A Golden Age

I was talking with a buddy yesterday who was discontent in his work in finance, and considering looking for another job.  When I asked him why, he said it was mostly due to not seeing eye to eye with his manager. "We just don't get a long," he said. I think there was a small part of him, as a believer coming back to the faith, that was also overly-spiritualizing his work. "People don't quit jobs, they quit bosses," I told him. 

During a conversation by text earlier in the day with another friend, she had reached the point where she was questioning whether Pope Francis was really the true Pope, and made reference to the present "ape" of the Church in its current state.

I've had my share of living through an almost trauma-inducing dysfunction within my own place of work. I've had six different directors during that time, lived through union-lawyer questioning, and had to report to someone who was essentially an incompetent fraud, not to mention the day in, day out anxiety of an unstable workplace and leadership. But I really enjoyed what I do, and I had great co-workers. I joked with my co-worker (we started on the same day ten years ago) that we are like brother-and-sister orphans holding each other at the top of the stairs while our foster parents were throwing dishes at each other across the kitchen. 

Eventually we got a new Dean, a new director, and some of the toxic staff peeled off. During those tumultuous years, I mostly just put my head down and stuck it out. Now, I am finally able to do my work without the unnecessary drama, and I still enjoy what I am doing. Things are good for now.

For Catholics today, (and I imagine many priests and prelates, especially) there can be that feeling that we are working for a dysfunctional company with toxic management. Orthodox, Inc. or Sedevacantist Corp. may look like tempting start-ups, a greener grass that may allay our dissatisfaction with how things currently are in the Church. 

A few years ago I wrote an article about the phenomenon of "gray divorce," which has more than doubled for those over the age of 50 since the 1990's. The great tragedy of people who are abandoning their vows after twenty, thirty, or even forty years is that they will never experience the possibility of those "golden years" of marriage by cutting ship and drifting out to sea on a lifeboat alone. Rather than sitting on the porch together or walking in the park holding hands as a wrinkled old couple, they will have no one to do so with. 

Sometimes we need to leave a job because it's not healthy to stay. There is no sin in that, and sometimes it is even a good move for the sake of opportunity or salary. But we should also recognize that bad bosses come and go, and if everything else about a job gives us satisfaction, there's also no sin in putting your head down and grinding it out for a period, recognizing that nothing is always going to be smooth sailing whether that's a job, a marriage, or a religious faith. 

Personally, I have great hope in what's to come for Catholics, for those who remain faithful, don't cut ship, and put on their gloves ready to get to work. God is stripping us of graces to prepare our cups to be filled to overflowing. He is stripping us of identity and comforts and even purpose to get us down to the foundations of our faith. What do we really believe in? What are we willing to live, stay, and die for? What are our idols that need smashing? What are the essentials of faith? 

I truly believe God is trimming the fat and peeling away the dross of believers today with all the dysfunction to make it abundantly clear that you have only two choices as a Catholic in the present age: you can be hot, or you can be cold (Rev 3:16). How do you expect to earn the crown when you forfeit the race? If your first love--Christ and by extension, his Bride--has lost her luster, will you be like one of those fifty year old mid-managers trying to reinvigorate that love by what...starting up a relationship with your secretary? Cutting your spouse of twenty, thirty, forty years out to drift so you can what..."live your own life?" "have some peace?" Give me a break. 

Bad bosses come and go. Ride it out--plenty of work to do here on the home front. The race is only getting started, and we're just getting warmed up. Are you going to peel off at mile 25 because you're doubting why you are running a marathon at all? Don't be crazy. That last mile is where races are won or lost. But even if you're not running to win, run at least to finish. Endure the bad boss, hold on in the dark night of doubt, have hope. We are entering a golden age of faith. The saints God is raising up in this wicked and confused era for those who persevere are going to be ones that will be unrivaled because they are believing and enduring not because of the leadership in the hierarchy, but in spite of it. But you have to be a grinder. That you are given everything you need and invited to be counted among them....no year-end bonus will be able to compare to what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor 2:9).