God." Jolly: that's a word that I've only ever
heard when refering to Santa Clause. Isn't it a curious thing to
apply that word to God and to His world.
I have to put a diclaimer here. When I am refereing to art, I am
not refering to ALL art. Not all art is good. There is good
art, and there is bad art. There are good books, and there are
bad books. There is good fiction, and there is bad fiction.
There is good imagination; there is bad imagination. Day-dreaming
about slaying the dragon and rescuing the princess is good, for a man
to have erotic fantasies about a women is bad. The Chronicles of
Narnia are good; "His dark intentions" is bad.
In conclusion, let us not be childish in our maturity, but let us be
childlike in our faith and imagination. The men I've been quoting
see the world as a truly "jolly" place. They see poetry, beauty,
and romance in their lives and all around them. We as Christians
are not called to live in depression and anxiety. Christ wants us
to live in joy. And this world is indeed a joyful place. I
can't stress the importance of prayer here enough. A person with
a foundation of prayer will have a well-directed imagination. A
person without prayer will merely be having wild, unrooted
fantasies. A person with ample daily prayer supplemented with a
lively, healthy imagination will not only be a very joyful person, but
a very powerful Christian as well. | | |
| Peter Furler's Three Types
When I attended the "Night of Joy" Christian Rock festival a few months
back, I heard a great speech by Peter Furler, the lead singer of the
newsboys. The main point of what he said was this. There
are three types of Christians in this world:
1. There are the kind that have their bags packed and are waiting for
Christ's return. They view themselves as holier than all
others. They look down upon others as less than themselves and
judge others.
2. There are the kind that mingle too intimately with this world's
culture. Too many Christians are obsessed with materialism,
money, or things of this world that that is where their heart truly
lies. They are filled with worldliness. They must have the
latest gadgets and keep up with popular trends. A man cannot
serve two masters. A man cannot be in love with God and in love
with the world.
3. Then there is the perfect Christian. He is neither judgmental
nor obsessed with our current culture. He is the perfect balance
between the two. He is not in love with this world, but he is not
so withdrawn that he is unrelatable. A true Christian is holy,
but he is not so proud that he looks down on all those around him.
Obviously, what we're striving to be is a number 3 on the list.
So do we struggle with being a number 1 or 2? Some of us are 1's,
but I'm willing to bet that most of us are 2's. What does our
heart love, honestly? Do we see through the emptiness that the
world has to offer, or do we believe in the lies we are fed? Does
our happiness lie in our XBox 360, in sports, in new clothes from the
mall, in our popularity, or in the Lord?
We as Christians are not called to be freaks or hermits and know
nothing of what is going in the world. We do have to live in this
world after all. We need to realize that most things of this
world are neutral. A television is not good or bad; it is a tool;
it can be used for either. Same with the Internet, cars, books,
radio, etc. It is when our heart starts to belong to such things
that they begin to tear us away from where our heart needs to be.
And our hearts need to belong to Christ.
Maybe we need to take some extra time this Advent season to reflect on
what is truly important in our lives. Jesus was born into
poverty; maybe we can learn something from the example he set for us.
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| Priorities
I was taught since I was a young child, and I still believe, that our priorities in life are:
1. God
2. Family
3. Job
And yes, they are in order of importance. And "job" is a very
all-encompassing category. Falling under job are all sorts of
things like school, work, sports, hobbies, leisure, etc.
This is a very simple outline, but incredibly important. It is so important, and yet very few people adhere to it.
I think everyone knows that God is our first priority. He made
us; he is the reason we exist; he is the point of life. 'Nuff
said.
Family is our second priority. This is the one that people miss
time and time again. And this is ten times more important if you
are a mother or father. I am now in the working world, and I am
surrounded by people (men and women alike) who are obsessed with their
jobs. I know people who love to put in extra hours and take so
much pride in what they do. They probably rarely see their
families, plus I never here them talk about them. You can tell
that their spouse and kids are never on their minds. I know
countless couples who both have a job, and their kids are practically
being raised by a daycare rather than their own parents. Maybe
these parents need to get their priorities straight.
On the flip side of families, I get exposed to a lot of kids at the
Junior High youth that I help out with at St. Jude. At first I
was surprised at how well these 10-13 kids were bonding with me.
But then I got to thinking, "I may be one of the few (if not the only)
stable, older male figures in their lives." This thought scared
me. I am a youth leader, not their father. By shear numbers
alone, I couldn't father all these kids and give each one the
individual attention he/she deserves. If men could start being
men, if fathers could start being fathers, and if mothers could start
being mothers, and if parents could start actually loving their
children, we would start seeing a world of change. I want to kick
some of these parents butts and let them know what their priorities in
life are. Your family, your children are above trying to make an
extra buck, above the pride you receive through work, and above any
other selfish goal you have for yourself. And of course, whenever
parents are being selfish, it's always their kids that have to pay the
consequences.
I have one more thought. There is an organization based out of
Cinncinatti, Ohio that tries to spread healthy Catholic living cell
groups, which are small home-based communities. I know of
several priests that are very supportive of this idea and believe this
is one of the greatest ways for evangelization and learning to
occur. I was having a deep conversation with Mark a while back,
and he said something like this, "If this idea of home based
communities is so great, why hasn't the idea caught on like
wildfire? By this time it should have grown much bigger. Do
you think there is something fundamentally wrong? I think it is
because they don't have their priorities straight. They stress
the cell group as the first priority when the family needs to be the
first priority under God."
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| The Faith of a Child
I helped put on a Junior High retreat with Mark Postma and the gang
this past weekend. I always feel a little out of my element when
dealing with Junior High because I have much less experience at
it. I have only about three months experience as opposed to the 8
years of experience of working with high schoolers. Instead of
dealing with 14 to 18 years olds, suddenly I'm try to teach and relate
to 11 to 14 year olds.
I have to say that compared with the normal high school Antioch
retreats that I'm used to, this seemed pretty low key. But the
results were even more amazing. At an Antioch retreat, Saturday
night is pretty intense with the whole confession/praying over people
thing. At this Junior High retreat, there was adoration.
During adoration there was confession available, but not all the kids
got to go because we could only get one priest. And you wouldn't
believe the reaction in these Junior High kids/teens. They were
singing along, they were holding hands and had their arms around each
other (girls with girls, guys with guys), and almost every one of them
was crying. By the end, many of them had red, blood-shot eyes
from crying for so long.
I got to wondering, "Would this even work at a high school
retreat?" To just have adoration? Honestly, I don't think
it would. What is it about high-schoolers that everything has to
be more intense and dramatic? And what is it about junior-highers
that makes them so open to God's grace? The closest I could come
to an answer is that they are still quite pure. They still have
some of their childlike innocence at that age. Is that what makes
them able to so readily recognize Jesus in the Eucharist? I think
that we can all learn something from these kids; in fact, they put us
to shame. They were drawn to tears and their pride broken from
merely being in the Eucharistic presence of our Lord. I humbly
admit that I had nothing to do with the lives that were touched that
weekend. I was just a spectator during the whole adoration
portion, and that's when hearts were touched and lives were
changed. It was the spirit that was moving that night.
There were no vocal prayers with laying on of hands; the only
interaction was between each child and the Lord. I think I have
so much to learn from these children's openness to the Spirit and their
purity of heart.
Praised be Jesus Christ! Lord, thank you so much for the lives you touched this past weekend!! | | |
| Community of Faith
For those of you who weren't at or didn't stay late at the
Decompression Session: It came up, "What if Rick can't do Antioch
anymore?"
We human beings are social creatures. We do need human contact to
keep us healthy and happy. This applies to our spiritual life as
well. I have heard it said that two accountibility partners or a
person and his spiritual director will grow in faith much more rapidly
than any lone individual. We need a community of faith. It
is good for us.
That said, what if Antioch ceased to exist? Would there be an
ensuing emotional roller coaster? Would our faith take a
dive?
It would be hard on us. We would miss each other, but those
friendships made would still exist. We just wouldn't see each
other on a structured basis. I know most of us don't want to
admit this (and some would consider it blasphemy), but Antioch isn't
the only community of faith.
What are some communities of faith?
The most important of course is The Church.
It is from her that Catholic teaching and the sacraments come.
There are lots of bible studies and Christian clubs that could be joined.
And the most important community outside of the
church is the family. John Paul II refered to the family as "The
Domestic Church." That's how much importance he placed upon the
family. In our psycho, godless, sex-crazed, society, the family
is falling apart (or it's long since the family has fallen
apart!). And the fastest most effective way to bring our society
back would be through good, healthy families.
In the ideal world, our families would be our community of faith.
Think about it: would any of us be worried about getting weak in
our faith when we move to college or when Antioch falls apart if our
family was our primary faith community? Of course not! We
may get in little fights here and there, but family is always family.
I know it's nearly irrational to try to change the members of our
family into shining stars of the perfect faith community. After
all, a person will only change if it is a decision coming from deep
down inside of them. But I think it's something to keep in mind
when we all start our own respective families, someday... | | |
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