A Crisis of Faith/The Battle for Western Civilization

"IT'S FALL, THE LEAVES ARE COMING DOWN,and I have fallen into myself. I'm flat on my back, under the cottonwood,yellow leaves falling, brilliant blue above, abandoned rake beside. My two children sit at my side, feeding sticks to the dog, who understands that every time he gently takes a twig from their hands and crushes it in his teeth he is causing great delight, and so he keeps doing it stick after stick. Somtimes they leave him long enough to tackle me and I have just enough time to clench my stomach muscles so the air isn't knocked out of me, and we laugh and wrestle. When they grow tired of all this, I play an injured character so that I can stay a bit longer, an injured knight, injured princess,...all in need of medical attention. I tell stories, and while we play I watch the leaves come down...Finally, finally, finally, I have fallen."

This is from a piece in "5280" magazine, September 2008 edition, by Laura Pritchett, entitled, Falling Into Myself.

In my opinion, Laura Pritchett exemplifies, "man," discovering his mystic core. Man, is, by nature, a mystic.

But, back to that in a minute, to change the subject slightly...

This is a pivotal time in American history, in world history; since people make history, it's a pivotal time for each one of us as well.

Everyone has heard of the culture war, proximally effecting the upcoming federal election, but also apparent in everything from media to education to economics. We are in the midst of a fierce existential struggle; everything, even our own salvation, depends on it. The entirety of Western civilization is at stake... no more procrastinating; we are literally on the brink. So, if you never thought of yourself as a soldier before, start thinking in those terms now, because you are on the front lines of a raging battle, whether you like it or not.

How does mysticism apply? Before we can rescue Western civilization from the forces arrayed against it, we must recover ourselves, our heritage, so to speak.

Listen to what a wise catholic convert, now gone on to the church triumphant, Malcolm Muggeridge says:

"...the real crisis which confronts us is about faith rather than power, about the question 'Why' rather than the question "How"--about man's relationship with his Creator rather than about his energy supplies, his currency, his balance of trade and Gross National Product, his sexual fantasies, and his other passing preoccupations with which the media interminably concern themselves. ...whereas the God we serve, the salvation we hope for, the light we live by in this world, and when we come to leave it, the vista reaching before us into eternity--these concern the very fundamentals of our moral existence."



And, now, another prophetic voice, William McNamara, a Discalced Carmelite monk:



"What is at stake is not the means to survive, not even the will to survive, but the faith to survive. Was not our Western civilization born of the great drama enacted in Palestine two thousand years ago, the drama of the Incarnation, the Passion and the Resurrection and all the ramifications of that latter world-changing event? It was this divine drama that inspired the great art, music, literature and architecture that have and will be the glory of our civilization."(Christian Mysticism.)

What is the battle over...it is "the very fundamentals of our moral existence." Western civilization, going as far back as the long spiritual history of our Jewish forebears, has given us the American principles of liberty, justice, the rule of law, and, the moral principles and ideals of virtue expressed in our Declaration of Independence.

If we hope to win this war, we will need the kind of faith born of man's natural mysticism. And, this is precisely what we are losing in our headlong rush toward human self-sufficiency, obsession with busyness and "enlightened" social engineering. In the process of degrading the language, the culture, by "political correctness," our values are giving way to the meaninglessness of post-modern relativism. If this descent continues, we will lose. The enemy, both within and without, seeks to destroy the very fundamentals of Western civilization.

Laura Pritchett also quotes from the great philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard:

"The biggest danger, that of losing oneself, can pass off in the world as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, an arm, a leg, 5 dollars, a wife, etc, is bound to be noticed."

How do we recover ourselves, our common mystical faith? By doing what is the most natural thing in the world for us.


The mysticism of which I speak is not the "pie in the sky" New Age spirituality of modern charlatans, like Deepak Chopra, whose true character was exposed recently in his tirade against a perfectly normal, well-meaning American mother, Sarah Palin; nor does it have anything to do with trendy politically correct fashions within the church, which simply try to accommodate secular tastes. Nor is the answer to be found in the myriad of "self-help" tomes on bookstore shelves, nor is it in ivy league liberal arts departments, long ago surrendered to the idols of modernism.

No, Pritchett's final relvelation, "buying substantially less stuff, being outside, being present and playful with my children," is closer to an answer than any of the foregoing.

Go with your gut. There is more truth to be found in a game of "kick the can," or in collapsing on a pile of Fall leaves and letting your puppy and your toddler crawl all over you, than can be had in any other activity.

Trust your gut...your common sense; does it seem just "crazy" that the neighborhood elementary school can't have a Christmas Program, that a high school senior can't attribute her valedictorian achievement to Our Lord in a graduation speech, for fear of having her microphone turned off, that a baby in the womb can't be kept safe, that creeping social banalities continue to challenge traditional marriage, legitimize internet pornography, and mock Judeo-Christian values? Your common sense is right. It is crazy!

Let us remember what brought us to the highest pinnacle of human civilization. It is inherent in us, it is easy, don't doubt it, live by its wisdom and fight for every square inch of it, whether in the public square or in a pile of leaves in your front yard!

And, keep yourself "little," grateful, or, in the words of the poet, Francis Thompson, a Catholic convert, in his "Essay on Shelley."

"Know ye what it is to be a child?

It is to have a spirit yet streaming with the waters of baptism,
It is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief,
It is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear,
It is to turn pumpkins into coaches and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its own soul, it is to live in a nutshell, and to count yourself the king of infinite space, it is,

'To see the world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wildflower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.'”

(Essay on Shelley, Francis Thompson)