O Come, All Ye Fretful
I came away from Christmas Mass this year with a heightened appreciation of those who had joined the congregation as, let’s say, occasional visitors.
Some of them attend on Christmas and Easter largely because it’s a family event or it’s a time “to be seen.” These examples of “peer pressure” were once reinforced by America’s Judeo-Christian culture.
One can understand folks feeling various pressures. A lot of people acknowledge in their hearts, and increasingly in their minds as a practical matter, that our society can go sadly—and dangerously—astray without a recognition of God. It is right and just to give Him a social shout-out.
We pilgrims, or wanderers, also know Him as the everyday origin of charity, dignity, mercy, justice, and enduring meaning. At a minimum, we know we need to “represent” because He is our source of consolation and care—if not the first responder, the A-Team we call in case of emergency. He is somehow a member of our families, or a part of our ancestry who deserves to be recognized, no matter how awkwardly.
Theologically speaking, peripatetic Christians are indeed poised to receive wonderful things in return for a return to the sacramental life, a list topped by the Holy Eucharist, the complete presence of powerful grace, engagement in the Church’s highest form of prayer, community solidarity, and spiritual refreshment.
But, as our priest presiding at the vigil Mass boldly (but gently) reminded everyone, Communion is a sacred event whose participants are practicing Catholics. The Church welcomes all and is an instrument for everyone’s growth in God’s love, he said, but this might be a time for one to ask the Lord for a blessing and/or simply remain in the pew.
Some attendees may see this guidance as an undue infringement of their freedom. Worse, knowing one’s place and “staying in your lane” are forms of embarrassment, acknowledgements of guilt or imperfection. They are the opposites of virtue-signaling, which is currently trending in culture!
Here is the bottom line: In light of the personal admissions and reevaluations being suggested, if we take seriously a truth-speaking priest, and the Church, there is a price to pay for attending Mass.
A serious charge is codified in the Bible: “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 11:27) That’s something all congregants, no matter the frequency of their presence, need to remember.
And it occurred to me at Christmastime that various attendees might feel the Mass exacts still another price of admission. This is an unwelcome tax levied not by the Church, but by today’s secularized, therapeutic, self-centered culture.
The secular discouragement of loving relationships with Jesus Christ only frustrates our innate hunger for a more excellent way and our the heart-felt desire to fill our “God-shaped hole.” (This latter idea has roots in Acts 17:22-27 and, much later, in comments by Blaise Pascal.)
Those attentive to this vacuum in themselves and in society might find it taxing to get through the early parts of the Mass, not to mention the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
The Mass starts us off by asking God for mercy. What, did we do something wrong?
The Confiteor can hit us with a sledgehammer of humility. We are confessing to God—and to our brothers and sisters (OMG, they are our brothers and sisters)—that each one of us has “greatly sinned” in a variety of ways. And we can’t point fingers. We have to tell everybody, “I need your prayers.”
Then the Church challenges us further in the context of our responsibility to a God who came to save us from the mess we have made.
The church’s seasonal visitors might notice the poignant specificity of The Gloria; it is a prayer echoing the angels as they celebrate the first Christmas! The awesome power and promise surrounding Jesus’ birth is described in Luke 2:13-14. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.”
TV viewers informed by the better angels of our culture will remember that a little child, Linus by name, used that quote to lead his friend—and multiple generations of audiences—to learn the Good News. Hear it proclaimed here: “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
The initial prayers of Mass tell us to praise and adore Christ as our savior, and to give God thanks because all glory must go to Him. He alone is holy. Alas, that means we dare not play God.
Scholars and pollsters will tell us that people have fallen away from the Church—and from Mass—for lots of important reasons. Younger Americans are non-joiners who want to define their spirituality for themselves. Christian teachings make them reticent. They say religion causes violence. They doubt dogmas that conflict with observable facts.
But I observed another reason for society’s departure from the pews—and for the Christmastime exception that proves the rule. There is a culturally imposed unease some Mass-goers face in pausing their prerogatives so they can be surprised by joy.
My family and I found a few available seats in the back of the church, but perhaps we weren’t as uncomfortable as some of the newcomers. I came to a new respect for all those people awkwardly abandoning their weekend routines to be dutifully present at Mass. (They didn’t know where to sit. And neither did we.)
I realized the Church is beautifully countercultural, and our liturgy is wonderfully confounding from beginning to end. We all experienced it at the vigil. Even before we saw our priest, we had to squeeze in and humbly follow the directions of the ushers.
After Communion, a business-attired man seated next to me checked his phone and nudged his family to slip away as the final hymn began. They might have had reservations somewhere.
As a child of a culture that has become more and more secular, I’ve behaved and thought like that gentleman plenty of times. In his family’s presence, I truly found brothers and sisters.
My family stayed for the whole hymn, partly because we have become comfortable with Mass, and Christmas, as providential breaks from the tedium of being on our own—and enduring the “good grief” Charley Brown always saw society imposing.
All of us in that congregation needed to pray for each other, to forgive each other, and to turn to God for the glory we crave. We cannot take this awareness for granted if we want to heal our culture through the humility of truth and trust. Without the Mass, a summons to incarnational faith, hope and connectedness, my family and others might all be on the verge of slipping away, or going astray. We would be using our “reservations” as excuses to leave a vacuum in our God-shaped holes.
Worse, to avoid paying the price of admission, we would be AWOL in the church, and in the Church. Keeping vigil, we were wisely challenged to know our place, including our place in the glory of Christmas.
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Phronesis Files: Revisiting a Few Items from 2022
The Sun Will Come Out Tome-morrow
If you find some free time after celebrating New Year’s Eve, and you would like to start feeding your hunger for the virtue of phronesis in 2023, may I offer several options based on the nearly 20 editions of “Phronesis in Pieces” I have published since April?
One alternative is to turn “Tomorrow” into “Tome-morrow” by reading a few lengthy documents I have recommended because they model and facilitate a pursuit of practical wisdom with the purpose of serving the common good.
Building Resilient Organizations is a thought-provoking essay aimed to guide activist groups and non-profit organizations in their efforts make society a better place from the politically liberal point of view. The author, Maurice Mitchell, bases his suggestions not on theory or ideology, but on actual experiences and insights from his network of fellow leaders. The recently posted ideas are just as relevant to folks on the conservative side of the spectrum, and they point toward a desperately needed “meeting of the minds” in diverse conversations about how current trends in our society block efficiency and efficacy in the problem-solving approaches we all want.
A Better Kind of Politics is a website established by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to help heal the polarization in American society. The content includes insights and suggestions about actions we can take at the local/parish level to improve more inclusive, truth-based conversations. Take a look at the PDF called “Civilize It.”
Controlled Substance Wastes: Concerns, Controversies, Solutions is an article from the online medical journal CureUs that uses one of my principles of phronesis to dig more deeply into the important news about fentanyl.
The principle is summed up in two words: robust curiosity. It is inspired by Pope Francis’ 2018 message for World Communication Day, titled “The Truth Will Set You Free.” He instructed journalists to adopt “education for truth” as one of their missions, encouraging consumers of news to embrace the value of truth to the point of being active inquirers, not passive spectators. It is healthy to seek out a spectrum of sources and raise a litany of follow-up questions which emerge from one’s zeal for the mandates of Catholic social teaching. I talk about this in my book, When Headlines Hurt: Do We Have a Prayer?
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is the June 2022 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court which repealed the decision in Roe v. Wade. This was discussed in a couple of editions of “Phronesis in Pieces.” The link connects to the full texts of the opinion, the concurring opinions, and the dissenters.
Other Weekend Endeavors
Watch the 1944 film Gaslight because everything old is new again. As I wrote, Oxford Languages declared “gaslighting” to be the Word of the Year for 2022. Although I believe this year’s 1,700 percent increase in lookups of the word at the Oxford dictionary website was due to macro-concerns about manipulation in our “post-truth society, the movie illuminates the term well at the micro level. It is a parable about the weaponization of information abusing persons and eroding our sense of human dignity. In family or political life, we deserve to participate in reality with confidence and hope.
Give a listen to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the classic song introduced by Queen in a 1975 album. I described its lyrics as prescient about the direction of our culture’s mode of thought. “Nothing really matters,” wrote the brilliant but troubled Freddie Mercury, as this pivotal piece spoke of confusion and melancholy.
Yes, Pope Francis has used the word “phronesis” in at least one of his public statements during 2022. Read all about it in this article from The Catholic World Report. I talked about the pope’s context for the term in my “Right Side of History” edition.
Quotes to Remember
“Phronesis is a creative act, especially when navigating the unknown. It’s not just what happens when we are faced with dilemmas, paradoxes, and crucible moments. Of course, that’s where our strength of character shines and guides our actions and choices, which is why we mark it as an act of practical wisdom.” – Elena Antonacopoulou, PhD
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” -- Aristotle
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“If you think wrong, you go wrong.” – G.K. Chesterton
“Don’t raise your voice. Improve your argument.” – Desmond Tutu
“We do not need a truth to serve us, we need a truth we can serve.” – Jacques Maritain
“I’m so paranoid, my pronouns are Who? Me?” – Bill Schmitt (from the “Just Kidding" section)
Coming Attractions
Allow me to repeat my announcement that I am planning some additional steps as a communicator informed by the Catholic faith. I admit to being an amateur but avid explorer of the virtue of phronesis, which Aristotle introduced into our lexicon. My explorations will expand next month with a premium version of “Phronesis in Pieces.” portal into a mode for evangelizing today’s ailing, challenged culture.
My theory is that many people are seeing the need for a more robust adoption of phronesis as practical wisdom that leads to actions which can help to heal people and solve problems.
I accept my position as one small voice expressing solidarity with many intelligent people of good will from such fields as philosophy, the classics, public affairs, psychology, American Studies, communications, theology, and other branches of the humanities and liberal arts. But I would like to be of assistance to members of the growing “phronesis community,” hoping that my observations, based on experience in journalism, the Catholic Church, government policy, and education, can contribute to big-picture conversations.
The next steps involve setting up a complementary “Phronesis Plus” set of resources located behind a modestly priced paywall, available to readers who continue to enjoy the commentaries I offer to free subscribers.
The premium content I envision—a more methodical curation of my own discoveries in this broad arena—is exemplified by the Phronesis File items presented above. It would be a constantly growing collection of secular and Christian information, creatively but soberly presented, with useful lists and links in categories such as:
- DEFINING AND OUTLINING PHRONESIS
- A PHRONESIS BOOKSHELF
- CENTERS OF STUDY AND DISCUSSION
- A PHRONESIS COMMUNITY—PEOPLE TO GET TO KNOW
- “ONLINE TOUR” OF RESOURCES: VERBAL, VISUAL, MULTIMEDIA
- CONVERSATIONS, FEEDBACK, NEWSBITS
- QUOTES AND QUOTABLES
My curiosity, not strictly “objective” but diligently open-minded, will make me an “online tour guide,” pointing toward better knowledge of the content producers and a better understanding of their insights. Perhaps I can spark, and participate in, some of the important conversations aimed to increase clear, constructive, virtuous outreach in the public square. Readers, take this journey with me.
Please nurture my plans by sending comments and suggestions via the chat feature or via email at billgerards@gmail.com (mentioning Phronesis in the subject line). Even better, contact me now to take your spot this year as a charter subscriber to “Phronesis Plus.”
I plan to start the separate access channel next month. The “Phronesis File” items above will be archived as part of the “Plus” content.
Thank you for your consideration and your continued support. You loyal friends are indispensable for my motivation in 2023 and beyond.
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