There is much to worry about in this world, and I have to ignore much of it, because I worry too much: most of my scholarly work is on anxiety disorders and generalised anxiety, which should tell you my besetting weakness.
Some fear is good. A certain fear of the stranger is good.. Given that the new Canadians tend to give allegiance to ISIL and Allah, and not the secularised Canadian state, the introduction of such is not smart. It has consequences.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the Saturday night stabbing of a police officer in Edmonton and resulting high-speed chase that injured four people as a “terrorist attack.”
“While the investigation continues, early reports indicate that this is another example of the hate that we must remain ever vigilant against,” the prime minister said in a statement yesterday.
The assault happened outside an Edmonton Eskimos’ Canadian Football League game. A man driving a Chevrolet Malibu drove into a police officer, got out of the vehicle and began stabbing the officer before fleeing the scene, Edmonton Police Service Chief Rod Knecht said in a press conference early yesterday.
The common sense of Saint Thomas is certainly not politically correct but it is logical. The theologian notes that living in a nation is a complex thing. It takes time to know the issues affecting the nation. Those familiar with the long history of their nation are in the best position to make the long-term decisions about its future. It is harmful and unjust to put the future of a place in the hands of those recently arrived, who, although through no fault of their own, have little idea of what is happening or has happened in the nation. Such a policy could lead to the destruction of the nation.
As an illustration of this point, Saint Thomas later notes that the Jewish people did not treat all nations equally since those nations closer to them were more quickly integrated into the population than those who were not as close. Some hostile peoples were not to be admitted at all into full fellowship due to their enmity toward the Jewish people.
There is much in this world that should concern us, particularly as fathers and husbands. Part of the trouble we take on when we marry is a concern for our wives and children, for we look to their future. This is a natural temptation. We can be distracted by this, and in the worries of this world lose what is important.
But know this: this world will fall away. God is our father, and we can in him trust. So worry not: talk back to the worry and reason that Christ is greater than even death.
25Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. 26I think that, in view of the impending crisis, it is well for you to remain as you are. 27Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. 28But if you marry, you do not sin, and if a virgin marries, she does not sin. Yet those who marry will experience distress in this life, and I would spare you that. 29I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, 30and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, 31and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.
25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you — you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
There is no point getting too involved in the crises of this time, unless you have to. When you can vote, do so. Quietism and Passivism are reasonable strategies in a society that is being driven into irrational positions by ideology. But the state is losing its moral authority, by these very things.
Spain is losing the moral level of war in Catalonia. Badly. The Spanish can cry “the vote is illegal” all they like, but the Spanish government can no longer pretend to have democratic legitimacy in Catalonia or to be anything but an imperialist state governing an unwilling people by force. The vote is no longer even necessary at this point; world opinion is actively turning against Spain. Had Spain encouraged the vote and offered incentives for a No vote, it might well have won. But by fighting against it and resorting to violence – even well-restrained violence of the sort it has utilized thus far – it has significantly increased the likelihood that Catalans will vote for independence.
.The Catalan regional government may well be a collection of economically ignorant fools. Democracy and rule by the will of the people may well be an illusion. But people have the right to be fools and billions of people believe in the idea that the reason their governments are legitimate is due to their foundation of democracy. A government punctures that illusion at its own risk.
It is worth noting that those over concerned by the world and zealous for God alone are told that holy celibacy is noble. To be concerned only with the work of God is a good thing. It is no sin to marry (it is clear that the Corinthians were teaching a form of reaction formation: they were male and female whores as worship to the cult of Venus — Artemis — and their conception of healthy sexuality was broken).
This world exists and we live in it. When we can do good, we should. Remember that this world is fallen, and if you do good you will horrify those who live in the irrational politicised ethos of postmodernism.
And if you have confidence, and stand unashamed for what is right, without fear or anxiety, your life is a mighty witness. Do not let this world project their guilt upon you. They want you broken, defeated and enslaved. When Christ has taken your broken state and given you back in part the glory that we were made for. Do not forsake that freedom because of the accusations of the enemy, state sponsored or not.