When Action is the Only Argument

The other reason why discussion is impossible is because sin blinds people. When a person is locked in a cycle of sin they cannot see clearly and they cannot think straight. Sin makes you stupid. To put it more bluntly, the demon of sin locks the person down and blinds them so they cannot see what is beautiful, good and true. Furthermore, once the demonic takes over they become not only blind to all that is beautiful, good and true, they become aggressive against it.

So when this is the state of one’s culture the only argument is action.

The time comes when all a Christian can do is shut up and live the life and let that speak for itself.

This, I believe, is what St Benedict experienced in Rome at the beginning of the sixth century. He looked around at the decadence, the societal collapse, the corruption and sin and realized there was no discussion. There was nothing he could say. There was no argument, but action.

So he headed for the hills. He hunkered down and built a community focused on work, prayer and study. He built a community of love and acceptance. He built a community of learned, prayerful and humble men and women, and those communities eventually grew and became the cornerstone of a new civilization.

It did so because sin, corruption, decadence, violence and lies cannot survive. Truth, beauty and goodness will always, always prevail.

Truth, beauty and goodness prevail because they are positive and creative. They grow and flourish and are fruitful and multiply. Sin, decadence, violence, greed and lies are derivative. They rely for their strength on all that is beautiful good and true. They cannot survive alone. Evil is parasitic.

Therefore, at the beginning of this new year if you (as I do) feel that the darkness is closing in and there is little hope in the world, then take heart. Now is the time not for argument, but for action.

Now is the time for Catholics to stand firm and true and for every Catholic to be 100% committed to our calling. Of course I am not calling for a military crusade. I’m calling for a crusade of spiritual warfare, of living a radical Catholic life because a mediocre Catholic life is no longer good enough.

Now is the time for action, not argument, and the action must be to follow Jesus Christ with a new kind of intentional radical witness…

…and isn’t that what we were supposed to have been doing all along?