The Challenge Before Us

By Charlie Johnston

Sheesh – the very day I write a piece saying that I am going to wait on making any significant judgment on where Pope Leo will fall, he ostentatiously blesses a huge block of ice in a suspiciously pagan-looking “climate change” event. Then he explains that anyone who supports the death penalty is as bad as anyone who supports abortion. Right, supporting the death penalty for serial killers who torture their victims is exactly the same thing as supporting the mass execution of innocent babies. Sheesh!

Even so, I am going to hold off on making emphatic assumptions on where it is all headed. I worked with enough officials and candidates to know how easy it is to be caught unprepared and say something untoward or just plain stupid. Shoot, in many instances I was the guy who did damage control in walking something back. Of course, we have seen no walkback from Pope Leo…but the Vatican is filled with Francis leftovers, so he may very well not yet have anyone who can ably assist him in problematic areas. There is no excuse for the climate change thing, but way too many of our Bishops are as addicted to making pompous pronouncements on scientific, economic, and political questions they have no authority over as some people are to meth. It is one of the great evils of our age. I’m praying that each of us gets 1,000 years taken off our purgatory every time we have to groan under such nonsense. But somebody really ought to get the charts and show the Pope (and many Bishops), that when it comes to the environment, we are not architects, only janitors. Get a little humility before God, please.

The single most important determinant in whether a nation is environmentally sound is its technological development and prosperity. Those at the highest level of that spectrum are almost always also the cleanest. So what do professional “environmentalists” want? To primitivize everyone. Stupid strategy that is bound for massive failure if it succeeded. The most important determinant for efficiency, reliability, and cleanliness in energy is the energy density of the source. Gas, oil, and coal all have very high energy density. So what do professional “environmentalists” want us to do? Switch to the lowest density energy sources we can, give them lots more of our money and power, then hope it all works out someday. Once again…sheesh! We sure do have a lot of pretend intellectuals these days who will be glad to drive us to ruin if we let them.

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In 2017 I started contemplating the Agony in the Garden a LOT. Sure, Jesus had the natural human dread of the coming Crucifixion, just as any of us might dread upcoming major surgery. But He knew what the outcome would be…and had taught His disciples (sometimes obliquely, sometimes bluntly) that it was necessary to accomplish our redemption. I often say that, with the Incarnation, Jesus became part of the family of man and, with the Resurrection, He invited each of us to become part of the family of God. (Sorry for the brief aside here, but we are NOT all children of God. We are all created by God – and in His own Image, to boot. His resurrection did NOT make us children of God: it gave us each power to become children of God – see John 1:12, 13. Whether we accept the gift of His intimate paternity is up to each and every one of us. It is OUR choice. Colossians 1:24 has St. Paul saying that he makes up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions in his body. Many have commented on this enigmatic phrasing. I think the only thing missing from Christ’s sufferings is our free will embrace of it and imitation of Him. That is what makes us children of God).

What, I wondered, caused Jesus such agony? Was it just the nearness of the terrible event He had talked so calmly about for so long? I don’t think so.

I have told you before that I largely, consciously saw where our society was headed since awareness dawned of how unusual my experiences were sometime in 1963, when I was seven years old. But if I had almost all of what I needed to know then, a lot of veils I put up in self-defense had to be stripped away. I spent a good long time asking God to show everyone what He showed me, so all would back away from the abyss. I, of course, was wrong. A lot of people would never give up their golden calf of self-regard just because they were shown things. Then I spent a lot of time asking that the storm pass us by. I was shown quite vividly that if that happened, we were all doomed – for the storm was the only instrument strong enough to pull us away from the delusions that we all (some more; some less) had given ourselves over to. So to pray that the storm pass over us was to pray that humanity be doomed. I was sharply rebuked for not understanding that.

Over time, I came to look forward to the fullness of the storm, for though it would be very hard, everyone would finally turn back to God. I guess it was just in the last decade I realized that no matter how ugly and violent things get, some people will NEVER concede that there is anything greater than themselves. I vastly underestimated the nihilistic rebelliousness that can be made to beat in the human heart. For a few years I was deeply depressed at the realization that some people are irretrievably lost. Yes, it is their choice that condemns them…but it is so foolish, so unnecessary, so grim.

Imagine for a moment that you were in a great land. Only one person had a fountain of clear, fresh, rejuvenating water. All else was brack and sand. Good news, though…the man who had the great fountain bade everyone to come and freely drink from its inexhaustible supply. He wanted everyone to live and live well. How would you consider people who insisted that they would NEVER drink of his water, but would quench their thirst with sand or brack? You would know they were going to perish because of their peevish vanity and self-regard. But what could you do to rescue them? This is where we are. I listen to people angrily choking and gasping as their spirit dies – and they still won’t drink from the one fountain that would refresh them. It is a great sorrow.

I am really still trying to sort out what to do. I fear that, this time, our Shepherds are going to be of little use to us. They are too fearful of sparking the disapproval of men (idiot men who pretend to be sophisticated) and enjoy playing politician too much to be of much use in bringing souls to salvation. That is a bracing reality, but I can’t complain. In previous crises, the Church has been sustained by holy Bishops or the rise of religious orders. I have long known that this time, the instrument God would use to sustain and renew His Church is the laity. Still, it is bracing to know how feeble and impotent so many of our leaders are – when they are not actually overt anti-Catholic bigots.

So how do we evangelize? Yes, many are irretrievably lost, but we don’t know who those are and who can be reached. So we have to be reaching out even as we defend the faithful from the depredations of those who have chosen evil as their lodestar.

It seems to me that young people are the key here. Many young people are lost because they have been assured falsely by their elders that they can have whatever they want, that their gender is fluid, that sexuality is the source and pinnacle of all human happiness, and that the reason they do not have enough money to make an independent way is because some people have more. For several generations now, a set that pretends to sophistication has preached a gospel of resentment, grievance, and envy. Now we are reaping the bitter harvest of that venomous sowing. Young people struggle to make a clear assessment of what is wrong and how to fix it, but they know that somehow the American dream has been snatched out from under them.

The first house my parents bought, right around 1960, cost $8,000. It was nothing fancy, but it was on a double corner lot and had two bedrooms. I don’t know if $8k would be enough to cover the annual property taxes on it now. For their second house, in 1968, they paid $18,000. Again, a double lot but with four bedrooms. How did we get, just in a couple of generations, to several orders of magnitude more expensive for a starter home? I have never paid more than $525/month for rent. Now young people struggle to find something decent for below $2,000/month. Of course they are angry. I would be, too. I fear those of us in the baby boom generation are going to have a lot to account for. We gladly took all the good things our parents gave us, thought we were cool as we rebelled, then pulled the ladder up behind us leaving the next generations bereft. A lot of American prosperity is a gigantic bubble that is eventually going to pop. It must pop if it is not to disenfranchise millions of perfectly good young people who are willing to work hard.

Meantime, young people search for meaning in their lives. What endures, what avails, what eats away at your substance? No matter how much the old hippies wanted it to be so, it turns out that a person’s preferred manner of sexual stimulation does not give meaning or satisfaction. Lust has its place, but it is not love. In fact, it can destroy the capacity to feel love at all. Think about your home heating system, even if it is just a fireplace. Properly contained, fire brings light, warmth, and life to the whole household. The cultural vandals of the 60’s and the 70’s removed all constraints, thinking they would make it even better. Instead, the unconstrained fire they unleashed is consuming all before it.

So it seems to me that the challenge before us is twofold. First, we have to find ways to get young people real access to the American dream. America was founded to give opportunity to all to make a great life for themselves, not to provide government benefits and a guaranteed income. In fact, the modern American system is just a variation on the old medieval system. Serfs were usually given a plot of land for their own use, from which they could eke out subsistence. They had almost no hope of improving themselves or changing their circumstances. The subsistence level land their “betters” gave them was their only reward. In modern times, our society has made everything too expensive for people of grit and determination to get started. Instead, they must rely on the subsistence-level subsidies their “betters” have given them.

I knew a woman once who was in Section 8 housing. Her entire rent was paid each month. She wanted to better herself, so though she had kids, she got a part-time job from which she made $300 a month. Dutifully reporting it to govt. bureaucrats, she got a letter from them that her share of the rent would now be $500 per month. “How,” she asked me, “am I ever supposed to get out of this cycle if working part-time causes me a net $200 loss per month?” I tried to see what I could do, but it was federal, so there really was nothing. What was happening was that the owners of the apartment were making about three times the going rate of rent at the time, all from the federal government on the taxpayers’ dime. Most (not all) government assistance programs are a grift for the connected rather than any genuine compassion. You take the government’s dime and you stick to your place and vote Democrat so your subsistence is not taken away from you. What has happened is that the left has intentionally created a large dependent class, set up barriers to keep them from escaping, and harvests their votes. It is simply a variation of the old system of serfdom, which America was founded to repudiate. We must return America to its roots of being an opportunity society. That is real compassion – and it is what fueled the engine of the greatest national prosperity in human history. Young people have a claim on that American dream – and we all have a duty to see that it is re-established. (The woman I mentioned married her boyfriend a few months later. They – and her three kids – lived in a tiny travel trailer for well over a year, but they did manage to get out from under the suffocating “compassion” of the government.)

Second, people need meaning. The Enlightenment, though not without merit, failed disastrously in defining man as a mere complicated animal, needing only food, shelter, and companionship for contentment. It robbed mankind of even the possibility of transcendence – which is actually where man finds meaning. If we are created in the image of God, then we have a share in His fundamental characteristics. God is fundamentally a Creator. Through the love that processes among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, creation arises in abundance as fruit of that transcendent love. It is NO coincidence that man finds his greatest joy when he is completely lost in the creation of his own hands, whether it be art, building, teaching or whatever. It is because he is created in God’s own image.

Leftist followers of the Enlightenment are relentlessly material. There is no transcendence, only materialism (writ large). Pseudo-intellectuals scoff at religion and faith. If they surveyed, honestly, the work of their own hands, their scoffing would cease, for the only fruit they have borne is misery…lives led entirely in quiet desperation. Almost 60 years ago, Time Magazine asked, editorially, on its cover, “Is God Dead?” The issue was geared to the growing sense of atheism among the elite classes. A few years ago, author Eric Metaxas responded with his book, “Is Atheism Dead,” offering evidence for the existence of God and the despair that elite dilletantes have forced onto society. If God is dead, so is hope. When atheism is dead (or even a dead letter) hope can be resurrected in the hearts of men. Only God brings resurrection. We have slummed about with the atheists long enough. We have to show young people the real hope, the real joy, the real meaning there is in Christ. That is how we will renew the faith and the face of the world.

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The possibility of peace in the Middle East, the release of the hostages, these are roses blooming among the thorns of modern times. We have so many challenges, but even now a new rose is blooming. See the tender buds that are rising all round us, in the middle of this great bed of thorns? Cultivate them.

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Just a personal thought and request. When you go to Church on Sunday, wear your best. For men, a jacket and tie; for women, a modest dress or skirt suit. I think if we are going to show young people that Christ is where hope is to be found, we need to dress as if we mean it. Just a request.

During my pilgrimage I went to Church whenever I could, often in shorts and a grimy old shirt. Do not let lack of finery keep you away. But when you can, dress like you know you are going to visit with the King of kings.

If communication goes out for any length of time, meet outside your local Church at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Tell friends at Church now in case you can’t then. CORAC teams will be out looking for people to gather in and work with.

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