The "What" and "How" of Peasants

Peasant Times-Dispatch Issue 21

It’s May!

Dear Readers,

I posted podcast Episode 8, “You Should Be a Peasant”, on the 10th, and Episode 5 went behind a paywall!

I’ve started hosting lil’ Office Hours threads on Chat! I’ll send a notice about the one coming up tomorrow, 5/16.

Still gonna keep tellin’ y’all about this thing: PSA about Community Curation. I think it’s still worth keeping on your radar so check this out if you haven’t already!

Thank you as always for reading! I am celebrating two years on substack! As a big thank you for your support, please consider a paid subscription for 20% off, valid until June 1!

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Pivot To Persuasion

I mentioned in the podcast that I would start pivoting to a persuasive model, where I start sharing reasons why YOU should be a peasant, and trying to offer arguments in favor of this position.

I’ve talked a lot about peasantliness, and even Dirt Christianity, we’ve got a lot of ideas. After two years, you’d think I’d have this thing down to a science. What exactly am I talking about over in this wayward corner of the Stackiverse?

Let’s start by re-affirming what exactly a peasant is. In the podcast, I told you what a peasant does, but I didn’t say what a peasant is.

What A Peasant Is

Let’s use St. Joan of Arc as an example¹. She was a peasant! And while this is historically accurate as well, we can put this ‘framework’ I am using and overlay it over her life.

Modernity promotes individualism, the Catholic Church says that the smallest irreducible unit of a society is family. St. Joan, pre-miraculous elevation, was part of a family, part of the community of Domrémy, a village in France. She had a role to play within that community, within her family, and fulfilling those duties was all she sought in the world².

The imagery of the peasant is helpful because it reduces the scope of our concerns to those immediately at hand. What’s going on in our community? What’s going on in our family? How can we work to good? How can we fulfill our local responsibilities as best as we can?

Contenting ourselves with this radical subsidiarity of scope is like humility—it’s a way of taking the lowest seat at the table of life. A peasant, in this framework, contents his or herself at striving to fulfill his or her local responsibilities first, and best.

Fulfill your local responsibilities first: You have a home. Take care of your home! There is sanctification in fulfilling the minute duties of daily life. If you have kids—take care of your kids! If you have family that needs care, take care of them! Another way of saying all of this—don’t be distracted by the big goals such that you ignore the little ones. Who serves the Lord in small things can be relied upon to serve well in big things also. If you struggle to serve the Lord in small things, then the big things—as admirable as they may be—will cause you to struggle too. Shore up the home front before thinking about the big stuff.

Look once more at St. Joan. She was elevated by the hand of God to fulfill some Holy purpose. And God gave her what she needed to accomplish that. If God desires you to fulfill a higher purpose, He will give you what you need. So, take the lowest seat at the table, fulfill your duties there as best as you possibly can, and—if God wants more from you, He will not allow you to misunderstand His call.

How Do I Start?

Beginning to live this way is easy, and then hard, and then easy. Start taking an inventory of your responsibilities, and what you can do well, what you are not doing well. Really think about what you can take seriously, and what you can do better. And—begin to do them better. I am not going to tell you what that looks like. “Taking care of your house” may not mean having a pristine home at all times and through all seasons. “Your best” is not an absolute measure. For a tired mother with a gaggle of children on her hip, her best probably will be a lower point than a bachelor full of energy and life living in a small apartment. But fulfill your duties in such a way that when you face God one day, you can tell him you did your best, and when He opens your heart and reads the story of your life, including the secrets you keep even from yourself, He will agree with you.

That is something you can start doing. Let me also share something you can stop doing. Defend, vigorously, your interior peace. Interior peace is required to give your best to your local concerns. If you are an American living in Nebraska, does learning about the stock market in Germany stress you out? Is it necessary for fulfilling your local responsibilities to your best? Probably not. If it takes away from your peace, cut it out of your life, the way you might cut off your right hand if it causes you to sin. In order to give your best to your local concerns, you must defend yourself against anything that would detract from your ability to fulfill those concerns.

That’s two things. Something you can start, or start thinking about; something you can stop, or try to stop thinking about. It takes discernment to tell which is which and how much. But if this feels like new and difficult territory for you—take it to prayer. Ask God to show you what you need to do, how you can do your best. God wants to help us grow.

Thank You

Thank you again for reading—for TWO YEARS! Again, to celebrate, I am offering 20% off. Please consider supporting this newsletter.

If you cannot support financially, please leave a like, share this article with a friend, or tell me what you think in a comment! It is an honor to write for you.

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Thank you for reading!

Ad Jesum per Mariam

1. Again, with the demonstrating and not explaining!

2. All I know about this I am recalling from an ancient half-reading of Mark Twain’s book, “Joan of Arc”. Fact Checks welcome—I’m publishing this article LATE.