The "Real World" Lie

"In the real world..."

This is one of those deeply-embedded lies of Satan used to justify almost any behavior. Be very wary of it when you encounter it. In every context that I have encountered it, it has been used to justify evil in the name of good. Sometimes I've seen it used simply to justify outright evil and so-called "necessary evils." There are no "necessary" evils. There is physical evil, which isn't in itself evil but evil only in its effects, and there is moral evil, which is a choice that we are not obligated to make under any circumstances. We may feel tempted or pressured to make that choice, but God gives us the grace to do what is good and just at every moment.

The world is God's creation. Creation has a proper end—redemption in Christ to the glory of God. And creation can be abused through sin, in which case it falls under the domain of Satan. These are the three senses in which the Scriptures speak of the "world."

In the real world, there is a heaven and a hell, and in the real world, all is under God's providence. In the real world, every good and evil shall be accounted for at judgment day, and in the real world, truth has the final say. In the real world, God doesn't need us to sell our souls to evil to do what we shortsightedly believe is good, and in the real world, God can turn the darkest situations into light if we only trust Him and do what is right.

You will say, "In the real world...," but you mean "in the world of lies and falsehood, of corruption and short-term goals, of imprudence and taking matters into one's own hands." That is not the real world, but the corruption of the real world through sin freely committed.

Distinction: The Spiritual Life and Spiritualities

The spiritual life is the interior life of grace.

Spirituality in its general, sociological-psychological sense is a response to the transcendent, whatever that is defined to be. This response typically takes the form of a general system of belief and praxis that endows the spiritual person with a sense of comfort and allows the person to transcend the self.

Spirituality in Catholic theology builds on this general sense and simply refers to any concrete manifestation of the interior life of grace in the life of a person or group. Based on these circumstances and context, grace will focus and intensify certain qualities more than others; the accumulated output is a specific spirituality. Hence we have, for example, lay spirituality, priestly spirituality, Dominican/Franciscan/Ignatian/Benedictine/etc. spirituality. In a certain sense, every person has their own spirituality, but in another sense, it is possible to follow a specific spirituality. Hence many people, both lay and cleric, follow St. Therese's "Little Way," which actually is a form of Carmelite spirituality as taught by St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila.

But a confusion often arises at this point. Some people dismiss other spiritualities as simply incompatible with one's own spirituality. So they might say, "Oh, that's just St. John of the Cross's spirituality, but not my way of approaching God." But we have to remember that every spirituality manifests a principle of the spiritual life that is universally applicable, whether it be mortification, poverty, magnanimity, humility, praise, etc. There then arises a certain way in which, rather than discovering that one is suited to a particular spirituality due to temperament and circumstances, one tries to "force" living a spirituality to the deliberate neglect of others because one finds aspects of those other spiritualities distasteful. The disagreement that arises from this can go from one extreme of the trouble Franciscans have had from the beginning, for example, to the other extreme of disdaining (usually out of an unconscious laziness and fear) an aspect or practice of the spiritual life that should be embraced, such as devotion to the Sacred Heart or the Blessed Mother.

To add to the mix, in the 20th century, there has emerged a theology of the spiritual life, in which the principles by which grace interacts with nature have been further clarified scientifically. Many lay or uninitiated people have mistaken this theology to be a particular spirituality rather than the very foundation on which any spirituality is firstly possible. They then may say, "Well the so-called three ages of the spiritual life are not for me," not realizing what they're even saying. Or they may say, "I don't like to focus on things like suffering, poverty, humility, and detachment from all things," not realizing that these are foundational to spiritual growth itself across all spiritualities.

The difference between the spiritual life and spirituality is analogous to the difference between being and doing. Doing flows out of the nature of a particular being. Since the nature that grace perfects is always different, but the grace is the same, its concrete manifestation will be different always, but its internal mechanism always the same. It is the internal mechanism and principles that spiritual theology elucidates scientifically and stipulates possible concrete manifestations as "spiritualities."

Hence:

{Being} Nature w/o grace: psychological spiritual life in an analogous sense.
{Doing} The living of this psychological spiritual life, influenced by circumstances, temperament, etc.: a "psychological" spirituality, in an analogous sense.

{Being} Nature w/ grace: spiritual life in its true sense.
{Doing} Circumstances, temperament, etc., influencing the living of the spiritual life: spirituality in its true sense

Does the Bible Speak Negatively About the "World"?

The answer is: it depends on the context. St. Thomas Aquinas clarifies three senses in which the "world" is spoken of in the New Testament:

We should know that “world” is taken in three ways in Scripture. Sometimes, from the point of view of its creation, as when the Evangelist says here, “through him the world was made” (Jn 1:10). Sometimes, from the point of view of its perfection, which it reaches through Christ, as in “God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor 5:19). And sometimes it is taken from the point of view of its perversity, as in “The whole world lies under the power of the evil one” (1 Jn 5:19). (Commentary on the Gospel of John, 1.5.128, trans. Weisheipl)

To summarize, here are the three senses Aquinas clarifies:

World may mean:

1) the created universe, in itself good;

2) the goal towards which creation is culminating, its redemption in Christ, which is also good;

3) the perversity of creation caused by sin, which is under the power of the devil; this is evil.

Fr. Antonio Royo Marin's Commentary on the Hail Mary, pt. 10: "Now and at the hour of our death"

Now

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now, through this day, through this hour, through our entire lives, in which there are constant temptations and dangers.

Now, when temptation intensifies and we run into further danger, that the Lord may not permit these temptations to become more violent and dangerous. Now when, as ever, souls are besieged by the world, the devil, and the flesh. Now when, without danger, we cannot walk down streets, nor attend spectacles and shows, nor read magazines and books, nor even look out the window, nor be properly educated at schools. Now when, with so many followers of the devil, men and women seem to have as their sole occupation to tempt men to sin and damn them.

And at the Hour of Our Death

We know not how our death shall be, nor when it shall be, nor whether it shall take us by surprise. When we arrive at our death, the devil will bring back to our minds our many sins, the rigor of divine justice, our failure to make sufficient penance, and how we constantly showed contempt for God's many graces. At that hour of our death, when the pain of infirmity will not allow us to come before You [Translator's note: perhaps the author is thinking here of being before the Blessed Sacrament or at a Church or other holy place]: may it not be sudden, but may we know clearly the gravity of the moment and have at our side a priest who may absolve us, administer Viaticum and Extreme Unction, and commend our souls while suggesting holy affections to us, and with such preparation may we breathe forth our final breath pronouncing your holy Name and the Name of your Son Jesus, our Redeemer and Savior. Amen.

Conclusion

Such is the most beautiful prayer of the Hail Mary in its two parts. It is impossible to find a more beautiful and sublime prayer in praise of Mary and in fervent supplication for graces. The Hail Mary ought to be constantly in the hearts and very frequently on the lips of all the sons of Mary. It has a supernatural efficacy to obtain from Her any grace, and above all others as the most important grace, the grace of a holy death. There exists a special devotion dedicated to this thought, called the Three Hail Marys, which was revealed to St. Matilda by God as the most efficacious way to obtain from Him, through the intercession of Mary, the grace of a happy death. The three Hail Marys ought to be recited piously every day in honor of the three great privileges which the Most Holy Trinity granted to Mary, namely: unlimited power, wisdom, and mercy. Clearly in order to obtain this grace from God, it is necessary to be worthy of it; hence we ought to avoid all sin and live an authentically Christian life, to which praying the three Hail Marys will provide a powerful help.

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Source: Fr. Antonio Royo Marín, La Virgen María, trans. by R. Grablin (Madrid, Spain: BAC, 1996), 458-459. Translation of this commentary is dedicated to V.G.M.S.

Fr. Antonio Royo Marin's Commentary on the Hail Mary, pt. 9: "Pray for us sinners"

Pray for Us

Because you are holy and the Mother of God and are to be for us the Queen and Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope, pray for us who are exiled in this valley of tears. You are the powerful Virgin, the clement Virgin, the faithful Virgin, Mother of Christ, Mother of divine grace. Pray for us, O Refuge of sinners, Help of Christians, Queen of the Angels. Pray for us, for you are the universal Mediatrix of all graces, and unless we beg it of you, we can have neither a holy life nor a holy death. Pray for us that God may not punish us as we deserve—for not only have we sinned, but we can sin further and condemn our very selves; for we have to navigate through the stormy sea of life, surrounded by dangers, dangers at all ages, in all states, in all occupations; for we are tempted, dying, poor, persecuted, and afflicted. Pray for us who are captivated by the deceitful things of this world, by honors and pleasures, wealth, and youth.

Sinners

All men are sinners, and even the just man falls seven times a day as Scripture testifies. Often we do not realize this because the devil deceives us. There are many who believe that they are good, but they sin against chastity, against faith, against charity; they steal, breaking the seventh commandment, but they break it in such a way that they believe that what they are doing is lawful when it isn't. 

How many sins we commit! Many venial sins, semi-deliberate, all throughout the day and in almost every single one of our works! Sins against God, by being lukewarm. Sins against our neighbor, by murmuring. Sins against our superiors, by sloppy, sluggish obedience. Sins against ourselves and those under our care, by neglecting the obligations of our state. "Pray for us, sinners," that is, we who seem to have the occupation of violating every commandment and sinning against every virtue, if not gravely, at least venially, and many times with deliberation.

We sin with our eyes, through immodest glances; with our ears, through vain conversations; with our palates, through indulging in delicacies; with our imaginations, through dangerous fantasies; with our minds, through bad thoughts; with our memories, through harmful remembrances; with our hearts, through disordered affections.

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Source: Fr. Antonio Royo Marín, La Virgen María, trans. by R. Grablin (Madrid, Spain: BAC, 1996), 457-458.

Fr. Antonio Royo Marin's Commentary on the Hail Mary, pt. 8: "Holy Mary, Mother of God"

Holy Mary, Mother of God

These words begin the second part of the Hail Mary, which does not appear in the Gospels. Now, we have already noted in the first part of this commentary that the second part of the prayer began to appear in the 14th century, but it was not used universally until the reform of the Roman Breviary, promulgated by Pope St. Pius V in 1568. We pick up again the pious commentary of Fr. Barcón:

1. Holy Mary. God values the sanctity of Mary more than her maternity. Hence, I should prefer Mary to be holy before being the Mother of God. And for this reason, the Church firstly calls her "Holy Mary." And in the litanies we place her sanctity before her other prerogatives, saying: Holy Mary, Holy Mother of God, Holy Virgin of virgins. And it is before holiness that the angels and archangels, the cherubim and seraphim, unceasingly sing before God in heaven: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus [Holy, Holy, Holy]! 

Mary is holy because she faithfully fulfilled the will of God in all things. She is holy because, after her Son, nobody had the same degree of charity, the same humility, the same patience, or any of the other virtues to the same degree as her. She is holy in her conception, in her life, in her death. Holy in Bethlehem, in Egypt, in Nazareth, at Calvary.

Holy Mary, obtain for us from your Son celestial light to deem holiness above all the goods of the earth. 

We know how one degree of grace is of greater value than the entire good of the universe combined. We ought never waste the occasion to augment our virtues, and we ought to understand the glory that awaits in heaven for all eternity to a single work of virtue. We must believe within that we have come to earth for no other purpose than to be holy. We have come neither to be rich, nor to be praised, nor to be entertained, nor to pursue a happy life, comfortable, and more or less free of faults [as society deems them], but we are here to be chaste, humble, mortified, meek, obedient to the law of God. This is our obligation and our bliss.

2. Mother of God. No mother is a seraphim or cherubim, but all things and the celestial hierarchies are of the Lord and God. No mother is powerful, rich, the owner of great treasures and possessions, nor is any mother the master of the earth and the seas, of the air and the depths of the abyss, of the stars and the clouds, of the birds and the fields.

But the Mother of God is to be a Mother under whose care are all things: those things which, like bodies, perish, and those things which, like souls, are immortal. The Mother of God is to possess, after God, the loftiest dignity, sanctity, goodness, loving-kindness, and power. The Mother of God is to be the Mother most pure, without original sin; the Mother most chaste, the Mother most amiable, the Mother most admirable, the Mother of all Christians, the Mother of the Creator, the Mother of the Savior, the Mother of Beautiful Love, the Mother of divine grace.

3. The Mother of God is our Mother as well. We ought to recall that the life of grace was communicated to us by Mary's Son in Redemption.

Because Christ is head of the Mystical Body, of which we are the members, Mary is our Mother. Because at the foot of the Cross Christ said to Mary, "Woman, behold your son," and we are the adopted sons of God by grace, Mary is our Mother. 

And for these reasons we are obliged to reciprocate: She to love us, to defend us, to raise us, to teach us; we to love her, invoke her, reverence her, to present ourselves to her.

He who will not be safeguarded by Mary will be lost; he who will not be led by Mary will walk as a blind man; and he who will not love Mary will not know Jesus, nor will he be preserved in grace, nor will he enter glory, for She is the gate of heaven: ianua cæli [the door of heaven].

Mary, Mother of grace, Mother of mercy, defend us from the enemy and receive us at the hour of death. Show yourself to be a Mother; bring our petitions before Him who, born for us, desired to be your Son.

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Source: Fr. Antonio Royo Marín, La Virgen María, trans. by R. Grablin (Madrid, Spain: BAC, 1996), 456-457.

The Visual Culture of the Selfie

Tracing the selfie to its cultural roots, rather than its technological roots, is a complex exercise. I do not think there is a single point in time which can be regarded as the birth of the selfie considering that we are talking about an emerging discourse that can be divergent, paradoxical or contradictory. Yet one major driving force in the popularity of the selfie appears to be the popularity (or the famousness) of the subject producing the selfie. Here I return to the ‘heroisation’ of the Renaissance artist through self-portraiture. In the 21st century, it is the celebrity who conducts this form of ‘heroisation’ through the visual language of the selfie.

The rise of the selfie is inextricably linked to the rise of a very particular type of celebrity culture epitomized by Kim Kardashian – a celebrity who is famous because of her image as celebrity. This type of celebrity has appropriated the selfie most cunningly to not just document the self in various styles and poses, but also, as a way to reinforce and promote the self to a global audience. The selfie is not just simply a photograph innocently shared with a few million followers, it is a cunning PR exercise that actively advertises the celebrity as a brand. The success of the brand partially hinges on followers buying into the ‘reality’ promoted through the selfie.

One aspect of the selfie that is rarely discussed is the fact that it often focuses on the body. These bodily selfies appear to promote an intimate relationship between celebrity and her followers, yet it also promotes a hyper awareness of the body as potential commodity. In this type of image economy, a body that is not photographed, uploaded or shared has no worth. In order to remain current, therefore, the celebrity engages with this economy by sharing images of her body via the selfie. In this globalized and interconnected world, the selfie has become the universal language of a culture increasingly obsessed with fragmenting and sharing the body via the photographic image. Here, the selfie has gained the status of a quasi-currency, rising in value the more an image is shared and disseminated via the Internet. [...]

[T]he selfie is not simply a form of self-representation, but it is actually a visual response to an ideal beauty largely promoted through the media, advertising and the cult of the celebrity. And this is the irony of selfies: inasmuch the word ‘selfie’ suggests that this type of image is about the self, on closer inspection, it actually is about a form of beauty that is largely outside of the self.

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Source: Admin [Marcus Bohr], "Deconstructing the Selfie," Visual Culture Blog, March 30, 2014, accessed April 1, 2014, http://visualcultureblog.com/2014/03/deconstructing-the-selfie/.