Essays in Idleness

A certain amount of peace may be had upon realizing that the whole world is screwed, as it were, and cannot be unscrewed within our own lives or the lives of any of our children, down an indefinitely large number of generations. I have been called a pessimist, but if I had said this at any time in the past, surely I would have been proved right by now; so why argue?

Argument might get one killed, although, if one is Catholic, we may have the great hope of martyrdom. Curiously, I especially need to be martyred, because it may be my only chance to get into heaven. But it isn’t going to be easy, for only valid martyrdoms are likely to count, and everything else is a mere accident, or a suicide.

But there is hope in the universality of God’s grace. He cannot be angry with us, therefore, except out of love. He can forgive many things we would not dream of forgiving, when forgiveness is genuinely asked for. But Our Lord hasn’t promised Salvation to all, for all that He persistently loves us.

Indeed, these are among the many things that He has told His Church — personally. For He came down to earth. And we are like the woman caught in adultery: “Go, and sin no more.”

Our pope lists many things that are priorities for the Church, and all, he says, should come before sexual morality. In fact, none of the various things he mentioned are important, and no one, including no Catholic, has the slightest influence over world peace, or how any of the other selected preferences might be achieved. These are plainly political aims; the stuff on which the non-religious constantly spread voluminous bullshit. Indeed, it is very sad to watch a pope sink into non-Christian preaching, and give the kind of advice to statesmen that even I could give.

One’s sexual behaviour is, however, among the several things one certainly can do something about. That is why it is infinitely more important than world peace.