Islands of Sanity

Several bloggers have recently sworn off the habit. Dawn Eden. Mark Gordon. Even brother Mass’keteers. For my part, settling down with a free half-hour to browse the internet reminds me of those characters in Matrix movies who get plugged in and visit bizarre, disturbing, and even dangerous territory. So unsettling, in fact, that one experiences the intensification of what is referred to in Girard's Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World as "sacrificial preparation." That is, the cultural meltdown of the remnants of old Christendom.

For indeed it is the mortar of the Christian faith that keeps the vast muddle of the ant-hill of popular culture, so-called, continuing to date. Oh, sure. It's gussied up in the doubling rivalry of left against right, Conservative against Liberal, Democrat against Republican - everyone looks so authoritative, powerful, presidential.

But truth be told, it is a mimetic swirl that simply cannot be held at a sane and civil distance. This is the bureaucratic nightmare that has normal, common citizens ranting at town meetings (astro-turf, my *ss).

It will only get worse, sadly, and will make Kafka's Castle look like punting on the Thames.

The sole source of coherence and sanity, civility and humanism is the Christian faith in general and the Catholic Church in particular (certain unbalanced convert celebrities notwithstanding).

The hope I feel when I get to know men and women who gather at Our Lord's altar to receive the Holy Eucharist, who join to support and share their giftedness in Catholic education, who cheerfully and lovingly influence what is still true, good, and beautiful in society is sheer, deep, and abiding joy for me.

The parishes filled with Catholic families faithful to the Church's magisterium are islands of civility, sanity, and beauty. The mimetic swirl of insanity, viciousness, and despair is but a fleeting thing by comparison. Deo gratias.