TEST THE SPIRITS: Christ and the Trial of Rampant Memetic Energy
This is another invitation to the sacramental Christian life.
None of the following should leave us bitter or suspicious of anyone with good intentions out there–not necessarily. On the contrary, it should make us charitable, patient, and steadfast in prayer and the fasting found in the Bible, a fasting this space has called for many times in the past several years despite America’s ongoing refusal to practice it. In fact, this week, we find ourselves with the opportunity to practice this discipline on the Ember Days, a long-held Church teaching–that comes straight from the mouth and actions of Christ in the Bible–that went bye-bye with so many other things after the gathering in the 1960s in Rome.
How ’bout this revival of which we speak start with the story of Ninive and Jonas of Scripture?
I get it. People want to feel they are a part of something. They want to feel they have a voice. They want to feel that they matter. But if we allow this spreading memetic energy to overwhelm us, we may later find ourselves regretting that we didn’t test the spirits as Scripture warns.
For when the Spirit truly moves, he bears witness not to personalities and platforms, not to fireworks and fool’s gold, not to rallies and rock concerts, but to Christ and “that rugged cross.” Christ is who is celebrated, the crucified Christ in whom St Paul glories, and it is typically done with solemnity, silence, and a gaze toward the East from thence he shall return.
This is why Catholic funerals only celebrate Christ and his resurrection as the backbone of mourning the dead, and pray that the departed has indeed been faithful. We make no vain assumptions in the matter.
We work out our salvation in this life with “fear and trembling,” as St Paul explicitly commands.
We understand that Good Friday must always precede Resurrection Sunday.
Regarding current events, every generation carries its cries, perhaps even illusions, of renewal, its roars for revival, its promises that the tide is turning. I’ve allowed myself to be taken away at times as well. It is one consequence of sin, both on a personal level and a national level of which I will speak here. For those with ears to hear, Christ himself told us how we can measure the truth of such moments, of such spirits that aim to “inspire” us with fond feelings. He did not point to numbers, applause, or platforms. He didn’t even point to nice feelings. He pointed to a far harder measure.
That rugged cross.
Why does America condemn Christ’s tangible, sacramental life with which he gifted us, not to mention his saints and martyrs, while simultaneously lifting up their own? Why is a woman honored as a martyr herself and more, yet I as a devout Catholic have to explain so often why I love the blessed Mother of Jesus Christ?
These are questions that are likely abstract until they land at our doorstep. For our Lord told us plainly that people would hate both him and his Father–and by extension everything he lived, loved, obeyed, commanded, and implemented before he ascended. The hatred, he illustrates in scenes like that of the Caesar coin, would be provoked not just by shrewd political calculation or Marxist cultural rot, but fundamentally by the very fact that the Light had entered the darkness and would not flicker or flinch to it.
We must be on guard for both shrewd political calculation and Marxist cultural rot simultaneously, not looking at them as the representatives of good and evil.
This is the binary trap I have warned against for years and years now. There is good and evil, sure, but the seeming Hobson’s choice in the matter makes this one a dangerous road we are going down. It is why I’ve tried to downplay or at least soberize the assaults against the “Left” so much here–even though I am absolutely in opposition to it, because it could very well be that these vipers are simply the obnoxious extreme–the craftily created spiritual foil–to the opposing side we automatically assume must be the good. It is not at all unlike what we experienced after 9/11 with the emotional tugs and pulls there, where patriotism was the mask for what digital surveillance and squeezing of rights were to come. Evil can wear many faces at once, and we forget that.
Never forget George Bush, Republican.
Understanding the argumentative notions of logos, pathos, and ethos will help tremendously here.
Understanding the concept of the Hegelian Dialectic will help as well.
Understanding that the enemy of Genesis 3:15 knows all of this–way ahead of us–and can employ it against us, will help too.
Consider what we have come to understand about the Bush-Cheney-Graham type of Republican in the last 5-10 years–both in said retrospect and as the story develops in real time.
Now consider this question: How is Trump going to be different (or not really at all) in the coming days and months, while, yes, doing many many things that are different from Bush to provide a picture of “winning”?
Is it real or just the illusion of change? Is it steeped in the societal recognition of Christ as King? The societal recognition of Christ as King?
FATIMA FACTOR | Quas Primas—OR CHAOS: Pius XI and the ‘Greatest Non-Event’ in Church History
Understand, that “winning” may indeed be real, necessary process points to where we ultimately need to bring society–spotlighted in that video above. I’m not taking a definitive stance on it here. But I’m inviting the question. Are we ignoring things we shouldn’t be ignoring concerning Trump and current events?
Are we really taking inventory on what he is saying and doing? Are we aware of measures that were enacted while everyone was distracted on September 10?
Hatred of, paradoxically, is the mark of the true disciple and the reason so many have viewed recent figures on the world stage as either good or evil–they base it on this premise. I myself started my political journey years ago with this basic framework regarding Trump. But again, we must also realize that the enemy–an incalculably shrewd one–also knows this framework, this basic recognition, and they also have had both the mainstream and the alternative media outlets to calcify it in our minds.
They love confusing logos and bombarding us with pathos, all the while disseminating it with ethos to “validate” it.
I’m afraid we recognize this when it’s time to study or when it’s the other side swamped in the feels. I’m afraid when we are swamped ourselves, we interpret what our favorite TV characters say as correct. We interpret it as truth.
We have not in fact turned to Christ as King as he commanded, and we only come to him or some version of him we ourselves have created when tragedies occur. In reading the Old Testament in order and with care, I have observed quite plainly that this is not at all what God responds to. He is not a simp who allows us to do our own thing when the sun is out but caters to our fireworks and fuzzy sentiments when the storm hits. Sure, he is a God of mercy, but there is a reckoning for people’s betrayal and straying first–every single time–because his justice is equal to his mercy; the same God lives on in the New Testament, through Christ, through those same stiff-necked people who were behind his crucifixion, through the 2000 years of history since.
In other words, is America assuming God is here, when he really isn’t? Read 2 Thessalonians 2:11 and Exodus 32:34 (and maybe the chapters around it for context) and consider whether or not God shall ever be mocked by our insistence on mass societal sin while only periodically drumming up feelings of fondness toward him when things get weird in the world.
When things get weird based only on things we’ve “experienced” through electronic screens.
When people who once lectured us on “trusting the science” are now lecturing us on trusting the miracle of yet another magic bullet.
When people are creating a “man of steel.”
When the Noahide Laws need to be known now more than ever.
Please, my friends…
Please consider these things. I say them in charity and genuine concern for you and your families. There is a memetic energy sweeping the world right now that could very well take us to a place of no return, a place where Christ is in fact not waiting at all for us.
