From "Light of the World"

My latest read is the Peter Seewald interview with Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the World. Not as meaty as I had hoped, but this quote was good:


“There does need to be a new realization that being human is something great, a great challenge, to which the banality of just drifting along doesn’t do justice. Any more than the attitude that comfort is the best way to live, that feeling healthy is the sum and substance of happiness. There needs to be a new sense that being human is subject to a higher set of standards, indeed, that it is precisely these demands that make a greater happiness possible in the first place. There needs to be a sense that being human is like a mountain climbing expedition that includes some arduous slopes. But it is by them that we reach the summit and are able to experience for the first time how beautiful it is to be.”

Arduous slopes and higher standards. We were just having a conversation last night around the dinner table about why I don’t want the older kids downloading heavy metal Christian music. Yes, it has a Christian message, if you can decipher it, but the mode of delivery has an anti-Christian origin. Can heavy-metal music be “baptized” like other artifacts of pagan culture? That arduous slope of fighting against popular culture is just beginning to get steeper at our house.

A second conversation with my husband this morning was about whether or not a servicemember who presumably committed suicide should be buried at Arlington National Cemetary.  While I am usually the sort of person who tries to assume that people act with the best of intentions, I surprised myself with how strongly I felt about this predicament.  This suicide victim didn't just give up on the mountain climbing expedition of life, but he deserted his comrades in the military. He may have served honorably until his death, but by taking his own life he went AWOL.  Apparently since he did not leave behind a note, the people in charge of the decision making about this burial are assuming that his intentions were unclear.  The stance they are taking is that, while there is no question he shot himself, maybe it was an accident or he was under some undue influence.  And I join them in hoping that perhaps he regretted the decision as he pulled the trigger.  But burial space at Arlington is not infinite; it should be reserved for those who stay and fight. By allowing suicides to be buried with the pomp associated with military funerals, it may give those left behind the message that it's okay to quit.

I feel very callous writing this, and I wouldn't withhold the right to burial on sacred ground for the young man in question. The image of Ophelia's burial in Hamlet is nagging me, but I'm feeling a little tired of excessive coddling, of trying to make everyone feel okay. Like the Pope says, comfort is not the sum of happiness.