February 13, 2005

Urban people in their world-weariness tend to see through the exploitation of spiritual hunger by bogus evangelists. There are those, however, who associate religion with an abandonment of reason, the pursuit of consolations, emotional fits, and most forms of fanaticism. Various saints have warned that excitement is not religion: if it is, then Alleluias on Palm Sunday become "Crucify Him" on Good Friday.

Lent defines soberly the integrity of commitment to Christ by making sacrifices rather than seeking superficial emotional satisfaction. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ says that only those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be truly satisfied.

Fanaticism substitutes feeling for doctrine and, as the philosopher Santayana said, it is a redoubling of effort when you have forgotten your aim. According the soldier and historian Thucydides, the great Athenian culture was ruined by the conceit that fanaticism was heroic.

Was Jesus a fanatic when he made his great claims for himself and his demands on his followers? His aim was clear in the highest moments of his righteous wrath: "Zeal for my Father's house has consumed me."

Spiritual movements and religious orders rise by zeal and fall for lack of it. New movements and saints rise up to take their place and their holy zeal is mocked as fanatical by cynics. I was edified by the remarks of our new Secretary of State, Dr. Rice, on the importance of moral precept in the ordering of diplomacy: "Europeans giggle at this, but we are not Europeans, we are Americans and we have different principles." Dr. Rice recently visited our parish and told me she was deeply moved to be in this house of God. She was reminding Europeans of their noble heritage which has in large degree fallen apart through cynicism and the consequent demographic suicide and spiritual vacuousness. It is a sadness which the Pope himself has lamented. No race or nation has a copyright on morality, but all are called by God to walk the way between fanaticism and cynicism.

Jesus calls us the salt and light of the world, but if the salt has lost its taste and if the light is hidden, we are worthless. St. Paul began as a fanatic, even to the point of killing followers of Jesus, but he was converted to righteous zeal. He ends his letter to the Romans with greetings to the many men and women his preaching had moved from mere satisfaction with early pleasure to holy zeal for eternal glory. A cynical world will label as fanatical any new spiritual renewal and anyone who publicly professes faith in Christ. Parishes that lapse into indifference and banality of doctrine deserve to die, because they weigh down the progress of the Gospel. It should be a Lenten goal to convert others, and this begins with a daily conversion of the self.

Fr. George W. Rutler