In one of his Blackford Oakes novels, William F. Buckley, Jr. had a character crack a Wagnerian joke along these lines: What is Siegfried? Siegfried is the opera that begins at 7 p.m. and when you wake up three hours later, you’re shocked to find out that it’s only 7:30.
That was certainly my experience when, in solidarity with my late father-in-law, a wonderful man and devout Wagner fan, I attended the third installment of Wagner’s Ring Cycle while living in Seattle — in those days, one of the few places in the world besides Bayreuth, Germany, that regularly produced the Ring. Sitting there while the caterwauling droned on for what seemed a virtual eternity, I was reminded of high school classes that never seemed to end, the minute-hand on the classroom clock moving at the pace of a Brontosaurus slogging through dense Jurassic goo.
Somewhere after one’s 55th or 60th birthday, time seems to accelerate to what Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise might have ordered up as “Warp Factor Nine, Mr. Sulu.” In Cracow, recently, I had lunch with two friends I hadn’t seen since the Pre-Plague Era (2019), and they startled me with the reminder that we’d first met 14 or 15 years ago. It seems just as inconceivable that it’s been 17 years since I spent the summer speed-writing a book on the death of John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI, or that it’s been 39 years since Eddie Murray blasted a home run off his name on the Veterans Stadium scoreboard and my Baltimore Orioles last won the World Series.
I’m told by the (even) older that there is no brake applicable to this perception of time’s relentless acceleration. Which brings me to one of the aphorisms of the late, great Father John Courtney Murray, SJ, whose scholarly work helped prepare the ground for the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom — a conciliar act that ignited the Catholic human rights revolution, which played a pivotal role in the Revolution of 1989 and the collapse of European communism.
Father Murray liked to turn commonplace sayings inside-out for didactic effect. For example, “If the end doesn’t justify the means, what does?” His point was not that a good end justifies any means to its accomplishment; the point was that the moral justification of good means had something to do with the moral goodness of the end being sought. Or try this: “A gentleman is never rude save intentionally.” Good manners are good manners, a sign of Christian respect for the dignity of the other. Sometimes, though, charity (and justice) require stopping a miscreant in his tracks so that he recognizes the error of his ways; and that’s when (and why) a gentleman can be deliberately rude.
But perhaps the most striking of Murray aphorisms was phrased, if memory serves, like this: “Death is the only thing we really have to look forward to.”
Why? Not because of death’s inevitability, but because it is only at the moment of death, or in anticipation of it, that we can offer back to God the entirety of our earthly journey: in gratitude for the divine gift of life, in humble thanks for the divine mercy, in prayerful hope of a merciful judgment, and in anticipation of a transfigured life beyond the shadow of death. And that is something to which we can really look forward. Because unlike anything else, it is not ephemeral.
I recently discovered a text of Pope John Paul II’s that captures in prayer something of the essence of what Father Murray meant. It was written on May 18, 1985, in Belgium, where the Pope marked his 65th birthday while on one of his pastoral pilgrimages. Poles are not that big on birthdays — name days are more important in Polish culture — but John Paul took the occasion to pen this act of personal dedication:
…If one day illness touches my mind and clouds it, I do surrender to You even now, with [a] devotion that will later be continued in silent adoration. If one day I were to lie down and remain unconscious for long, it is my desire that every hour I am given to experience this be an uninterrupted thanksgiving, and that my ultimate breath be also a breath of love. Then, at such a moment, my soul, guided by the hand of Mary, will face you in order to sing your glory forever. Amen.
Amen, indeed.
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A beautifully spiritual ending by John Paul II doesn’t justify the means of arrival at a bottom line. From chronological illusion [I suffered similar time delusion after sitting my limit of 3 hours in a German company Rome presentation of Gotterdammerung] to a question by John Courtney Murray SJ that is more consistent in the reality of his authorship of Dignitatis Humanae than Weigel’s interpretation of, ‘If the means don’t justify the end what will?’.
Murray had to full well know [Jesuits are not trained to be stupidly clumsy] that his concept of religious freedom, which wonderfully defined religious freedom in a pluralistic society omitted the responsibility of Catholics to voice the faith, with faith [as for example when we recite the creed on Sunday], not with oblivious rote. That it [he] pried open a crack that would become a dam burst.
I have my differences with Weigel, but often agree with him especially when he writes on pro-life issues. I came here after rereading Austin Ruse’s “Fighting the Church….” article, a sad but true downer, and found this to be another downer. Not because I rue getting old, but enduring the reference to the Jesuit apologist for abortion John Courtney Murray as “great.” It was the same nauseating feeling I had recently watching Raymond Arroyo’s anniversary broadcast where a snippet appeared from his interview of Cardinal Ratzinger who mused approvingly of his friend the late Cardinal Martini. That’s the same fanatically pro-abortion Cardinal who should have been excommunicated, not remembered with respect. Are we serious when we talk about the slaughtered unborn? Or are their small but equal lives made smaller when celebrity clerics endorse their slaughter?
OK, so if J.C. Murray was pro-abortion, then he is not to be honored by those of us who are not. Granted.
But can we not appreciate Weigel’s citation of his witticisms–which in the nature of things embody more than mere cleverness–relative to the theme of his essay? Understood correctly, “The only thing we really have to look forward to is death” is not only a bon mot but a wise one.
No. excusing mass murder by exhibiting charm would have even excused Hitler. What a profound evil it is to trivialize abortion as though being for it or against it is little different the idiosyncratic activity of favoring one sports team over another. How evil for the Church to destroy its public witness to laugh off the murderers within its ranks and thus contribute to throwing the babies into the meat grinder.
We are forever young in the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour – Philippians 1:5-13, Colossians 2:17, James 1:17. 1 John 5:7, Luke 1:76-78.
I never miss an article by George Weigel. This one is no exception. However, let him spare us ignorance about Wagner and the Ring, one of the greatest masterpieces ever contributed to a world full of ugliness. It would be helpful were he to spend some time reading about the Ring, looking at the poetry and then, at least, hearing the sublime music from the Prologue. It may be that he CAN’T hear it. Then leave it alone. The Ring is for those who understand and enjoy it. But he must not jump into the middle of that glorious sea and complain that he can’t swim. But God bless him (Weigel, that is)anyway.
Would you be willing to grant that Wagner is not for everyone? The greatness of W. as musician is beyond question, I suppose. But are we not allowed to exercise our own tastes in music and art in general? There may indeed be disputes over taste, contrary to the Latin quip, and for some of us a little Wagner goes a long way. We enjoy what we can and then find enough is enough already. We move on to Mozart, Sibelius, and many others. We don’t want to join a cult.
Oddly enough the Jewish British comedian Stephen Fry is a huge Wagner fan and made a film about that.
I like parts of Tristan and Isolde but I’m more in the camp of a little Wagner goes a long way.
🙂