Tea at Trianon: A Different Perspective

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, April 3, 2021

A Different Perspective

From Catholicism:

We Christian men have been given the model of perfect masculinity in Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Man-God. After Him, we have the most perfect of all male human persons, Saint Joseph, in whose month of March we presently find ourselves. We should be strongly attracted to these great men, one of whom is a Divine Person, while the other is the divinely appointed guardian and protector of Jesus and Mary — who, as head of the Holy Family, stands as a human icon of God the Father.

Dr. Dilsaver’s insightful provocation came to mind the other day while I was reading a book by the Marist spiritual writer, Father Thomas Dubay, “And You Are Christ’s”: The Charism of Virginity and the Celibate Life. In his preface, Father Dubay contrasts the different ways that men and women view the virginal and celibate consecrated life. The extended passage is worth citing, with my underlined emphasis drawing attention to what is most germane to my point:

Just as on the natural plane women and men differ widely in their outlook on reality, so too do they vary in their attraction to the life of consecrated celibacy. Normal women are readily drawn to the Pauline imagery of the Church as the beautiful bride married to Christ. A woman’s whole bent is toward persons and love. Drawn naturally to the male and his characteristics, a woman with the virginal charism and responding fully to its implications of a total, burning love for God, easily sees herself as given in a heavenly marriage to the eternal Word of God become man. She has no problem in seeing her life, not as an impersonal career — a job to be done — but as Saint Paul describes it, giving her undivided and chaste attention to one Beloved.

A man sees consecrated celibacy somewhat differently. His attraction centers on the towering and virile figure of Christ as one normal man is drawn, with not the least erotic overtones, to another extraordinary man — but immeasurably more so, for this extraordinary man is also the very Son of God. When the male responds fully to his celibate gift and thus begins to grow in a total, burning love for Christ, he sees himself not, obviously, as a bride, but as an intimate friend and brother. Such actually is another way Jesus addresses himself to his chosen intimates: “I shall not call you servants any more… I call you friends [beloved ones]” (Jn. 15:15).

Yet men with the celibate charism need to be reminded that they, along with all men and women, are members of the virgin Church wedded to one husband. Before God each person is receptive, feminine.

Father Dubay goes on to explain that last assertion in a clear and satisfying way, using both Old Testament and New Testament passages. In relation to God, all creation is feminine. This is a cosmological reality in the order of nature, but in the higher order of supernatural grace, it takes on a more “personal” specificity: In relation to the masculine Incarnate Logos, Jesus Christ, the Church is feminine, for the Church is the bride of Christ. For this reason, I argue that a consecrated woman is a more perfect image than a consecrated man of what the Church is.

Focusing on the underlined passage, I was gratified to read that Father Dubay said that the celibate man aflame with “a total, burning love for Christ” sees Our Lord “as an intimate friend and brother.” Yes, Jesus Christ is our Friend; yes, He is our Brother. This is true for all the baptized, but just as the virgin woman looks at Christ in a special way as her Bridegroom, the consecrated male celibate sees Jesus especially as his Friend and Brother.

Naturally speaking, a good and noble man’s virtue and character make him the object of our attraction. If we are blessed to have such a good man as our friend, we can discuss matters pertaining to virtue and character with him, and, in a completely natural and non-contrived way, our conversation with him would approach any topic of mutual interest from the point of view of virtue and the true good to be considered in that topic. We can learn from that friend both by his word and his example.

It should be evident to anyone with a sensus Catholicus that friendships like this can and ought to be supernaturalized if our friend belongs to the household of Faith.

But it gets even better than that. By reading the Gospels in a meditative and prayerful way, we can engage Our Lord in a similar friendship. In so doing, we spend time with our Friend and Brother, learning from Him both in word and deed, and speaking to Him about our struggles with sin, our failures in practicing virtue, our difficult relationships, our desires, our aspirations — or any topic we would discuss with our closest Friend. This does not exclude the acts that are due to God alone in our worship of the Blessed Trinity: adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and petition. Not at all. But it adds to them a certain intimacy that flows from the beautiful divine condescension of the Incarnation. When our best Friend is also a Divine Person, He gives us more than advice, example, and a sympathetic ear: He gives us grace. (Read more.)