In today’s episode I explore a fine quote from Queen Elizabeth II’s former chaplain Gavin Ashenden. It’s a great reminder that any utopian vision that is presented to young people is bound to end in disillusion and bitterness. As Catholic teachers we are able to offer a much broader and ultimately truthful view of reality.
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Transcript
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again, welcome friends to the Catholic teacher daily podcast.
Speaker:I'm back on the horse for my American listeners.
Speaker:The Australian summer break does seem to go for a long time.
Speaker:If you're wondering where I've been.
Speaker:I got back yesterday from some time down the coast.
Speaker:Finally got some good weather, stayed at this wonderful little town
Speaker:where once a year they have this.
Speaker:Sort of big community thing where.
Speaker:Well, how do I explain this?
Speaker:Once a year, you are allowed to jump off the main bridge.
Speaker:The Gaucher, the middle of the town.
Speaker:There's a big tidal river there that runs out to the ocean and
Speaker:you get to jump off this bridge.
Speaker:It's about sort of six or seven meters.
Speaker:And, uh, you get, uh, and then after that, everybody inflates.
Speaker:Plastic inflatable animals and floats in the current, down towards the ocean.
Speaker:Yes, I know.
Speaker:It sounds a little unusual, but thousands of people do it.
Speaker:We had a great time.
Speaker:And so here I am back in the office today.
Speaker:Got up early though at the coast, jumped on the motorbike with one of my
Speaker:daughters on the back and off we went.
Speaker:They're about 300 kilometers on the motorbike getting back home
Speaker:yesterday, which is really good.
Speaker:So I've had a few adventures, had a good break.
Speaker:And really good to be back with you all.
Speaker:I hope that, uh, keep me in your prayers.
Speaker:I really want to try and stay with it this year and just keep bringing
Speaker:you regular encouragement as Catholic educators all over the world.
Speaker:It's been great to hear from many of you over the last few days.
Speaker:I've really appreciated it.
Speaker:And, uh, yeah, just, just stoked to be back and so grateful to have this chance
Speaker:to just offer some encouragement each day.
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Speaker:That'd be great now.
Speaker:Today.
Speaker:I want to share with you a really wonderful quote from Gavin Ashenden.
Speaker:If you haven't heard of Gavin, Ashenden.
Speaker:He is a very interesting person.
Speaker:Who's a former Anglican Bishop who converted to Catholicism.
Speaker:And as many of you will know, many Anglican converts tend to be.
Speaker:Deeply Orthodox, deeply faithful, and they have a deep love
Speaker:for their new Catholic faith.
Speaker:And he is no exception.
Speaker:He was also.
Speaker:Private chaplain to her majesty queen Elizabeth, the second, may
Speaker:she rest in peace for many years?
Speaker:And of course, uh, when he became a Catholic, he resigned that position.
Speaker:As you can imagine, it would be somewhat awkward being the chaplain.
Speaker:To the head of the Anglican church, if you're infect a Catholic.
Speaker:So, uh, not impossible, but obviously.
Speaker:It would just make for some interesting.
Speaker:Interesting discussion around the water cooler.
Speaker:Alright, so he's a fascinating guy and I'll put some links here,
Speaker:go check him out on YouTube.
Speaker:He's he's a really brilliant, interesting guy.
Speaker:And he published a piece that I really enjoyed a few days
Speaker:ago on death, life, death.
Speaker:Through the love and life and death through the lens of Benedict 16 and J.
Speaker:R R Tolkien and in it, he finished with a really beautiful quote.
Speaker:I don't want to find this for you here.
Speaker:Let me read this to you.
Speaker:He says this.
Speaker:The church cannot quell the storms through which she sails.
Speaker:But she can, and she must author rescue.
Speaker:To those that recognize they are drowning.
Speaker:And cry out for help.
Speaker:A lot jumps to mind there.
Speaker:It's interesting.
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:When Jesus comes the storm in the boat, it's Jesus, that actually comes the storm.
Speaker:It's not Peter.
Speaker:It's a, it's not the apostles.
Speaker:It was Jesus himself who comes the storms.
Speaker:And so in Ashton says here, the church cannot squirrel the
Speaker:storms through which he sails.
Speaker:In the context of the actual video he was talking about, I guess the.
Speaker:Vicissitudes of history, the challenges.
Speaker:And sin and evil and wickedness that follows the human
Speaker:story down through the ages.
Speaker:The church cannot literally stop that.
Speaker:Why can't she bowl?
Speaker:She's not a political creation.
Speaker:She has no political power per se.
Speaker:She has no standing army.
Speaker:She doesn't invade countries per se, unless she invades them
Speaker:with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker:So the church cannot overpower.
Speaker:It seems the.
Speaker:Post-lab Syrian condition.
Speaker:And if you're not familiar with that cool word, why wouldn't you be Catholic?
Speaker:When we have great terms like post-lab Syrian.
Speaker:Post-lab Syrian, of course means after the lapse, after the
Speaker:fall in a fallen creation sin.
Speaker:And evil are going to stalk the human story right throughout the ages.
Speaker:And so this quote is saying that we can't.
Speaker:Necessarily create utopia.
Speaker:And I'm, I'm big on this.
Speaker:I think if you paying attention, you will notice that utopianism.
Speaker:Has been, has beset the human condition for, you know, centuries.
Speaker:We see it most obviously through marks and now through cultural Marxism.
Speaker:But this idea that we can create a perfect world.
Speaker:Is a.
Speaker:It's not biblical.
Speaker:You know, there's a reason why the book of revelation has a new heaven and a
Speaker:new earth it's God's sovereign action.
Speaker:That will bring that about.
Speaker:So, this is not, of course, to say that we then descend into defeatism,
Speaker:that we withdraw behind the barricades and have nothing to do.
Speaker:With the world around us, it's simply to recognize that.
Speaker:The pair of the church is to reach out to those who are recognizing that
Speaker:they're drowning and cry out for help.
Speaker:In the journey of Catholic education.
Speaker:This means that part of our task is to help young people see through.
Speaker:The utopianism of their moment in history.
Speaker:And personally, I think it's almost endemic in the education system.
Speaker:At least in my country, there's a progressive fascination with
Speaker:various forms of utopianism.
Speaker:Particularly around things like environmental issues.
Speaker:Uh, other issues.
Speaker:You know, geopolitical issues that are often radically simplified
Speaker:into good guys and bad guys.
Speaker:And then young people are positioned.
Speaker:To take a place on that.
Speaker:And as I've been teaching my own children, the nature of geopolitics
Speaker:and human sin is complex.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Layers of complexity.
Speaker:The call for our prayer and our discernment, not just simply, you know,
Speaker:hashtag I stand with, fill in the blank.
Speaker:So what I'm getting at here is that I think what Catholic education can do
Speaker:and what Catholic teachers can do is to help young people see a bigger vision
Speaker:to help to say to young people look.
Speaker:There is objective evil and suffering in the human condition.
Speaker:But what explains it?
Speaker:You know what explains it?
Speaker:That's one of the things I love about my Catholic faith is that.
Speaker:The story of the fall.
Speaker:Really explains the human experience.
Speaker:It explains our capacity for good and beauty, but there's
Speaker:something seems to be wrong.
Speaker:And no matter what system or theory or politics you come up with, it remains.
Speaker:So we can't save ourselves.
Speaker:But what we can do is not be fatalist and go, well, it's all just terrible.
Speaker:It's got no there's much beauty.
Speaker:There's great beauty around us.
Speaker:There's much goodness in the world as much worth fighting for.
Speaker:But we can't save ourselves.
Speaker:And what the church offers is a sacramental community of faith.
Speaker:The draws people in it.
Speaker:There's a reason that the church is sometimes referred to as the
Speaker:bark of Peter, the ship of Peter.
Speaker:You know the ship that calls everybody to clam, but on board, as
Speaker:we go through the storms of history,
Speaker:I've definitely found in the last few years with the, um, debacle of
Speaker:COVID that, um, My faith has provided.
Speaker:Uh, a grounding stabilizing experience as there was so much.
Speaker:Uncertainty surrounding us.
Speaker:So my message to you today, my friends is, as you go about
Speaker:your work in Catholic education.
Speaker:Help young people to see a bigger vision.
Speaker:And is that as, as they draw upon the helps of the faith, as they enter into
Speaker:the sacramental life of the faith, as they, as you help them to pray and to
Speaker:become saints, they will play their part.
Speaker:But let's help them to play their part based on truth.
Speaker:Not on utopianism, not on some Marxist cultural Marxist view of
Speaker:reality that shifts and change like the sandbars of the ocean.
Speaker:But something much deeper, something much more true.
Speaker:That is the rock itself.
Speaker:The rock of Jesus Christ.
Speaker:Begin to teach that with courage bureau.
Speaker:Keep presenting Christ.
Speaker:Keep presenting.
Speaker:The help of the faith.
Speaker:The bark of Peter, the ship that will carry any young person
Speaker:throughout the storms of life.
Speaker:All right friends.
Speaker:That's it for me today.
Speaker:Uh, If you like what you're hearing please make sure you subscribe share
Speaker:this with some teachers go ahead if you're in leadership and grab yourself
Speaker:that uh that free 20 minute zoom call with me there'll be a link somewhere
Speaker:but that's it for today i've got some good stuff coming up this week so please
Speaker:make sure you've tuned in for tomorrow my name's jonathan doyle this has been
Speaker:the catholic teacher daily podcast and you and i are going to talk again.
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