The FIRST station of the cross: Jesus is Condemned to Death
Mary Magdalene’s heart must have felt it had broken in two
when she heard these words. Her Lord who had scooped her up from the dirt both
literally and figuratively was going to be killed. He was the one man who she
learned to trust completely and who she knew deeply loved her and now He was
being forcefully taken from her. What is
her response?
The response of any of us is a sum of what we have been
taught and what we have learned. At the feet of Jesus, Mary Magdalene was able
to discard the lies of the seven demons because these lies were no match to the
Truth that pierced her heart. She could now see the lies for what they are. How
did she respond? A true character of a
person is how he or she responds to the information given. Are we quiet in the
face of persecution or do we speak out? Do we act in anger or forgiveness for
the wrongs done to us?
For the individual and for the society this is a life-long
process and can only be done if we are informed of the best practices that
yield the most good. We modern people think that we are smarter than our
ancestors but I propose we are stupider than ever. Why? Because though we are inundated
with 24/7 information; it is all opinions and agendas. We have no arsenal from our collective
education to know either how to discern fact from propaganda or how to
properly respond to the information that is provided.
I read today in an article by George Weigel that democracy
as a way of self-government depends on the character of a people. If the
collective character has no virtue, has not learned how to think but only what
to think, is distracted from what really matters to what only excites the
senses, than so goes the society. We
spend more money on education than ever before and yet are more ignorant than ever before.
The missing ingredients from the debates on gun control,
violence, drug abuse, immigration, economic solutions, etc. is a people steeped
in a liberal education that teaches “how” to think and children raised in the
art and science of the virtues. With each generation lost, we become a people
more pliable and more willing to comply with the power at hand.
My in-laws were purging items from their house recently and
asked us if we wanted a set of books they purchased when my husband was young.
It is a set of encyclopedias from Britannica Great Books titled, The Great
Conversation. Included in the set are books by Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Karl
Marx, Charles Darwin, St. Augustine and Sigmund Freud just to name a few. I am intrigued since these have always been
names I recognized as great, but never read what they actually wrote. I have
made it my New Year’s Resolution to read the entire set of books. I’ve started with the introductory book
written by Robert M. Hutchins which explains why these books were compiled.
This introductory was written in 1952 and posits that a liberal education is a
must in a democratic and industrialized society like the United States. Without it, people will have too much leisure
time and no way to fill it except with idle pursuits. Sound familiar? He says that if every citizen was taught a
liberal education based on the writings of great thinkers then leisure time would
be spent debating and putting into practice great thought. This set is based on
Western Civilization but he says upfront that Eastern Civilization is just as
important but not the scope of this particular set. He lamented what would
happen if our (this is 1952 remember) current educational system would be left
intact that rather keeps children busy until they are adults and tells them
what to know instead of teaching how to think.
I sat back and realized his worst fears have been
realized. We are that stupid society
that spends more time talking about the antics of the Kardashians than what is
the best response to quashing the evil raining upon Southern Sudan. We are idiots being molded into whatever the current
powers want us to be. If you have ever
watched The Matrix, you can imagine that instead of Neo – we are the dupes in
the barrels with probes screwed into our heads.
So how do we reverse this? How do we stand up to this
propaganda and say, “My mind does not belong to you?” We have two ways and they are all at our
fingertips thanks to the internet: We teach our children and ourselves the virtues and we pick up these great books by the great thinkers
. . . and we read them!
We put into practice what we discern as Truth.
The virtues, which by the way are the antidote to the seven
demons also known as the vices that so plagued Mary Magdalene, build character
and teach how to respond in all situations.
They are prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance. These four are the
human virtues that are rooted in the theological virtues of faith, hope and
charity. I leave it up to you to
research how each is defined but just by looking at them you can see that our
society is sorely missing their influence.
The good news is that rising from a lump of putty - or out
of the barrel - into a thinking and discerning person of character is very
do-able. Just as St. Mary Magdalene had
the good sense to sit at Jesus’ feet despite the chiding of her sister (Luke
10:38-42), we can take charge of our own education and the education of our
children. Turn off the television and put
down the fashion magazines and learn how to be the change that you want to see
in the world.
So how did St. Mary Magdalene respond when she heard the
news that our Lord was condemned to death?
She persevered. She remembered what Jesus taught her and relied on His
Truth to keep faith in God and hope in His promise. In other words, she practiced her virtues.
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