http://beta1.catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?id=177
by Dr. Jeff Mirus
March 5, 2007
The retired Archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, says the
Antichrist presents himself as a pacifist, ecologist, and
ecumenist. He said this in the Lenten Retreat he finished
preaching on March 3rd to Benedict XVI and the leaders of the Roman
Curia. After the final session, the Pope praised the Cardinal,
saying he had delivered a very accurate and precise diagnosis of
our situation today. What can this mean?
Biffis Point
Cardinal Biffis assertion is drawn from the work of the Russian
philosopher Vladimir Soloviev. Following Soloviev, Biffi wanted to
put both the Pope and the Curia on guard against being weakened by
the spirit of the age. His point is that in every age huge numbers
of people adopt various enthusiasms which they invest with a
noble aura. But, Biffi warned, the anti-Christ is in these
enthusiasms insofar as they distract us from Christ who must be
kept at the center of all our work.
Today, said the Cardinal, we run the risk of having a
Christianity that puts aside Jesus, the Cross, and the
Resurrection and replaces it with a mere set of values. In
Solovievs portrait, Biffi pointed out, the Antichrist dilutes the
truths of the faith, accommodating every interest, and becoming
more and more popular. But those who are not fooled hold out to the
end: You have given us everything except the one thing that we
want: Jesus Christ.
Isms, Isms, Everywhere, and not a Thought to Think
It is the essence of an ism that it attempts to explain reality
in terms of a single idea. It is the nature of an ist that he
finds his identity in that idea and believes himself to be serving
the common good by promoting that idea in a kind of vacuum, without
regard for the network of principles and values of which it forms
but a part. As such, isms and ists are invariably as popular as
they are simplistic, as exciting as they are inadequate. Such are
the enthusiasms of every age. They give the illusion of moral
purpose while distracting man from the rigorous integrating
principles on which he ought to build his life.
Among many possibilities, the three modern enthusiasms Cardinal
Biffi selected to make his point were, again, pacifism,
environmentalism (ecologism) and ecumenism. There is, of course,
nothing wrong with working for unity among Christians, or with
improving our stewardship over the environment, or with choosing
(in the face of threats to oneself) never to shed blood. On the
contrary, all of these are good. But it is precisely when each is
elevated to an ism that the trouble begins. The more popular the
ism, the greater the harm it causes.
For example: Pacifism applied as a universal idea seriously
undermines not only the ability to defend what is worth defending
(home and family, country and faith) but even the ability to
discern that some things are, after all, important enough to defend
even by blood. Or, again, environmentalism writ large so emphasizes
the environment that it forgets the primary importance of the human
person, which it begins to redefine as one thing among many (and
probably the least amiable). Or, finally, ecumenism proposed as a
sovereign good elevates unity over truth, thereby abandoning the
only possible unifying principle capable of bearing fruit.
The Ism in Catholicism
It will immediately be objected that Catholicism is an ism. While
this is true linguistically, we must remember that the word
Catholic means universal. Catholicism is oriented to reality as
a whole, in all its myriad aspects and tensions. At its core is the
very sensible understanding that only God knows perfectly how it
all fits together. While prizing every form of human knowledge,
Catholics eschew all human isms in favor of focusing on what God,
in His superior wisdom, has called us to do.
In this way, Catholicism is the very opposite of every ism and
every ideology, which may be loosely defined as an ism which has
passed from enthusiasm to force. In its foundational respect for
both reality and the human person who must interpret it,
Catholicism proposes the integration of all ideas in the wisdom of
Christ. As Catholics, we get things right not so much in this or
that particular idea as in the balance among them, the relationship
to the whole.
Catholicism also proposes that no merely human cause can bring
human fulfillment. This comes only through union with God Himself.
A great deal of self-abnegation is necessary for each person to
understand his own poverty, perceive the riches of God, and desire
this union. It is an all-encompassing process which can benefit
from every human experience, including suffering, by which we are
purged of self and are opened to wider horizons. Part of this
process is the giving up of precisely those isms to which we feel
so naturally and easily drawn, lest we end by responding
disproportionately to one particularly alluring aspect of reality
while ignoring all the rest.
What is the Antichrist?
In contrast, the Antichrist is found in whatever distracts us from
Christ, whatever absorbs our energies apart from Christ, whatever
occupies our attention without being integrated into the total
vision which Christ wants us to possess. It is no small part of the
character of our age that we are endlessly capable of manufacturing
isms (causes) which enable us to feel as if we are discharging
important moral responsibilities while consistently turning away
from the task of reforming ourselves. It is hardly surprising that
we avoid self-reform. We find it excruciating, that is, from the
cross.
We have such a capacity to deceive ourselves! We are not only
pacifists, ecologists and ecumenists, but socialists and
capitalists, individualists and anarchists. We are nationalists and
internationalists, leftists and rightists, We are even animalists
(rights), vegetablists (diet), and mineralists (crystals). Some of
us are terrorists. (Some of us are even liturgists, but let it go.)
If we have a pet idea, wed rather make it into an ism than
embrace the hard work that Christ demands.
Apparently we may eagerly embrace nearly any idea as long as we
dissociate it from Christ. The clarity of insight! The heady
enthusiasm! So simple, yet so illuminating. But Cardinal Biffi has
it right. These isms are the bread and butter of the
Antichrist.