Maritain on the practical atheism of many Christians: “They Keep in their minds the settings of religion for the sake of appearances or outward show…but they deny the Gospel and despise the poor, pass through the tragedy of their time only with resentment against anything that endangers their interests and fear for their own prestige and possessions, contemplate without flinching every kind of injustice if it does not threaten their own way of life. Only concerned with power and success, they are either anxious to have means of external coercion enforce what they term the “moral order” or else they turn with the wind and are ready to comply with any requirement of so-called historical necessity. They await the deceivers. They are famished for deception because first they themselves are trying to deceive God.”
The Range of Reason
“These are terrible and prophetic words, and their light picks out with relentless truth and detail the true face of what passes for “Christianity,” and too often tries to justify itself by an appeal to the “Christian past.”___________________________________
The quote is from Merton’s Conjectures p. 245.
My comments:
A
Jaques Maritain, preeminent Catholic philosopher from France, was one of the most influential voices in the Church before Vatican II. In fact, much of his thought influenced this great historic shift in Catholic history.As Merton says, the words are “terrible and prophetic.” They expose the superficiality that often passes in the name of being a “good Catholic.”
In addressing this situation which is still pervasive today, I want to recall Merton’s own prophetic words on Christian charity.
“A basic temptation: the flatly unchristian refusal to love those who we consider, for some reason or other, unworthy of love for even very trivial reasons. Not that we hate them of course: but we just refuse to accept them in our hearts, to treat them without suspicion and deal with them without inner reservations. In a word, we reject those who do not please us.”
Conjectures, p. 171
In light of this admonition on charity I feel more comfortable using the term “shallowness of evangelization” rather than “practical atheism.” They have not truly grasped the personal consequences of the Good News. Their encounter with Jesus has not reached the depth sufficient to enlighten and transform their hearts. On the other hand, they have been transformed by a culture that is far removed from the shattering power of the Gospel. We are all somewhere along this line between cultural enslavement and the full embrace of the Gospel. We all need to be totally energized for the true conclusion that is total transformation in Christ.
In my personal experience, I have had several issues that initially were quite conflictual but eventually were an invitation to embrace the call of the Gospel at a new depth. This is the evangelization process.
The first issue was the racial situation in the US. My opening assignment to the African American community eventually shattered layer after layer of my cultural blindness and insensitivity. The way forward was a letting go and a new openness. In the end, it was an invitation into the Gospel. It allowed me to encounter the transforming and purifying power the Good News. It extended horizons of my heart.
This experience, in turn, freed me to search the Church’s call for justice and peace with a new and more intense enthusiasm. Of particular interest, was the painful insight that the prosperity of the US was built in part upon the poverty of other nations.
Along the way, deeper challenges to my prejudices eventually surfaced in my rampant blindness to the gay experience. In a subtler way, I was awakened to confront my sense of superiority to women. This especially challenged my clerical privilege.
These were major expressions of my bondage to the culture. The switch in my life was letting the Gospel gradually become the measure of the culture rather than the culture being the measure of the Gospel.
Each of these conflicts was a struggle and continues to be a struggle because of Maritain’s “terrible and prophetic” words:
“but they deny the Gospel and despise the poor, pass through the tragedy of their times only with resentment against anything that endangers their interests and fear for their own prestige and possessions.”
It is all a journey and we all share a common quest. Evangelization is a lifetime process that is ever fresh and ever demanding of more surrender on our part. Our progress is continually partial and incomplete. We will ever be confronted by the “weeds and wheat” battling in our hearts. Teresa of Avila put it more forcefully: the story of our lives is the story of God’s mercy.
B
When the culture dominates the Gospel, there is a strong tendency to protect one’s interests by a singular and forceful challenge to others’ sins. This is the campaign of the cultural warriors. Abortion and gay marriage become the final measure of the Gospel.Back in the 90’s Cardinal Bernadin of Chicago offered a firm but loving challenge to this selective process – of challenging the sins of others. He presented a teaching of the “seamless garment” which challenged all the issues from the womb to the tomb. These included not just the “other” but our own neglect of the challenge of the Gospel to address many uncomfortable issues such as the nuclear arms race and world poverty, inclusiveness for all gender orientations and manifestations, concern and compassion for the divorced and so many more.
The fundamental issue in evangelization is moving beyond our self-interest, our area of comfort. In this way, we create space for Jesus to enlighten and transform us. We, in turn, are invited to transform the culture in light of the Gospel
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