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It is difficult to go anywhere -- shopping, the post office, church -- that you do not hear people making comments on what is going on in the nation, or the price of food or the cost of gasoline; everything seems to be in flux, and there is a serious feeling of helplessness among many. I am not writing a political column here, but I am searching for the cause of this discontent. What is generating this massive feeling of being adrift? Nothing seems to be firm or solid; it's a whirlwind of changes that seem to be happening overnight. These changes to our daily routine, that we have grown accustomed to, have turned into an ever-changing landscape of daily challenges, punctuated by caustic rhetoric and civil unrest.
There is a very famous poem by William Butler Yates, (1865-1939). The poem itself was written in 1919, a year after the bloodiest and demoralizing War to end all Wars, WWI. The war, with its brutality and new armaments and millions of senseless victims. A group of devastating events that voided the very innocence of Western society. Yates comments with precision about what many people were feeling about society and its future.
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
I think Yates got it right, in that he informs us that "the center cannot hold". What is the center of any society? Is it a building? Could it be a product? Perhaps it is an ideal, an abstract concept that holds a community together. What is the center of our society currently? Are we without a center of ideals that keeps the community in balance and order? These ideas must be shared by most of the people to be an effective unifier of peace. In other words, we must have shared values and visions. With shared values and visions of how we live our lives amidst others. Society tends to move forward, not without debate but with civil and just communications and shared expectations.
One of the things that is occurring that upsets many in our current society is that society seems to be moving in two different directions: the way we should live, work, die, and be born. are being uprooted for a new slate of values. However, it is Truth that helps establish a pattern for a society to operate in peace and harmony. We are emerging from a Christian world of the dignity of our human state into an era marked with technological advances, instant communication, and media commercialism, all of which make a consumer out of the human person. Current society has not felt comfortable with or addressed how these new changes affect the community. Christianity has, for many today, become Old-fashioned on its path to peace and community. But has it?
Christianity, or at least the morals derived from it, have driven Western Civilization; often, the values it has brought were in name only, looking good on the surface, but hollow in meaning. When Christian values were challenged, it was often more expedient to accommodate the prosperous and pleasurable lifestyle of being a consumer. Putting aside the obligations and responsibilities that the Christian path demands. In other words, we, the Christians, in many cases have become lukewarm. Scripture tells us, "So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:16) Another way to say this is that we have become spiritually complacent; we have become indifferent. There are all kinds of ideas and fragments of ideals that seem to be surrounding us in our current world. We seem to be living our everyday lives where we have to wade through one conflict after another. The center is not a unifying place anymore; how do we navigate this new world?
I know we go to Church, but Church is only for an hour or so a week. We as Christians are called to care for our neighbor, often a difficult task considering what we are currently living through. We can pray and take up an active prayer life, setting aside time to thank God and ask for His mercy. Be aware of the needs of our neighbors, practice charity, and do not judge but see each human being as a child of God and treat everyone with the idea that God brought this person into the world; who am I to judge them? Kindness is a weapon; compassion and forgiveness are tools of peace. These are small steps, but they will help you navigate the chaos and noise and absorb anxiety and distraction. Live your Faith in public. Know your God is with you; He dwells right inside you. He is our peace and refuge. He is the center of our being. As the beautiful Psalm 23 says:
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23:5-6)