Elizabeth Scalia has written of a recent much-publicized event:
“…..That
poor Miss Cyrus is suffering from a case of disorientation is a guess I am hazarding after watching her
performance, during which she demonstrated a case of diminished proprioception
— an inability to perceive where she was, in space, which caused her to upend
herself repeatedly, head-to-ground and bottom-to-sky — as well as an
unfamiliarity with the proper placement of the tongue, which is within one’s
mouth.
Seriously, the
so-called dancing may have been vulgar but the incessant appearance of Cyrus’
waggling blue tongue was what I found both fascinating and completely
repellent. Within the boring, Hunger-Gameseque fiasco that showcased a pop-music
scene melodically played-out and utterly exhausted with its BDSM images (even
as it keeps flogging us with them) Cyrus’ tongue was the thing that creeped me
out. Gene Simmons’ long and over-exposed licker unfurled itself with a sense of
irony; we all got the joke. Cyrus’ tongue made me wonder if there was an
exorcist in the house, and it made me feel disinclined to condemn her, because she seems so very much in need of prayer —
of deliverance of some sort, and right-orientation. (italics mine)
In today’s liturgies,
we recall the Passion of Saint John the Baptist.
Our gospel reading presents his beheading, ordered reluctantly by a king who
made a rash and public promise to a young girl whose first-century twerks had
moved him and his crowd of guests. Having lost his head in the excitement of an
illusory performance, the King had no choice but to take John’s head, too, in
order to save face.
In this month’s issue of Magnificat Magazine, Heather King writes of this day: “Then, as
now, people were butchered for a trifle; an obscene dance, the whim of a call
girl.” And — as it turns out — the need for a man in power to prove himself by reluctantly
ordering a drastic, irreversible action.
The story just seems
to speak to our times, doesn’t it? A young, poorly-educated girl worth, it is
said, approximately $150 Million dollars, performs lewdly before a crowd of
elites and the world loses its head over it, unable or unwilling to look away
or to stop discussing it. Men in power, meanwhile, speak rash
words and then hope they may be blurred and re-interpreted, or re-ordered.
All of that should offer us some reassurance that there is nothing new under the sun, that
as it is, it ever was, and so what seems like an unprecedented time of disorder
in the world is pretty much standard-operating-procedure for the human animals.
But do we feel
reassured? So little of what is before us is authentic; so much of it
is only meant to distract and
disorient. So many pundits and educators and politicians know what is true, and
right and real, but — like Herod to Salome, before the crowd — they have lost
their heads and made firm pronouncements, and now they must follow
through, regardless of what is lost, regardless of how dark the
world becomes, for the sake of human pride.
The task set before the Baptist as he lay in
prison was to become blessed by this unquestioning acceptance of God’s obscure
will; to reach the point of asking no further for external, visible,
unequivocal clarity, but, instead, of discovering God precisely in the darkness
of this world and of his own life, and thus becoming profoundly blessed. John
even in his prison cell had to respond once again and anew to his own call formetanoia…in
order that he might recognize his God in the night in which all things earthly
exist. Only when we act in this manner does another — and doubtless the
greatest — saying of the Baptist reveal its full significance: “he must
increase, but I must decrease” (Jn 3:30). We will know God to the extend that
we are set free from ourselves.
After reading that this morning (again, thanks to Magnificat), I envisioned
Saint John sitting in prison, in the darkness, learning where God might be
found, even there. Although he was respected by the King, his fate was
nevertheless sealed by a human need to save face, and the unknowing actions of
a privileged young girl. So I asked him to pray for the sake of a privileged
young girl in need, and for the rest of the world, which is too often held
hostage to mediocre men and women who have spoken rashly
and feel compelled to deliver, to yes, save face amid the disorder.
Because God always
respect our integrity, our free will, He never forces us to do good nor to
abandon evil choices. Rather, He sends us His grace and truth. As mentioned in
my first chapter, it is the enemy who seeks to breach the integrity of the
human person, and effect the ruin of souls....
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