The Church in the East

Sometimes a man

Sometimes a man stands up during supper
and walks outdoors, and keeps on walking,
because of a church that stands somewhere in the East.
And his children say blessings on him as if he were dead

And another man, who remains inside his own house,
dies there, inside the dishes and in the glasses,
so that his children have to go far out into the world
toward that same church, which he forgot.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

Discussion surrounds the origins of arguably the most original pieces of fiction of the twentieth century, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. Both involve the elements of Romance, chivalry, and the numinous that were clearly so absent from (so-called) Modern literature at the time of their inception. Both authors, Oxonian dons, were well schooled in the Classics and Greats. Both had first hand experience of the evils of warfare in the time of the industrial revolution, wounds won in battle, and personal loss.

I would suggest that Rilke's man who "who remains inside his own house, dies there, inside the dishes and in the glasses" is the careful man, the focus group statesman, the man for whom such concerns as Romance, chivalry, and the numinous are mumbo-jumbo of childish things.

Lewis and Tolkien knew better, and differently.

When the careful, gesture-making statesman meets with the Pontiff this week in Rome, I hope that he remembers that the children of this present age still have needs that far transcend the fluff of day-time television. And if he is not careful to factor in these needs, they may "go far out into the world toward that same church, which he forgot."

And that same Catholic Church is still here to set us on our Journeys of Romance, chivalry, and the numinosity of the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Church Militant.