Jordan Paul

We put up such high and impenetrable walls around our souls to keep bad things out, but in doing so we may unintentionally deny the goodness of God’s work in the world as well. —Fr. Casey Cole, OFM

Friends,

In his 2017 book The Benedict Option, commentator Rod Dreher argues for a Christian withdrawal from an increasingly secular world into spaces—both physical or otherwise—that dismiss mainstream culture and embrace a virtuous life. He draws inspiration from St. Benedict, a hugely important figure in Christian monasticism. The impulse to withdraw—although not one that I share—is not unfathomable if you believe contemporary culture is so hostile to Christians that simple existence is untenable. It’s also misguided.

Fr. Casey Cole, OFM (appropriately, a Franciscan, for the Feast of St. Francis today) presents a counter argument. On Instagram, he argues that we cannot dismiss our messy world because God is present here and warns us not to “become a frightened, joyless people who fail to see God’s presence all around us.”

At the end of his Letter to the Galatians, St. Paul makes much the same argument: “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” One commentary argues that St. Paul does not reject the physical world and has a deep love for creation. Rather, his denunciation of the world is aimed at “all those powers of sin that serve to structure the society in which we live, all those forces—however respectable—that contributed to the death of Jesus.”

Think of what we would have lost if our most prophetic voices withdrew because they wrote off society as irredeemable. Would Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ fight tirelessly against the death penalty? Would Jonathan Myrick Daniels have shielded Ruby Sales? Would Dietrich Bonhoeffer have opposed the Nazis? Would Fr. Daniel Berrigan, SJ have burned draft cards?

Most of us will not be the next Prejean, Daniels, Bonhoeffer, or Berrigan. But we could be on a jury, or lead someone to the Church, or give someone money or a meal, or be a friend to someone who doesn’t share our precise views.

The same commentary above ends with the following: “In the risen Jesus, we know that this world and its violence, hatred, division, and stupidity is not absolute or final.” God help us all.

In Christ,

—Jordan