The 'Enlightenment' notion that first principles, religious quarrels and questions of principle and meaning could simply be set aside, while the adults in the room got down to addressing the 'real problems' of economics and power, albeit ideally in an atmosphere of tolerance even if this was not extended to those many people 'beyond the Pale',- this notion was already buckling under the strain. After all, that society did depend on many principles about what was right and wrong, true and false that had been forged in a sharper age, but had largely degenerated into unexamined assumptions.
I was a confused young man who was presented with such insights mainly by a small group of Benedictine monks, and in particular by one who, himself buckling under the strain, took his own life. Graduating at Cambridge University, teaching in a lousy school in the Liverpool dockland, working on Fleet St, continually being told you can't say that, participating in the revolution that those monks attempted but failed with at Downside, - all pointed to a big sign saying NO EXIT, to quote the title of one of Dom Sebastian Moore's books. What was a bloke to do?
Maybe I, as an English Catholic, looked to that Ireland 'beyond the Pale' through somewhat rose-tinted glasses, and also through the eyes of my special friend at school, an Irish lad who was exiled to that English boarding school. Unlike so many who were actually living in Ireland at the time, we saw it as a place that was free of at least some of the brain-fog that beset the antiquated structures of the British Empire,- a place of possibilities and a certain freedom of spirit. We were not however entirely naive. One helluva confrontation was obviously going to happen there!
How would Ireland fare in the storm of modernity? How is one to reconcile the many and varied claims of the past with the advent of an ever more interconnected but troubled world? Having grappled so painfully with such problems, was it even possible that Irish people would once again ride to the rescue of civilisation and religion, as they did in the aftermath of the collapse of the Roman version?
Back to the cave! I went hunting while Fiona minded it and the children. Besides the facts that I had to earn a living somehow and at least knew a little about fishing and the sea, and that I fell in with the right people, especially one John Maguire whose funeral I attended just the other day in Glencolmcille,- besides all this was the thought that it provided the ideal platform to confront many of the existential problems that were plaguing me.
The sea reflects so many aspects of the mysterious reality of God. We may contend with it, we may even on occasion confront it, along with enjoying its many gifts; but God help us if we fail to respect it, merely trying to rearrange it to suit ourselves. Going to sea, fishing, rearing a family with Fiona of nine beautiful children, all this not alone kept me sane, but to my mind this archetypal existence was an ideal environment for sorting out and hardening up the fruits of my education and early experience. Such is the sea, 'the common sacrament of Man', the counterpoint to that other fundamental sacrament which, as many a sailor could testify, has a difficult relationship with sea-faring,- marriage and family.
As I was coming to the end of my fishing career, the crisis of modernism seemed to be coming to a head. The referendum on divorce was hardly a promising basis to take up the challenge, but there it was and I felt called to fight it. Since then three of our five daughters have suffered divorce. I know plenty about the difficulties of marriage and the fact that it does sometimes fail. The big question is how to find our way to reconcile this fact with the imperative to assert marriage as the lifelong union of a man and a woman, which is at the basis of genuine family life and much else? I gradually came to understand marriage as the paramount icon of the Covenant between God and Humanity, wherein faithfulness and love embrace, and life itself should be transmitted.
The more that icon is obscured, the more society and the state become dysfunctional, unhealthy and unhappy. One only has to look around to see the results, as the proponents of no-fault divorce and as the current constitutional attempt to redefine the family as any 'durable relationship' refuse to acknowledge. Just imagine how much less expense the state would incur if families everywhere were functioning well! Instead we have atomisation and creeping authoritarianism, while the disintegration of families continues apace.
Much else besides marriage and the family is on the line, many crises are apparently coming to head, yet I still find it difficult to raise such issues even in the circle of those whom I know and love. Is there a discernible relationship between the destruction of the family and the proposed WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty? In an astonishing line-up, national sovereingty, meaningful democracy, personal autonomy, freedom of speech and our very health and even survival are on the line along with the family as we know it. All too often, those of us who raise such issues find ourselves up against the whole gamut of methods used to shut us up. Well, we are told, 'stop ranting, if people are not listening you won't get through, there's nothing we can do about it, so why distress ourselves?'
Meanwhile the World Economic Forum, which somehow seems to have a whole new global generation of political leaders in its clutches, touts this historical moment as 'The Great Reset'. Their machinations are often referred to as 'the globalist agenda'. Among other things they openly propose that the world's population should be radically reduced. Indeed, how many nice, decent people have we heard say 'there are just too many people in the world'! Now of course they on no account wish to countenance the notion that the great and good could actually be doing something to rectify this little problem,- that they are all for bumping off a few billion people! A more drastic confrontation of pragmatism and principle can scarcely be imagined.
One very understandable response is to withdraw, to pull up the drawbridge, let down the portcullis... or to sail off into the sunset! Would this be my escape route? I'm heading to Portugal again to get my old boat out next week. But let me say, that just as I replied to those who accused me of escapism for going fishing in Donegal by saying 'I was dropping in rather than dropping out', I say it again now. I am not retreating, but going on the attack. I fancy myself demonstrating that we can actually have a Great Reset that is both fun and effective.
Powerful ideas invariably take an aspect of truth and distort it, snedding it away from the universal body of truth that we Catholics identify with Christ and the Catholic Faith. It is nothing but the truth that the problems which confront us are both existential and global in scale, and they call for global responses. One way in which we part company with the 'globalists' is in thinking the rich and powerful are the right people to promote such responses. No, on the contrary, they constitute the problem, not that any of us with two pennies to rub together are entirely free of it. The exponentially growing chasm between the rich and the poor and the suffering of so many families are consequences of the love of money and pursuit of power; the antidote is very clearly promulgated in the Bible. What is special to this moment is the way in which the issues are lining up, the choices are clarifying, the stars are brightly shining and aligning!
We have to rediscover that after all the Lord who created us and this whole amazing universe does actually know what He is doing. Our task is to liberate ourselves from our will to power, which we can only do by putting ourselves in His power, and let Him show us the way to go. This is far from doing nothing. There are whole libraries of books that purport to show us how to do it, and a multitude of differing approaches, but they generally involve closer relationships with our fellow travellers and with nature, and a willingness to live and to take responsibility.
This involves examining our lives, listening to the voice within, rejecting slogans, being ready to leave our comfort zones, seeking Wisdom and sound principles. One little technique that I have found helpful is voyaging up and down the Gannetsway on the Anna M - silly old me, but I stand by William Blake's dictum, 'He that would do good must do it in minute particulars'! At any rate, the experiences of family life, of community, of primary production and of nature are prime ingredients when it comes to appreciating first principles.
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| Back to Nazaré next week! |
