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When we are not able to do the task of the first half of life well, we go back and try to do it again—and then often overdo it! This pattern is usually an inconsistent mix of old-fashioned styles and symbols with very contemporary ideologies: of consumerism, technology, militarism, and individualism. These tend to be our blind spots, which make us not true conservatives at all. In fact, today’s neoconservatives are usually intense devotees of modern progress, war, and upward mobility in the system, while loving the Latin Mass!
If you did the first half of life with some respect for law, tradition, and order, you do not need to go back on this early path, not because it was bad, but precisely because you already did it, and learned from it. You internalized its values, and now know their real meaning and purpose. (See Jesus’ words on this in Matthew 5:17-48.) Unfortunately, we have an entire generation of educators, bishops, and political leaders who grew up either without much structure, or with a worship of structure—and are building their personal towers of success, and therefore have little ability to elder the young or challenge the beginners onto maturity. They are still beginners themselves. This does not bode well for the future of any church or society.
Adapted from Falling Upward:
A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, pp. 40, 42, 43
The Daily Meditations for 2013 are now available
in Fr. Richard’s new book Yes, And . . . .
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