Blog Notes
I was taken aback at the response to my recent post on Sherry Weddell's Forming Intentional Disciples and the importance of developing a personal relationship with Jesus. It's been among the most visited posts, out side the of obituaries of deceased Salesians, that the site has had.
What I also like is that it drew some comments. I welcome them, especially those who disagree with me. I moderate them, but I only block comments that are insulting and abusive, spam and, from proselytizers. Otherwise I enjoy a good debate. This may be self serving, but I tend to do better with them in written form. I would have made a terrible trial lawyer, because I'm not always good on my feet. I'm one of those who thinks of what I should have said an hour after the confrontation. But when I have even a few minutes to think I generally can make an intelligent response. I may not always be right, but at least I'm coherent.
In general the blog has seen an increase in traffic over the last couple of months. I unofficially "relaunched" the blog in May after about six moths of sporadic activity. I don't think Bishop Barron has anything to worry about, but it's nice to see that The Ax is growing. I don't get too deep into the analytics, but I've noticed that more and more hits are coming through Facebook. I've always posted the link there, so why traffic from there is increasing right now is a bit of a mystery.
Thanks for reading and for your support. If there are any topics that you want me write on, let me know. Don't be afraid to leave a comment, and keep on spreading the word.
Gearing up for World Youth Day
In less than two weeks I'll be leaving for World Youth Day in Krakow. There are six going from the parish, joining another 80 from various Salesian works of the Eastern Province. Ours is an extended pilgrimage, beginning in Barcelona, Spain, then crossing the Pyrenees into France where we'll hit Lourdes, Taizé, Lisieux and, Paris before concluding in Poland.
The biggest point the other organizers and I have tired to make to the young people going, is that this is a pilgrimage - a spiritual journey. In the Middle Ages pilgrimages were associated with doing penance; making reparations for our sins and the sins of the world. Sometimes pilgrimages were done in thanksgiving for favors received through the intercession of a saint, or involved a trip to a shrine where a favor was then asked for. The graves of saints, especially martyrs, were popular pilgrimage destinations, along with the greatest pilgrimage of all, to the Holy Land. The journey was also a reminder that we are pilgrims on this earth, journeying to heaven. This isn't a permanent home, but a stop along the way to eternity. Whatever the reason, these trips were always done in the spirit of prayer, fasting and penance.
With all the stops we're making along the way, especially in Barcelona and Paris, it's easy to look at this as a tour or a vacation: but it isn't. We won't be staying in 4 star hotels or eating at Zagat rated restaurants. The journey will be difficult. The hope is that by doing without and trusting that God will provide, we will grow deeper in confidence of divine providence.
But in a deeper way, a pilgrimage is a way of growing closer to God, allowing Him into a our lives in a more profound way. God can only really get through to us when we are unattached to material things. We can better hear His voice when everything has been stripped away - our love of money, electronics (especially cell phones), fashions - even food and drink. When we look at material things as tools - instruments that help us live rather than the reason why we live, and learn to do without what we really don't need, God speaks to us, as he always does, but we are better able to listen. A pilgrimage, correctly entered upon, is a chance to grow in that spirit of detachment, thus growing closer to God.
My hope is to be able to blog as I go, chronicling the pilgrimage, if not day by day, at least three or four times over the two weeks. I'll be keeping a journal, and if need be post some things when I get home. Pray for me and all the pilgrims, that we may gain all the graces the Lord wants to impart on us.
Camille Paglia Frustrates the Be-Jeebies out of Me, but I Love Her Anyway
I know that I wrote about university professor, author, social critic and feminist gadfly Camille Paglia in the past (I'm too lazy right now to go back in the archives to find it), but she's been on my mind again lately.
I saw an interview she did recently on ReasonTV, a libertarian channel on You Tube, where she blasted the PC atmosphere of the contemporary university which is driven in large part by a bloated, entrenched bureaucracy made up of leftist control freaks. Paglia is no social conservative, yet has beliefs many fellow progressive academics take issue with. She believes that the extended, multigenerational family is the best household arrangement (though admittedly not possible in this day and age), and while women should certainly have the right to pursue a career, they shouldn't be discouraged from marrying early and having large families, if they are so inclined.
To put it very succinctly, at the root of her thought, it seems to me, is a reaction against the primacy of the political in not only art and literary criticism, but in how we view life in general. She claims that the impact of biology and psychology on the choices we make have been put aside in favor of a social critique based solely on political considerations. All art, music, drama, social attitudes - the entire perception of reality, is to be assessed by how it promotes a political goal, not how it matches up with human nature in its entirety. That a woman might want to have children instead of a career, she argues, is a natural consequence of biology that shouldn't be dismissed or suppressed. She doesn't believe that gays are born gay (keep in mind, she is a boldly "out" lesbian, and has been since so before it was cool), rather that homosexuality is a choice arrived at by a multitude of factors, including the the psychological. The points of view she puts forward are never discussed in left wing academic circles, she contends, not because they are false, but because they don't correspond to the left's political aims.
What I find frustrating about her, is that she believes in the structured meaning in art - that words have a significance, rejecting much of post modernity's assumptions. Yet, she remains an atheist. (Have patience with me here.) I don't know if her atheism represents complete materialism, or simply that she doesn't believe in a personal God but would allow for some metaphysical reality. I just can't see how she can hold the positions that she does and not realize that, while biology and psychology need to be a part of the analytic conversation, objective meaning can't be reached by the natural sciences alone. They are sign posts, but ultimate meaning comes from a non-material source. Most people, in the West anyway, call that source God.
I put Paglia in the same camp with the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynahan whose work, before he took office, on the effects of public assistance programs in the '60's showed that welfare causes family breakdown, not the poverty which the welfare is meant to alleviate, but he still couldn't get himself to break with liberal orthodoxy on the topic. In Paglia's case, she sees that the secular progressive program has gone off the rails (she says that the celebrating of transgenderism and the proposed multiplicity of genders is the sign that a culture is collapsing, not getting stronger), but still can't get herself to part company completely with it. Maybe because she does see embracing the gay lifestyle as a choice, not a predetermined state of being, she finds it hard to reject that choice after so many years. To admit to a spiritual reality, a divine intelligence, personal in nature, would make her have to ask too many questions that are just too painful to face. Who knows?
I believe that there is something perceptive in Paglia's work, something spiritual, or at least that she sees the spiritual reality beneath the material surface. She understands the essential connection between religion and culture, appreciating faith, while nonetheless rejecting it. Not to be sappy or condescending about it, but I pray for her. I think that there are religious people who have totally rationalized religion, losing sight of the importance of poetry and art in the understanding and communication of Catholicism. Paglia, an atheist, gets it. She could be a great champion of a Catholic cultural revival, if only she turned back, and believed what she clearly is able to see.
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