Upside Down World - More Signs

A few moments ago, after a nice relaxing dinner with the beautiful Diane, I picked up my little Asus netbook and checked out thecatholicthing.com. (They send me a little notice on my iPhone whenever they post their daily essay and I hadn't had time to read it yet. For an old guy, I'm pretty well connected.) There I encountered an essay by Matthew Hanley entitled, "Catholics & Pagans: Then & Now" and to my surprise found that it addressed some of the same things I had just written about on this blog. Of course, Hanley's a much better writer so his essay actually makes sense. While I used Isaiah 49 as an example, Hanley went back farther to the events surrounding David's act of adultery with the lovely Bathsheba who unfortunately for her husband, Uriah, was married (2 Sm 11). By the way, I've always liked this picture of Nathan confronting David with the truth of his sinfulness. Maybe we all need a Nathan looking over our shoulder.

Hanley makes the point that David had just led his army in a battle in which 40,000 men had perished, and yet this "isolated instance of adultery [is] singled out for reproach" by the prophet Nathan. He goes on to explain, however, that David's sin was certainly greater than adultery since "it also involved murderous scheming."

But then Hanley makes the same point I had tried to make in my latest post, that everything has completely changed. In his words, "Still, the reverse generally holds true these days: a single casualty in battle is often met with stern media disapproval, while thousands upon thousands of 'illicit' encounters go unremarked -- or are even glamorized."

Neither Hanley nor I deny the tragedy of war and the fact that so many today recognize this. His only qualification is that people not succumb to "blind pacifism" or turn their backs on the kind of real evil that must be confronted and defeated. But, as Hanley remarks, "Insensitivity to the breakdown of the family and to the destructiveness of the 'hook-up' culture, on the other hand, is a sure sign of moral regress."

This is just one more example of our present upside down world, a world in which good is bad and bad is good, a world in which far too many of its inhabitants are completely unaware of the fact that they're standing on their heads unable to see reality as it is.

Read Hanley's essay. It's very good. And keep your feet on the ground; otherwise you'll never be able to follow Jesus on the Way.

Pax et bonum...