Why Pope Benedict is a better Pope than Evelyn Waugh might have been
"More than once in the preceding pages mention has been made of the obliteration of English villages. The process is notorious and inevitable. Expostulation is futile, lament tedious. This is part of the grim cyclorama of spoliation which surrounded all English experience in this century and any understanding of the immediate past (which presumably is the motive for reading a book such as this) must be incomplete unless this huge deprivation of the quiet pleasures of the eye is accepted as a dominant condition, sometimes making for impotent resentment, sometimes for mere sentimental apathy, sometimes poisoning love of country and of neighbours. To have been born into a world of beauty, to die amid ugliness, is the common fate of all us exiles" (Evelyn Waugh, A Little Learning, 33).I love Evelyn Waugh, and I love this quotation because Waugh loved beauty and tradition--and he missed it when it was missing. And the last century has seen much confusion, barrenness, and even ugliness in every part of Catholic life. It's been awkward, to say the least. But I didn't see anything disappear like Waugh did. I am more like someone reading a travel guide. When I hear that parishes used to process around the "bounds of the parish" blessing the boundaries and partaking of a progressive dinner--I think, "Parishes had boundaries?" When I read Josef Pieper talking about thyme and rosemary on the steps of the church for Corpus Christi, I think, "When did people do that?" The more I study Church history, the more I experience those emotions of Waugh. We have the essential, but where are those quiet pleasures of the eye, and the things that bolster the Faith? Of course, Waugh is talking about English villages, but it's connected. Where are the town squares and the local pubs? Where are those "inns" people used to talk about and "meadows." Every novel pre-1940s talks about a world as remote as Grimms'. I want to scour the Shire, but Waugh says it's too late. The process is inevitable. But he's wrong.
That is why Ratzinger was ever the hero, the scribe who brought from his stores both old and new. His new Encyclical, like his last two, like all his books overflow with courageous magnanimity. He has no fear! Benedict XVI points to Christ, to His Church, to His teaching which is ever ancient, ever new. All the beautiful things we lost or threw away can be got back and transformed to feed the future. That's why he can say we ought not to reject progress and technology, etc. blindly. When he says it, I know he's not following a fad, but the Truth. Here is my current favorite quotation:
"Hope bursts into our lives as something not due to us, something that transcends every law of justice. Gift by its nature goes beyond merit, its rule is that of superabundance. It takes first place in our souls as a sign of God's presence in us, a sign of what he expects from us." (Paragraph 34).
There are so many things to like. Pope Benedict: here are 9 Things I Like About Your Encylical. Note these.
- P12's careful explanation of Church's teaching as consistent and coherent but also organic, exhibiting "dynamic faithfulness to a light received."
- P16 notes Paul VI's: "Every life is a vocation." What! Called to my own life!
- P18 "The Gospel is fundamental for development." That made me sit up. Hey, it really is. It is not something nice to take or leave like sugar in your coffee. We NEED this!
- P25's recognition of mobility as a major problem of our economic situation, creating "new forms of psychological instability." I'll say!
- P26. Cultural levelling vs. cultural eclecticism. Benedict XVI goes more into depth in this area in his book Truth and Tolerance.
- P28's connection between "respect for life" and "poverty." Very interesting--are we dealing with poverty when the people are encouraged or forced to kill and hinder life? "Openness to life" is the fundamental prerequisite for every other kind of openness.
- P31 points out the "excessive segmentation of knowledge." Is Benedict like MacIntyre or is MacIntyre like Benedict?
- P32--I just love the way Benedict XVI writes. His references are razor sharp and wry: "The human consequences of current tendencies towards a short-term economy--sometimes very short-term--need to be carefully evaluated." Who is that aside for?
- P34: "The principle of gratuitousness." He really makes love attractive. Evangelization, dialogue, mission, preaching, writing, suffering, serving, teaching, washing dishes--it has to be effervescent, overflowing--like refilling someone's glass. It can never be about crossing t's and dotting i's.
But he is not sentimental and foofy--the generosity he's talking about is the kind that results in houses well-built, earth well-tilled, the hungry fed, and children born and bred in openness. AND--beautiful villages and liturgies. Don't worry Waugh--"Blessed are those who have not seen." There will be heroic people to rebuild the culture--perhaps--and heaven will be ever ancient, ever new.