Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

I’ve been thinking about a quote from a 1961 book by Daniel J Boorstin titled, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America.

In it he writes:

“We suffer primarily not from our vices or our weaknesses, but from our illusions. We are haunted, not by reality, but by those images we have put in place of reality. We risk becoming the first people in history to have to been able to make their illusions so vivid, so persuasive, so ‘realistic’ that they can live in them.”

So many of us spend time wrapped in fears of the future or regrets from the past or projections of the present that occupy us. They are often magnified by time in the echo chamber of our heart. In our culture we are beset by projections of political, ideological, or other enemies with whom we are preoccupied.

I just saw a poll recently in which Americans estimated that 27% of the nation was transgender—reality is being shaped by false projections as we change laws and the like as people see some outsized perceived threat. (The real number by the way is .5-1.6%). There are countless other forms of illusion we can choose to live in, not just political and social silos. We can entertain ourselves to death never leaving our armchairs.

One of my favorite poems is from W.H. Auden, an Anglo-American poet known for his intellect, his leftist politics, his rumpledly scholarly appearance, and his Pulitzer Prize-winning poem, The Age of Anxiety. In the intellectual and secular world he is less known for what is, perhaps, the finest writing on Christmas one might find, his For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio.

It is not a short read, at 1,500 lines, but each line rewards the reader with a moment of new depth, clarity, or insight.

The passage that many most love and remember, from a meditation on Simeon from the poem, is the one I’ll share here:

“And because of His visitation, we may no longer desire God as if He were lacking: our redemption is no longer a question of pursuit but of surrender to Him who is always and everywhere present. Therefore at every moment we pray that, following Him, we may depart from our anxiety into His peace.”

We hear of Simeon’s encounter with Christ in the Gospel today. Suddenly the anxieties and fears for the future are set aside in the awe of the encounter. He finds Christ’s peace and it casts out his fears. His faithfulness is rewarded in that instant and for eternity.

The utter reality of Christ’s presence throws back his fears, anxieties, and illusions. As we are tempted, as Boorstin wrote, to live in our illusions, we are challenged by Simeon’s vision to hold fast to what is true. We are challenged not to live in our anxieties or illusions but to dwell in Christ’s peace.

May we find this week a chance to worship, sing, pray, and serve together that we may depart from our anxiety, into his peace. May it be a chance to once again find ourselves caught up not in the fevered pace and pitch of this day, and hour, and minute, but instead rapt fresh with the timeless eternity of God’s ancient new love again.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Robert