Coming-Out Parties
Phronesis File: Gone Fission
Last week, I mentioned a public service announcement released by New York City’s emergency management office. It offers steps to take when a nuclear attack has occurred. News reports suggest that this message—dealing indirectly with one of the “third rails” of public discourse, namely death-- left many of its viewers concerned, or at least confused.
I will not try to read the minds of the PSA’s producers or audiences. My reaction focuses on an axiom I learned as a member of the Knights of Columbus, an international fraternal organization that seeks to build up and activate the spiritual lives of Catholic men. The Knights included in their instructions a simple two-word Latin phrase: “Memento Mori” or “Remember Death.”
As a 2020 article from Catholic Digest discusses, the somber reminder tells us that meditating upon one’s mortality and the prospect of death can be a clarifying exercise for the mind and heart.
With help from the PSA, New Yorkers can contemplate a sobering piece of “bad news,” or at least the fact that various forms of very bad news can and do arise in everyday life. Let’s be fair to the city’s office of emergency preparedness. They dwell much less on the tragedy of a nuclear attack than on the tactics for surviving that attack.
The announcement is still flawed, in my opinion, because it offers simplified tips centered on going indoors, staying indoors, and monitoring updates and advice from the government. Our presenter closes with encouraging words: “You’ve got this.”
I wonder whether that is so. If a blackout ensues, for example, can the population access such media as the “Notify NYC” website the presenter promotes? Isn’t this false hope?
I find nothing false, hopeless, or simplified about the Church’s alternative approach to the ultimate “bad news.” We know that, without the acknowledgment and anticipation of evil occurrences, people will not appreciate how good the “Good News” really is. I refer to the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ and the path toward happiness in this life and in eternal life.
Our reflections on the “four last things”—death, judgment, heaven, and hell—help to see the high stakes in our worldly existence. They add a sense of purpose and urgency to our decisions and behaviors. They suggest that we must ground our lives in truth and practical wisdom (phronesis!).
They also add clarity and extra dimensions of hope and wonderment when we turn to John 3:16 and read that God the Father wants to give us eternal life through His son; Christ accompanies us as we work out our salvation with a loving embrace of the Holy Spirit’s gifts.
These empowering instruments for the survivability of individuals and the whole human race are sure things. We must understand and use them well, so the Bible and the Church have provided limitless information on what to do and why.
Much of this time-tested information comes in bite-size pieces, resembling prophetic PSAs, if only we will pay attention. The virtues and resources described are valuable in good times and bad, they ease our fear rather than kindle it, and they do not shut down in power outages.
This leads me to one additional reaction, in the form of a suggestion. Those seeking to evangelize the culture, enriching its survivability through timely and timeless insights, should think more like journalists—at least in one sense. Memorable messages for spiritual growth often have a “news hook” that works like this: “Did you see x? Our faith and reason teach us this can mean y. Therefore, let’s do z.”
Religious leaders, please seize the opportunity to mention New York’s recent PSA jeremiad, encourage people to view and ponder it, and then offer more meaningful, reasonable instruction and conversation. Let’s talk about what we are saying—through our governments’ strategies and our global situations. Let’s consider the real messages about our fragility and responsibility.
Our faith is relevant to the end-times and to any personal “end time” that disrupts our lives. We need saintly guides and solid guidance to help us act upon the most enduring truths about mortality, including the four final truths. Otherwise, “blind guides” will offer only odd little tidbits of fact that strand us as demigods in idle seclusion, waiting for updates.
Chewing on This—Here’s What I Heard …
Andreas Widmer, a business professor at The Catholic University of America who once belonged to the Vatican’s Swiss Guard, says research shows that two-thirds of employees are disengaged from their jobs. That is, they are happy to leave at day’s end and feel no zeal for the work they do. He spoke about this in an EWTN interview regarding his new book, The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship.
Perhaps many people would feel more engaged if they made things and did tangible work with their hands and their diverse faculties. Other folks would feel more engaged if they could be of service to those in need, answering a call for charity and justice among fellow human beings. Others crave communication with each other, going beyond “media skills” to make personal contact—learning and spreading truths that bubble up from community life rather than trickle down from mandated strategies.
Widmer says a basic question—“How may I help you?”—is the essence of productive economic activity. The phrasing itself posits purposeful relationships between people.
Too many opportunities for real relationships in the business world have disappeared because of cries for efficiency, productivity, cost-savings, and profits. Manufacturing has been exported, services have been brought online or parceled out to subcontractors and gig-workers, and communication has been manipulated and oversimplified. Especially in the wake of the Covid pandemic, the work world is “remote.”
If two-thirds of employees are disengaged, don’t we also need a survey asking how many employers, bosses, and corporate leaders are also disengaged? They must appreciate the talents and yearnings of those who report to them. They must model economic vitality by asking their employees, “How may I help you to help others? How can I express better this company’s goal to relate to the world by laboring, loving, and listening?”
Pan-devotional Prayer / Reflection
Here’s a fun exercise. Browse through YouTube, Spotify, or your old CDs and vinyl records to find a dozen songs that can become a new “playlist” for your regular enjoyment. Call this playlist “LOVE songs” in capital letters. Look for tunes that express love for the human family, for the marginalized, or perhaps for God, your country, or your group of friends.
Eros makes fine playlists, and we can be glad “the world is full of silly love songs.” Sir Paul McCartney properly asks, “What’s wrong with that?”
But a list of songs that raise our sights to a higher, broader form of love seems certain to lift us up on eagle’s wings. I know inspirational and aspirational songs are still being written. Of course, my playlists all date back to an earlier era. Therefore, let me just name several and then hand this noble search over to you:
· All You Need is Love
· Walk a Mile in my Shoes
· Love Train
· We Are the World
· Day by Day
· I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing
When your playlist is ready, celebrate! Have a Coke and a smile.
Word’s Worth
Have you heard the word “giglio”? Have you pronounced it correctly as “JIL-e-o”? It means “lily” in Italian. I learned about the word by editing a news story about the annual “Giglio Feast” held by a Catholic parish in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In terms of visual impact, I can think of few religious festivals that are more memorable.
Watch this brief report on the 2022 festival from the July 14 “Currents” newscast produced by DeSales Media in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
I’m not 100% sure on the connections between a lily and the 72-foot tower of art and statues that is lifted by a team of parishioners, or between the statue of St. Paulinas, which tops the tower, and the festival’s memorialization of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
But one must respect the immense investment of time, talent, and treasure by many people to make this festival a success. It raises funds and also raises spirits. Families of multiple generations—plus people of all religions from all over New York City and beyond—come together every year for a decades-old celebration of rich faith shared with others.
While the aforementioned PSA about a nuclear attack in New York strives for one kind of survivability, experts in warfare can’t fathom how the Giglio Festival is a far more dependable resource for resilience amid life’s challenges.
Tevye said it best in Fiddler on the Roof: “How do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word—tradition!”
Infokeeper—For Long-term Memory
If you are a fan of Hillsdale College, you are probably happy to hear that it now faces more competition. I heard on a podcast that two start-up schools have similar approaches, offering a traditional/classical liberal-arts education. You may want to find out more about their course offerings:
· University of Austin … “dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth”
· Ralston College … “To think is to be free”
BTW, the chancellor of Ralston is the widely known Jordan Peterson.
Just Kidding—Wit Waiting in the Wings
Man’s Search for Meaning: After the bar has closed, an intoxicated man is looking for his lost keys on the sidewalk by an illuminated streetlight.
“You think you dropped your keys there?”
“No, this is the only place to look where I can see.”
= = =
Image from ClifSafari.com, a collection of Creative Commons designs