My wife tells me I have lost some jollity and must change. She is right, and next month I will jolly up: But for now, I am down in the dumps at the unholy mess we read about every day. Unholy is not a metaphor it is real.
It is what happens when humans think too highly of themselves and create their own Gods. GK Chesterton saw it coming when he said, “When a man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes in anything.
Today that ‘anything,’ includes a belief that humanity by itself is capable of being and creating anything it wants. This is ten out of ten for arrogance and zero for humility, but it does explain why ordinary people do not think that governing elites, academia, and media can stop the rot.
Things must change, and St John Henry Newman reminds us, “ That In the higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”
Perfection should be our aim and in listening to others, I see three general areas in which as a nation we can change. I won’t suggest specifics but there are things we all can do:
Truth – Service – Intercession
Truth as Absolute?
In Philosophy and Theology, Absolute truth is a Point of Highest value such as the First Commandment given to Moses. This serves as a Fixed Standard, against which other standards are ranked. Likewise in Engineering, one such standard is an authenticated metal ruler against which all others are validated.
But Truth is now commonly assumed to be Relative to anything you want to compare to it. For example, ‘My Truth is the Truth’ is a phrase often used by celebrities, which is now embedded into law. Criminal and Civil Courts are obligated to accept one person’s perception of himself as a Victim over those of another classed by law as the Accused. This arises because of criteria fixed by a concept of ‘Protected Characteristics’ of the Victim. The accused is thus disadvantaged by assumptions written into general laws and is assumed guilty prior to trial.
This rhetorical logic will eventually lead to other groups and individuals wanting legal status for their own Characteristics. Objective truth will disappear and, without trust in truth, Society cannot function.
Service to others is not a choice but is existential. Because we are spiritual creatures with immortal souls in an earthly body, we are here to love and serve our neighbours. (second commandment) But we are ego-centric and self-centred..
Intercessionary Prayer is more than a list of what we want. It is an access route to Heavenly powers, and so a prayer in full alignment with God’s purposes will receive an immediate response. Tell God the truth. He will gain nothing from your acknowledgement but you will. Conscious self-admission makes you free, only then can the forces of heaven collaborate with you.
Prayer is essential to counter the demonic forces (see Screwtape Letters : C,S Lewis) that try to prevent us achieving the purpose of our existence.)
To conclude: Some think we are earthly creatures with an attached immortal soul. I prefer to think we are spiritual creatures with an immortal soul in an earthly body. However, we have a lifetime to become Holy, and Jesus showed us how to join him in the next.
John Henry Newman, who became a Saint in 2019 wrote:
Time is short, eternity is long.
Put not from you what you have here found: (…)
Wrap not yourself round in the associations of years past,
nor determine that to be truth which you wish it to be so,
nor make an idol of cherished anticipations. Time is short, eternity is long.”
View from the Pew 