Youthful Sojourners in a World Grown Old & Weary
Day 10 of 40 in 'The Art of Dying Well' by St. Robert Bellarmine
The Art of Dying Well, chapter 2 “TO DIE TO THE WORLD” (Part 3)
"When we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened (or disciplined) so that we may not be condemned along with the world." (1 Corinthians. 11:32). Here we are clearly told, that the whole world will be condemned at the last day. But by the "world" is not meant heaven and earth, nor all those who live in it; but they only who love the world… They imitate the arrogance and pride of the devil, not the humility and mildness of Jesus Christ.
Since, then, such is the truth, if we wish to learn the Art of dying well, it is our… serious duty to go forth from the world, not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth: yea, to die to the world, and to exclaim with the Apostle, "The world is crucified to me, and I to the world." This business is no trifling matter, but one of the utmost difficulty and importance: for our Lord being asked, "Are they few that are saved?" replied, " Strive to enter by the narrow gate;" and more clearly in St. Matthew doth He speak: "Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!" (chap, vii.)
To live in the world, and to despise the pleasures of the world, is very difficult: to see beautiful objects, and not to love them; to taste sweet things, and not to be delighted with them; to despise honors, to court labors, willingly to occupy the lowest place, to yield the highest to all others in fine, to live in the flesh as if not having flesh, this seems rather to belong to angels than to men; and yet the apostle, writing to the Church of the Corinthians, in which nearly all lived with their wives, and who were therefore neither clerics, nor monks, nor anchorites (hermits), but, according to the expression now used, were seculars still, he thus addresses them: "…the time is short… they who have wives be as if they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as if they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as if they used it not, for the fashion of this world passes away." (1 Corinth, vii. 29. & c.)
By these words the apostle encourages the faithful that, being encouraged by the hope of eternal happiness, they should be as little affected by earthly things as if they did not belong to them; that they should love their wives only with a moderated love, as if they had them not; that if they wept for the loss of children or of their goods, they should weep but little, as if they were not sorrowful; that if they rejoiced at their worldly honors or success, they should rejoice as if they had no occasion to rejoice that is, as if joy did not belong to them; that if they bought a house or field, they should be as little affected by it as if they did not possess it.
The apostle orders us so to live in the world, as if we were strangers and pilgrims, not citizens. And this St. Peter more clearly teaches where he says: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims to refrain yourselves from carnal desires which war against the soul." (1 Peter 2:11.) Thus the most glorious prince of the apostles wishes us, so to live in our own house and city as if we dwelt in another’s, being little solicitous whether there is abundance or scarcity of provisions. But he commands us, that we so abstain "from carnal desires which war against the soul;" for carnal desires do not easily arise when we see those things which do not belong to us. This, therefore, is the way to be in the world, and not of the world, which those do who, being dead to the world, live to God alone; and, therefore, such do not fear the death of the body, which brings them not harm but gain, according to the saying of the Apostle Paul, "For to me, to live is Christ: and to die is gain." And how many, I ask, shall we find in our times, so dead to the world as already to have learnt to die to the flesh, and thus to secure their salvation? I have certainly no doubt, that in the Catholic Church are to be found, not only in monasteries and amongst the clergy, but even in the world, many holy men, truly dead to the world, who have learned the Art of dying well.”
As a reminder, when the apostles or Bellarmine use the word ‘world,’ they are not referring to God’s good earth, but to the evil, world-system that is aging and dying. Why is the sinful world-system dying? Because the fruit of sin is death and decay. Sin is not something, but the corruption of something created good. It can never stand on its own two feet and will only latch on to a living organism like a virus or cancer.
In his famous book ‘Orthodoxy,’ G.K. Chesterton summarizes the youthfulness of God compared to the sinful world that has grown old. He writes,
“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
To make sense of Bellarmine’s summarization of the New Testament view on ‘death to the world,” we must imagine Christians as young travelers and youthful explorers passing through a decaying and dying kingdom. God is the ‘Ever-Youthful-One’ while Satan is a ‘desperate & dying, dark lord.’ This doesn’t mean that Satan and the Kingdom of darkness isn’t dangerous. If you turn to the novel ‘Harry Potter,’ it is when the dark lord is the most wounded that he is the most dangerous. Or when winter begins to wane in Narnia that the White Witch begins to wage her war on Aslan (wow, that was a lot of w’s)! This is why the New Testament imagines the end of world history as the most violent and turbulent, because Satan will unleash the last bit of his power knowing full well that his end is near.
So Christians (the humble & authentic, following-Jesus-kind) are the youthful ones in this world, while the CEOs of endless consumerism are the elderly ones. Even though many of the powerful may outwardly appear fresh, trendy, innovative, and youthful, they are of the ‘old age’ because they are trying to sell the same old recipe of ‘shallow sex’ and the illusion of ‘eternal youth.’ The dark Lord is the puppet master of these leaders, and through them, he tempts the youthful sojourners passing through his kingdom to dine and ultimately die with him. His wine is tainted with poison, while the wine of our Homeland is life-giving and everlasting.
As St. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 2:11, Christians are ultimately sojourners and pilgrims who are passing through this dying world in search of the ‘undying lands.’ Though the Christian is not afraid of the physical world or pleasure (I just visited a ‘Christian’ cigar lounge with good bourbon!), we are called to avoid corrupted pleasures so that we will not become corrupted. Corrupted pleasures include sinful desires and habits, but also include good pleasures that have replaced God, or rather, de-throned Him as King in the soul. Something is wrong with us if we look forward to that glass of good wine, or newly released Netflix series, or Monday night football game more than playing and praying with our kids.
This is why St. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 10 & 11 that we cannot drink both the Cup of Demons and the Cup of the Lord, and why Jesus reminds us that we cannot serve two masters. Today, we have to choose— we are going to either die with the Lord today and dine with Him eternally OR we are going to dine with the dark lord today and die with him eternally.
Some people will misread the New Testament, the desert fathers, and Bellarmine to think that the Christian life is supposed to be a life-long funeral. Others may even be led to believe that Christians despise physical pleasure, the physical body or the physical world (By the way, hating the body is actually a Christian heresy). In truth, Christians believe that we are the ones liberated to actually celebrate the goodness of Creation, because we are no longer anxious about self-appearance, self-progress, or death itself. Christ has set us free and sent us out into the world as the joyful ones. Not fearing death, we are youthful again! This is why we can toast the Catholic bishop, missionary and apostle to Ireland, St. Patrick, with a green lager and a large cut of corned beef on March 17th!
However, Catholic teaching also balances feasting with fasting. Whenever a Christian is ‘out of control’ with feasting, the Scriptures remind us that it may lead to an opportunity for the evil one to sneak in to our lives. This is why the ‘grounded’ Catholic can feast with ‘beef & beer’ or with a good cigar & barrel-aged bourbon, while at the same time, fast with bread and water or a simple Lenten soup.
By the way, if you are pigging out on large helpings of fried fish & fries on Lenten Fridays or expensive lobster at a high-end seafood restaurant (for those who are Catholic Christians), you are probably missing the point of the day which is moderate fasting, confession, and repentance. In the church’s mercy, simple fish and shellfish has been allowed in the Western Fast, but this merciful allowance shouldn’t be used to turn the fast into a feast. (Seafood is a personal favorite of mine so I have to be careful!) The Friday fast has been around since the 1st century during the time of the apostles as recorded in the Didache and the focus was always on eating little so you can pray and unite yourself to God. The general rule was no flesh meat or land animals while fish/shellfish was considered another category (such as insects as a modern example). This is why simple salads or soups might include oysters or even octopus (!) in popular, Lenten recipes in Catholic or Orthodox cultures. For the ancient Christians, every Friday was a mini-Good Friday with lament and fasting while every Sunday was a mini-Easter with celebration and feasting. This is why every Sunday is an obligated feast day or holiday (or holy day) in the Catholic Church. It wasn’t an obligated burden but an obligated vacation from work and for rest, worship, and recreation!
The whole point of fasting is to overcome the aging and decaying world-system so that it does not get a foothold in your life before its final collapse (Ephesians 4:27- “and do not give the devil a foothold”) and so that you become mastered by nothing or no one except by the Lord Jesus Christ!
More on this tomorrow!
Be entirely and forever His,
Kyle