Challenges in a Catholic Life - Essay Example

& No REL 331 – Exam 3 In Due (A Catholic Life) 05 April Introduction Every person goes throughlife's incredible journey in his or her own unique ways. It is sometimes called in religious philosophy as the “process of becoming” for which nobody can know how the end will come about. No one can likewise anticipate the high and low points in this journey of a lifetime. This was what the author Paul Wilkes underwent during challenging times in his life and career. Every person also feels a bit empty, at some point in their lives. In his case, Mr. Wilkes suffered what is called a mid-life crisis so early in his married life when he was still in his mid-thirties, when other people suffer the same crisis at a much later age. A person is shaped by both his environment and by his basic temperament. Mr. Wilkes can be considered as just like any other person, an average person with the usual dreams and ambitions in life. What was a bit different about him was his tenacity in the face of adversity. This was amply demonstrated in his being the runt of the litter, growing up in a poor home, a constant struggle while in school (from elementary up to his college days) and achieved some measure of professional success. However, it is hard to predict how a person reacts when that person reaches the summit of his or her life. Each individual is unique. A life's journey can take several twists and turns, it is sometimes very circuitous. The times during most of the formative years of Mr. Wilkes' were times of rapid and great change. In other words, he is not alone in being swept by these changes in cultural and religious life. This paper discusses and illuminates some of the highlights of his life during these times and how it is illustrative of the same challenges that most of us face also in our everyday lives. It is an incredible spiritual journey of a libertine who found redemption. Discussion The Catholic Church at the early adult years of Mr. Wilkes had undergone a lot of profound changes. Although he had been born, baptized, raised and schooled as a Catholic, he became a Methodist Protestant during his early married life (a period of about a decade) and it was during this time that profound political, cultural and religious changes occurred. This can be considered as heady years when anything was deemed possible. His schooling was marked by periods of hardship and deprivation. This was clearly in his case a time of intense personal trials as he went to college as a working student to support his studies. There was a time he suffered some form of bullying by his richer classmates and they made fun of his “nice clothes” which greatly embarrassed him. While still a small boy, he had a different concept of God who is strict and very demanding in terms of penance. But he had taken comfort that he belonged to the most important royal family – that of the Catholics (Wilkes 21). He even aspired to sainthood in the innocence of his childhood (ibid. 23). His high school years saw him earn decent grades since he seemed to have the gifts of an intellectual who can breeze through school without much effort. His faith in his religion is not to be tested yet since he lived sort of a secure life, surrounded by the familiar and not yet exposed to the outside world in which new and even rebellious ideas are in ferment. Changes started to occur in his personal life and consequently in his views and outlook in life during the time he started his college days. It was a period of great financial difficulties. Catholicism as a religion emphasizes both suffering and deprivation as a noble act (ibid. 26) and further ingrained with a dictum of living a life for others. Whether intentional or not, this constant barrage of feeling guilty ends up making some people a bit neurotic as in the case of Paul Wilkes. Despite his professional success, his search for God soon brought him to the extreme decision to follow the way of Christ and abandon all his material belongings. Paul’s Responses to the Challenges – on the whole, he seemed to have responded to the challenges in his life remarkably well. He found a job while still studying in college to support himself but this was a period marked by regrets. He had expressed some remorse in how he had wasted a large part of his college years in self-pity (ibid. 63). The end result of this self-flagellation was that his grades suffered and he barely passed his subjects (ibid. 28). His being accepted to another college for his masters degree in journalism was more chance than anything that was pursued with deliberate intent; he got very lucky in that. In a nutshell, his attitude towards life in general can be described as lackadaisical at best. Except for his ambition to become a writer or a journalist or a reporter of some sort, he lacked guidance and direction in his life. However, one cannot be entirely harsh on him when considering his family background. To be charitable, he had achieved a lot despite all these hindrances in his life (by sheer perseverance and also by pure luck at times). Other boys of his age in his neighborhood had succumbed to drugs and petty crime; others had abandoned their pursuit of any education and just applied to the usual manual or menial jobs in their place and failed to aspire for anything higher that will extricate them from their locality. Even his stint in the Navy can be considered as just a middling effort to stay within the bounds of normalcy. It was the time of the Cold War and citizens of America were expected to answer a call to duty by voluntarily enlisting, just like what Merton attempted (Aguilar 138). He barely passed his physical examination in the swimming pool to become a full-fledged officer but he succeeded due to his strong determination not to fail as he would otherwise become an ordinary seaman. By his own admission, he became the third-generation Wilkes who joined the Navy despite being unable to swim. It was an achievement by his standards but nothing to crow about if we juxtapose that achievement against other persons who can swim very easily. In other words, his early adult life can be described as one of mediocrity. A Period of Turmoil – the 1950s and the 1960s was a period of great upheavals. Many things were changing not only in American life but in the Catholic Church as well. This was a time when the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum; after this, the next social upheaval was in women’s rights and the sexual revolution as well with the invention of the Pill. There were so many things happening at once that a feeling of angst, anger and alienation was not avoidable; people lost their moral and social moorings. It was a period of divorce epidemics in which seemingly perfect couples likewise lose their way and obtain a legal separation. In many ways, the cumulative effect of these changes was that people feel they need help badly such as seeking professional psychiatric advice (ibid. 145). Probably Gone Mad – when people talk about spiritual things, and especially if they also actually do what their religion tells them to do, then normal people would naturally just assume that the person had completely lost his marbles and gone mad (ibid. 146). This was the case of Paul Wilkes whenever former friends and colleagues saw his present condition in his rugged clothes with no obvious means of financial support such as a regular job. All that can be said at this point is that some people have a natural thirst for something much deeper than the ordinary things in life, something much more spiritually profound. Mr. Wilkes had probably been de-sensitized to all the things that usually bring joy to a person who is young since he had tasted, tried and experienced already almost everything in life despite his relatively young age. He had enjoyed the exuberance of his youth and it seems he had become completely jaded he required something much more profound in his life. This was the search for the meaning of his life and he came to the conclusion that he needed to join the poor people and become one of them in order to truly enjoy his life, in the service of other people (in particular, the rejects and the dregs of society, the destitute, the mentally ill, etc.) in which he has to live out his faith in actual deed and not just by mere recitation of prayers. From a Pragmatic Viewpoint – many research studies showed that children who had parents who are alcoholics also turned up alcoholic when they grow into adulthood. Wilkes had a father who drank regularly although his father’s drinking is moderate only and unlike him who often drinks himself into stupor and into excess. Drinking is often a common outlet for poor or working-class people and Paul’s surroundings when he was still growing up shows that drinking (regularly on Friday afternoons) is not something that is to be abhorred but seen as something of a social occasion to encourage camaraderie. In other words, drinking is not seen as something horrible to be avoided but something to look forward to at end of work. Regular drinking can lead to alcoholism, of course, just like any type of addiction. In many places anywhere in the world, alcoholism is a social menace not only among the poor but even in the higher strata of society. But in Paul’s case, working class neighborhoods have this one outlet only to express their frustrations with life in general, for being consigned to a life of poverty and constant backbreaking work. But perhaps a deeper reason why some of the people take to drinking is it affords them a momentary escape from the harsh realities of life. Over the course of his writing career, after achieving a modicum of success with his bylines, Paul realized there must be more to life than just writing good or wonderful articles that their magazine readers like to read; he was in search of the spiritual meaning of his life. For those who are not religiously inclined, it is termed as existential angst. It is a very general sense of malaise or restlessness that cannot be attributed to anything but it is there. It is a feeling of emptiness despite the affluence of material belongings or a professional career. It is something felt by some people only; most people go through life without ever feeling it. In many cases, this general anxiety about the total absurdity or meaninglessness of one’s life is translated into something much more positive (as in Paul’s life of living for others) or can result to an abyss of depression and hopelessness that may end up in a suicide (ibid. 146). Conclusion If we really contemplate on the real purpose of life, either we go off the edge or end up finding something really meaningful. Some call this process as a catharsis or a conversion, or as an epiphany of sorts like what Saul of Tarsius experienced while he was on his way. For the people who suffer an epiphany, the real meaning of life is to be authentic. If we recall, times of the 1950s and 1960s were also the period of the Flower Movement in which young people kept proclaiming the message of the good times, that everything is possible, even peace. It is also a bit dangerous, to quote: “when everything is possible, nothing is real.” This becomes a stern warning but some people get disoriented when everything is changing so fast (ibid. 81). His Own Individuality – Paul may have inherited some traits of his father but he was basically his own man for doing the things he liked to do despite certain misgivings initially. To renounce all material things and live in poverty just to actualize his own spiritual dreams took a lot of courage, especially from someone like him who had achieved some success in his professional life. To abandon all that he had achieved involved great risks but he instead choose his real self by helping others as opposed to a false self (Inchausti 186). Failure of the Vatican II – although the papacy had been weakened by a promulgation of its Humanae Vitae which is widely seen as a flawed document, the Catholic Church is still one body today, unlike other religions which are fragmented. Church reforms were forced as a response to societal changes but still the practice of religion is ultimately an individual type of experience. What Paul Wilkes did with his life was “living the faith” in the true sense of the phrase (ibid. 104). In his own perspective, he is doing “what must be done to be happy” and he is happy being poor and living with the poor (ibid. 105) by being authentic in his beliefs. Thomas Merton said “we are at liberty to be real or unreal” and Paul choose his to be real. In his own words, he is not essentially a bad person at all (ibid. 91) but only “a non-person.” Works Cited Aguilar, Mario I. Contemplating God, Changing the World. New York, NY, USA: Church Publishing, Incorporated, 2008. Print. Inchausti, Robert. Thomas Merton’s American Prophecy. Albany, NY, USA: SUNY Press, 1998. Print. Wilkes, Paul. In Due Season: A Catholic Life. San Francisco, CA, USA: Jossey-Bass, 2009. Print. Read More