Grounding

Peasant Times-Dispatch Issue 36

We’re Back

Please forgive this issue being a little late. It was hard to find my words, and there were a lot of things to spill words about, so I wanted to take my time to find them and order them the right way.

I hope you all are having a wonderful September and descent into fall—time really flies, especially when there’s a lot happening in the news.

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Photo by Daniel Robert Dinu on Unsplash

Where the Rubber Meets The Road

This months post has been a challenge. I’ve lost the savor of the monthly quotes that make up what I have been calling ‘season three’, but I haven’t quite figured out what format will follow. Then, suddenly, The News becomes overwhelming.

The stated mission of the Peasant Times-Dispatch is to help Catholics coexist with modernity, to help reduce anxiety and worry about the world. So it was clear to me that I would have to address The News from the Times-Dispatch but I wasn’t quite sure the right angle.

So I did my favorite thing—I waited. And more than waiting, I watched. I observed what everyone’s concerns were, what the quick hot takes were that rushed out and then the more moderate takes after the initial blast had worn off.

I finally, FINALLY had a breakthrough, and this is what has me writing tonight¹. I have learned through hardship and hardheadedness a lot of ways to not let the news permeate my skin. I can keep it ‘over there’ somehow, and I don’t know how to teach this practice but everything I do here at the Peasant Times-Dispatch is oriented around demonstrating it. The common thread between the quotes and all my past and future writing is this: Don’t let the world penetrate your spirit. Never give up that ground, never ever. Your spirit is eternal, this world is not. This isn’t to say you should be callous and hard hearted to your fellow man, far from it—when you notice your fellow man are spirits too, suddenly their pains and sorrows cut more deeply. Suddenly your mission in this world changes dimension.

So I still don’t know how to teach this—to teach one must know, and I can’t claim to have mastered this process by any stretch. But what I hope to share are steps to help you remain grounded when the social current wants to carry you over the waterfall.

The Problem

Before I get to staying grounded, let me try to articulate what the problem is we’re trying to solve.

When a tragedy happens, what do you notice? Everyone gets takes out rapid fire. From “thoughts and prayers with so and so and their loved ones” to “LMAO THIS PERSON SPECIFICALLY HAD IT COMING”. This is within minutes to hours to days after the news breaks. And let’s take a Christian Moment of Pause here: these reactions are not borne out of stupidity, and not out of evil². It is best to assume these folks are sincerely moved to cry out with their reaction out of whatever life priorities they live by. Many fellow Catholics are understandably quick on the draw with the thoughts and prayers, and I can’t say this is bad.

Let me explain why I choose not to react to the news, rather than criticize anyone else. First, I don’t want to set the precedent that I ought to follow the news in order to get opinions out. Second, I don’t know and don’t follow the subjects of the news. Third, no one follows me for current events, and I police that boundary rigidly. Saying anything felt, to me, like a commitment to a person I knew too little about, in an environment where my opinion was neither necessary nor asked for. It felt prudent for me to pray quietly, and let everyone else say what needed to be said on the subject. For the record, my position is that of the Catholic Church, that murder is wrong. This is a non negotiable for Catholics, that all life is sacred from conception to natural death.

And that really cuts to the heart of it for me: I don’t feel the need to say anything because the Church has already said it over the last 2,000 years again and again with stunning clarity and compassion. On any issue in The News, it is OKAY for your reaction to be “I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches and proclaims to be revealed by God”. You don’t need to say anything more nuanced than that—this covers all use cases and side-steps any factionalism.

How To Stay Grounded

So we know the problem is that people rush takes out the door, and we have some perspective on why we might not want to do that, and an idea for what we can do instead.

Now, many of you may have been moved deeply by the news, and felt or even indulged your own urge to publish a reaction of some kind. There’s nothing wrong with this—but I want to offer here some ways to stay grounded, and hopefully to stay grounded before we say anything, so we can recollect ourselves and act with the confidence of God.

So here’s some thoughts:

• God’s Will will be done.

  • God is the God of good days and bad days both, of comedy and tragedy, of fortune and misfortune. When it rains, we should say to God “Glory be to God”, when it is sunny out we should say “Glory be to God”. Christ Himself knew there would be wars and rumors of wars, and cautioned us against anxiety about them. With one word from Him there can come a great calm in the stormy sea of our lives. If we remember to pray that God’s Will Be Done, then the news touches us a little less.

  • I am not saying it is God’s will that anyone be murdered in cold blood, what I am saying is that someone being murdered is not a defect of God not favoring them, it’s not that someone didn’t pray enough that tragedy happens in the world. God’s vision accounts for all things, and embraces human free will in a way that is complicated and mysterious. Like Judas, like Pilate, like Adam and Eve—God uses bad things for our good. So we can say “Glory be to God” even if there are tears in our eyes, because God is good and it is our task to submit to God’s will, however strange it may seem at times.

• People may come and go—violently, at that—but The Church will endure forever

  • It is the closest thing to metaphysical plot armor that we have on this earth. The Church will keep us safe³ in time of turmoil, again—we have recourse to Christ in prayer to ask Him to calm the stormy seas, the best place to ask Him is where He is—on the Barque of Peter.

  • Let’s also remember that God’s judgement is the only thing that matters in the final calculation. The victim and perpetrator of heinous crimes both will go before God and the fullness of their lives will be held in the balance. There’s nothing we can say to move the needle, but we can pray for conversion and pray that our Earthly justice act with the wisdom and charity of Divine Justice.

• How close is this to me, personally, really?

  • We may follow figures on the news and feel personally affected that way; we may be living parallel lives and feel personally affected that way—but really, how close are any of us to the tragedies so common in The News? Have a proper proportion for the distance or closeness, and a good quick reaction to have is to find a way to help that is close. Can I send food to the affected parties? Can I send money? Can I visit them? Can I do anything for them? If the answer to any of these are ‘yes’, then do it! If any of them are ‘no’, then don’t do it. If all of them are ‘no’, then it is a good occasion to count your blessings, pray for the afflicted, hug your family close, and go about your day.

The reason I am sharing all of this is because, at the end of the day, we are peasants, we have work to do. We need not weep loudly in the streets for strangers a world away—if we knew about all the tragedies happening in the world, we’d never have any time for anything but weeping loudly. What we can do is pray! Pray often for the afflicted, pray for peace in the world before you hear of tragedies and pray for peace after you hear of tragedies. No prayer is wasted—but the awful truth is that many of our earthly words can be. Choose the better part, the thing that won’t be wasted—and pray.

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Thank you for reading! God bless you.

AJPM

1. 8pm Wednesday, 9/17, I am hoping to post this tomorrow 9/18, we’ll see how I do. (success!)

2. Scoot’s “Neither Stupid Nor Evil” principle deserves its own post here.

3. Sometimes physically, sometimes spiritually