Humiliation

We live about fifteen minutes from the President's home in Delaware. I've biked and driven past it before, and have been to the church he calls his home parish. Around these parts, he's known as "good old Joe."

I've often wondered if I had the opportunity to encounter the President in passing (not outside the realm of possibilities), if I would be bold enough to speak truth to him. The plague of cultural, privatized Catholicism has probably done more damage to the Church and Her mission than any apostate or militant atheist could, because it rots Her foundations from the inside. Our President's profession of personal faith is not unique, but commonplace.

Last night I had a dream. I dreamed I was actually in this position of speaking the truth--not my own truth, but what the Church professes in terms of faith and morals--to one of the most powerful men in the world. It had the undercurrent of "The Emperor's New Clothes". Remember in the tale that it is a child who points out that, in fact, the Emperor sees through the nonsense and calls it as it is--the Emperor is, in fact, naked. 

Like a dumb child and without spite or malice, I point out the obvious to the POTUS in the dream: that men can't be women and vice versa; that abortion is the taking of an innocent life; that two people of the same sex can not constitute a marriage as it's meant to be. I can't remember his reaction, but I do remember the backlash. Of course it made the news. When people at work (whom I have a good working relationship with) found out about it, I was immediately fired and dissociated with. The shame was burning--I hadn't done anything wrong from a perspective of faith, but I was publicly anathema from respectable society. Of course it was only a dream. 

There's a reason why people don't speak the truth and the prophets stand alone. Elijah wanted to die rather than be tasked with what he was called to. Jeremiah, too. Jonah, Job--they all wished for death. Being a prophet is a heavy burden. Telling the truth comes with a high cost.

Catholicism still holds a modicum of respectability today; not in what it professes (which the world opposes), but as a mainstream religion. As long as it stays in it's lane. As long as it wears respectable clothes.

The theme of nakedness is prevalent in Scripture from the very beginning. Adam and Eve before the Fall were unaware of their nakedness and unashamed, but post-Fall they sought to cover themselves and hide. Shem and Japeth sought to cover their father Canaan's nakedness when he fell asleep drunk and uncovered.  

It is common practice to strip the clothes of those one wishes to humiliate. Jews were stripped of their clothes by the Nazis before they were sent to the gas chambers or executed. During the Armenian genocide women were stripped naked and crucified in public display. My friend Fr. David Nix notes in a video (since suspended) on his blog that Communists who level psychological warfare against those who oppose it do so at four levels: demoralization, dehumanization, crisis, and normalization.  

We see also in mediating on the Sorrowful Mystery of Christ's Crowing With Thorns this stripping of garments in public as a means of humiliation. His own clothes they stripped, and re-clothed him in their own clothes of mockery--a scarlet robe. Then they mocked him for his claims of being a King.

Just prior to the Lord's going before Pilate, we see Peter--whom we can all relate to and see ourselves in--denying his affiliation with Jesus. He wants to strip his identifying discipleship garments to blend in with the rest of the crowd.

One thing about humiliation and shame--it always seems to involve the public, or at least people outside of ourselves. Did Christ suffer humiliation? He does not regard the esteem of men, and is Humility itself, so I can't say the humiliations we may experience in our faith life are comparable. He knew who He was and who He belonged to. The searing of shame that we suffer in our humiliations is often in proportion to the degree of attachment to the esteem of men. 

In our faith, we often wear a cloak of our own choosing. We take the good, respectable parts of our faith--feeding the hungry, praying, going to church like a good citizen--and wear it like an identity badge. It allows us to worship within the bounds set by those in power, and live our lives relatively comfortably as "good people" without the weight of oppression.

But true, raw faith is naked, reserved for the Father's eyes only. If we do claim to be bold in proclaiming our faith publicly, we often do it on our own terms and of our own choosing. 

Stripping, however, is at the hands of others. As our Lord recounts to Peter, "I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God." (Jn 21:18) 

The Wikipedia definition of humiliation is strangely in line with how a Christian would understand it as a vehicle towards the virtue of humility: "Humiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission."

The Litany of Humility is an antidote to the esteem of respectability we seek, both in our lives and in our public faith. Humility is the foundational virtue on which all other virtues build. When combined with prudence (knowing when to speak and when to keep silent), justice (God's eternal law), temperance (tempering our emotions and appetites), and fortitude (brave endurance in the face of adversity). So, we need to pray and ask for it. But be careful when you do; if it blooms within you, you might just suffer a prophet's fate as a result.

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed,

Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved...

From the desire of being extolled ...

From the desire of being honored ...

From the desire of being praised ...

From the desire of being preferred to others...

From the desire of being consulted ...

From the desire of being approved ...

From the fear of being humiliated ...

From the fear of being despised...

From the fear of suffering rebukes ...

From the fear of being calumniated ...

From the fear of being forgotten ...

From the fear of being ridiculed ...

From the fear of being wronged ...

From the fear of being suspected ...

That others may be loved more than I,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I ...

That, in the opinion of the world,

others may increase and I may decrease ...

That others may be chosen and I set aside ...

That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...

That others may be preferred to me in everything...

That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…