“The challenge of truth for Catholics navigating today’s world” by Fr. John for The Texas Catholic.
We have all surely experienced how difficult it can be to engage socially and politically as Catholics. Our faith pushes us into the uncomfortable position of prophetically challenging all political parties and calling everyone to conversion. Today, it can be especially difficult to exercise this prophetic mission, simply because the situations we should critique — the basic facts of the matter and their context — can be so difficult to ascertain (and contemporary media sadly makes our task even more difficult). This is a serious difficulty, since Jesus commands us not to judge by appearances (cf. Jn 7:24).
In addition, the social media platforms we often use make our mission difficult, because they incline us toward a fight-or-flight style of engagement. For example, think of the constant invitation to curate your algorithm by up/down emotional reactions to everything by deciding whether to “like” a post. Such short and emoji-governed channels push us into the superficial and homogenizing language of tribal propaganda. It is hard to find an authentic and discerning voice on these platforms.
So, how should we engage? A lot can be said on the topic, but one thing I would like to encourage us to avoid is what I call “trenching” — i.e., engaging in ways that do nothing but deepen or extend ideological divisions. Instead of reinforcing such battlelines, as Catholics we should transcend them by cultivating a spiritual atmosphere in which we can all encounter Jesus.
We can do this by challenging ourselves and others to hold more than one true principle in our minds at a time (and, therefore, to accept the tensions involved in the search for wisdom and the areas of legitimate disagreement between people of good will); to be self-examining and to wonder (even openly) whether we are in fact as well-informed as our judgments presume; to be silent about many topics in order to be able to focus long enough to study and say something insightful about a single one; and to often call to mind someone we love who thinks differently, in order to foster the spiritual strength needed to interpret generously the actions of others, and especially our enemies.
To state the goal constructively: We must ensure that our engagement directs us all to the voice of conscience and, therefore, to a personal encounter with the living God.
Let us examen ourselves this Lent! When I speak, post, or comment on social and political questions, do I try to recall all relevant principles and perceptively point out any uncertainties about questions of fact? Am I zealously studying my faith and striving to bring its riches into public discourse? Do I investigate the concrete circumstances before making a judgment? Do I look for the complexity that provokes humility and nuance, or do I give in to the simplifications that lead to self-righteousness and scapegoating? Do I reflect on whom I choose to trust to form and inform me and the responsibility I bear for that choice? Whenever I engage, do I encourage others to listen for God in their consciences with the paradoxically joyful “fear and trembling” of authentic faith (Phil 2:12, cf. 2:1-18)? Or do I just lazily draw a line in the sand and push people to choose a side?
Finally, the Apostle John warned about “false prophets” who do not confess “that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” (1 Jn 4:1-6). Our way of engaging the world must acknowledge that Jesus Christ is here in the flesh and blood of our times. Our way of engaging should not diminish the significance of his name to a mere idea. Today, one sign of a false prophet is the anxiety that comes from reducing the faith into an ideology — it is the anxiety of those who feel abandoned and therefore yearn to justify themselves. Such false prophets easily betray themselves by the self-righteous urgency with which they condemn and by an underlying tone that suggests everything is “going to hell in a handbasket” — as if Jesus were doing nothing but standing on the sidelines waiting to judge, as if he were not in fact patiently accomplishing his work among us like wheat among the weeds (cf. Mt 13:24-30).
Of course, this can happen not only in discussions about secular topics. In fact, the collapse of faith into ideology is perhaps most glaring in those false prophets who abandon the Church as “hopelessly” corrupt, those who have let their eyes become so focused on sin (whether real, exaggerated, or imagined) to the point that they disbelieve, perhaps unwittingly, Jesus’ promise to remain faithful to his Bride — i.e., to the flesh and blood Bride of the apostles and their successors.
In our ideologically charged times, let us examen ourselves and strive more perfectly to fulfill our prophetic mission. Let us never “shill” for ideologies or extend the world’s trenches into Catholic culture. A real prophet does not rail self-indulgently about ideas. He reverently points to the presence of God.