We have lost our way as a civilization. Having cast off the Faith, we no longer know who we are, why we are, what we are for, or how to be.
Like someone lost in the woods, we exhibit strange and sometimes contradictory behaviors—now rushing this way and that in panicked spasms, now huddled in place, hopeless, waiting for rescuers we no longer believe exist; now stony-faced in resolution, now willing to do, to try, to believe anything we think might save us; now calmly and rationally considering the options, now mindlessly crashing through the underbrush in desperation.
As I survey the times, I see many who are lost, who have no account of who they are or why. And they’re desperate to find one, sometimes willing to believe almost anything.
Not long ago, the confused and lost were supported by the remnants of order still operative in our institutions, but that order seems to dim before our very eyes. One can no longer trust that we and those in our care will be well-formed by school, or civic life, or media, or neighborhood, or family. Those seem broken, attacked, inoperative, feeble, or even co-opted and antagonistic.
The era of coasting on the cultural capital worked out by earlier generations is gone, and so too the time of thoughtless and careless ease—ours is a time in which things must be tested, spirits discerned, and great exertions demanded if we are to be formed even decently, let alone well.
Such responsibility is not perhaps a tragedy, and in end may prove to be a refining fire—a cleansing scour. But it does call for vigilance, intelligence, cooperation, and learning. This is not a time when one can drift into excellence—doing so almost guarantees becoming corrupted.
One cannot drift, but instead must plan and direct and guide. But those who are lost do not know where they go, or where they are, or why they travel, so how can they/we direct and guide well?
For the lost, the big picture is the needed thing—a map with major landmarks, the important obstacles, the saving roads and paths. So, too, do we need an account of the big picture, a vision of what it means to be a human, and specifically, a human in relation to God. We need to know the fundamentals of who we are.
Guided by the Holy Spirit, the Church is an expert in humanity and thus well-equipped to provide “a global perspective on man and human realities.” And she has done so. The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, to take just two examples, are masterpieces of the big-picture. These resources explain the whole gospel for all people, and insofar as they show Christ they explain both God and man—that is, in showing Christ, the Church shows everything necessary.
Uniquely, the Church has remained a “truth-telling institution,” unique not only in what it tells, Christ, but also that it continues to tell the truth in an age of confusion, and to provide the entire account, the big picture.
The Catechism articulates the role of the human in cooperating with God’s providential design, stating “God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures’ cooperation … God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, and thus of cooperating in the accomplishment of his plan” (no. 306). Nor is this a purely formal and open-ended causality, but rather directed in particular ways, namely “the power of freely sharing in his providence by entrusting them with the responsibility of “subduing” the earth and having dominion over it … to complete the work of creation, to perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbors” (no. 307).
This is no small matter!
In His sovereignty, God determines not only what will be, but how it will come to be, and has chosen humans to complete and perfect creation through their own action and work. This is a big picture of why we exist—we are given a grave responsibility and an ennobling one, namely, by nature and grace to continue the work begun by God and bring the entire created order into a better state. Creation, Scripture tells us, was good, even very good, but it was not perfect, and we have been asked to complete and perfect the potentiality of God’s own work!
These are big-news glad tidings to be shared, particularly at a time of ennui and tiredness, when cultural suicide appears widespread. And news deeply in keeping with Pope Francis’ exhortation that “in this period of crisis, today, it is important not to turn in on ourselves, burying our own talent, our spiritual, intellectual, and material riches, everything that the Lord has given us, but rather to open ourselves, to be supportive, to be attentive to others.”
I fear that one way of turning in on ourselves is an exclusive and excessive focus on “the Christian way of life as something exclusively ‘spiritual’ … aloof from the contemptible things of this world.” Seen this way, Christianity “means going to church, taking part in sacred ceremonies, being taken up with ecclesiastical matters, in a kind of segregated world, which is considered to be the ante-chamber of heaven, while the ordinary world follows its own separate path. The doctrine of Christianity and the life of grace would, in this case, brush past the turbulent march of human history, without ever really meeting it.”
The Faith includes more than my own spiritual well-being, as vital as that is, and spiritual narcissism fails to meet the excruciating needs of the current crisis facing us. This would be a terrible shame as the resources needed to tell the story of good news exist in ample supply.
Oh, how we need to hear this story anew, and how we need spiritual leaders to push us out of ourselves and awaken the world to Christ, with the Gospel the world so eagerly yearns for, including the mystery of human existence and purpose.
Why do we delay?
R. J. Snell is professor of philosophy and director of the philosophy program at Eastern University where he co-directs the Agora Institute for Civic Virtue and the Common Good. His latest book (with Steve Cone) is Authentic Cosmopolitanism: Love, Sin, and Grace in the Christian University.
