By DONALD DeMARCO
I have been to Niagara Falls several times and have never tired of experiencing both its power and its beauty. What I find especially captivating, however, is that locus in the Niagara River which is called “the point of no return.” Until one reaches that point the option of turning back is still available. But the distance between staying alive and plunging into the abyss is just a few inches.
Those few inches of water, though not different from any other part of the river, when crossed, spell doom. The Great Cataract, like all things powerful and beautiful, offers us a warning that we should take to heart.
In life, a point of no return can be reached without our realizing it. We continue to hold onto our lifestyle until that point is reached and then all is lost. We felt safe for a long time and then everything suddenly became irretrievable. Has America reached that point of no return without realizing it? Can she be convinced of the peril that awaits her if she does not turn back?
Each day brings news that is increasingly discouraging. We are informed of Catholic churches being vandalized, pregnancy centers being damaged, pro-lifers being assaulted, children being subjected to dangerous and unnecessary surgery. At the same time, suicide, euthanasia, and drug abuse are on the increase, and leadership is leading us in the wrong direction.
Furthermore, the perpetrators of this litany of horrors are deaf to legitimate criticism! Truth becomes a form of “hate speech.”
Discouragement, however, is an enemy of hope. And if hope is lost, the motivation to turn things around is lost along with it. In this regard, St. Augustine offers us some sound advice.
“Hope,” he writes, “has two beautiful daughters, their names are anger and courage: Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” Discouragement, which is the absence of courage, can lead us only to that fateful point of no return.
Discouragement is two pronged. First, we are discouraged by what we see. Next, we are discouraged when we are laughed at when we make our feeble attempts at correction. It is very much as C.S. Lewis said, when he was faced with the same temptation toward discouragement.
“When the whole world is running towards the cliff,” he wrote, “he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost is mind.”
The orthodox Catholic, to be sure, has not lost his mind. He has a work to do, and God is at his side. At the core of America’s extensive list of iniquities is moral lassitude. America can be justifiably proud of its immense technological achievements. Yet, technological sophistication is morally neutral. It can be used for evil purposes as well as for the good of society. Science and technology are not inherently linked to morality. In fact, they often oppose each other. Recent history of American society shows that as technology becomes more advanced, morality grows weaker. Therefore, reform becomes increasingly problematic.
This leads those who would like to see a more morally healthy society to discouragement. Yet, even if secular America is doomed, the Catholic still has eternity in front of him.
The breakdown of the moral order in society is a prelude to the breakdown of civilization. What is at stake when society loses its sense of the importance of morality is, indeed, very great. This breakdown is usually accompanied by a certain blindness to the truths inscribed in the Natural Law. The employment of common sense in the moral order is seen as an imposition, an attempt to foist one’s personal morality on others. Morality based on the Natural Law, of course, is for everyone and certainly not an attempt on the part of one person to force his opinions on others. Individualism and the lust for ego-satisfactions are, without doubt, injurious to the spiritual welfare of society, not sensible suggestions for reform.
The conscientious Catholic must understand that he is not called to save the world (and most assuredly not to “save the planet”). Trying to do too much, more than one can possibly achieve, leads to even greater discouragement. God grants each individual special gifts. These gifts may seem paltry in comparison with what is needed, but personal integrity and doing what is within the range of the individual person should be of primary concern.
The Catholic historian Christopher Dawson has expressed this well in his book, The Crisis of Western Education: “We may not be able to build cathedrals like the Catholics of the thirteenth century, or write epics like Dante, but we can all do something to make man conscious of the existence of religious truth and the relevance of Catholic thought, and to let the light into the dark world of closed secularist culture.”
Whether or not America has reached the point of no return should not concern a Catholic as much as what he can do to convey this light. St. Teresa of Calcutta has famously said that God does not require us to be successful, but to be faithful. And fidelity to the Church and her moral teaching is within reach of each Catholic.
This virtue is the only armament we need in order to carry out God’s Will. Its value is twofold, removing discouragement and restoring hope.
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