Daily Bible Devotional (Nov 23, 2024)
I remember saying somewhat sarcastically to my colleague, the priest and chaplain of the Catholic high school where I teach, that we now minister to a post-irony student body. This is in reference to the eye-rolling and sarcasm that is *supposed* to typify the “youths these days” and has been the cultural characterization, either fair or unfair, of every coming-of-age generation since generation x. But apparently, cringe culture is dead.
What I mean by post-ironic in this context, besides the ironic subtext in which it was said, is that it seems that the students I teach are not seeking to tear down or look askance at the things their peers and trusted adults hold dear. There is a craving for the genuine interest, attention and dedication to something, even the niche, and even if one only observes it. I do not necessarily hold their attention because of the content I am sharing. I hold it more successfully because they can see the love I have for the content when I am sharing it. This, I would like to believe, is one of the real reasons that students ask personal questions of their teachers, though missing class time and potential cancellation of homework is always welcome. They want to see the people and things we care about, what and who we are enthusiastic for, where our zeal intensifies.
It may seem obvious why enthusiasm matters. Experience shows us how contagious it is. When it comes to these sorts of things, one wonders why this is so, but need not look farther than the insight of Catholic intellectual Rene Girard and his theory of mimetic desire.
Very briefly, because Girard has been covered more extensively elsewhere by many others and this is not the primary scope of this article, mimetic desire is the theory that human desire, by its nature, is conditioned in us by models. We want what we want not primarily because of the goodness in the thing itself, but more because of the good we see in the person who desires it. It may be true objectively that it is the goodness of the thing itself that ultimately makes the thing, but subjectively our desire for it is conditioned by models.
There is much more to this theory like the importance of internal versus external mediation, the mimetic crisis and the scapegoat, but the main focus here will be the aspect that recognizes how our desires are conditioned by our model. This applies not only to the things we desire, but the degree of desire as such. Not only do we want the watch, or the job, or the girl, or the lifestyle because our model does, but our intensity of desire is also conditioned by that model. Our enthusiasm shows this degree of desire in us. If we are a model, which so many of us are without realizing it (though we probably are aware of the relationships in our lives where we are models as well), then our enthusiasm will contribute toward the degree of desire.
It was in hearing a recent homily that the word enthusiasm was used, somewhat casually as these things usually work, which stuck with me for that particular hearing. It was a word that continued to hang around in my mind that I could not help but wonder if there was some possible significance to it. If one looks at the etymology of the word enthusiasm, one will find an interesting and perhaps surprising result. It comes from the Greek enthous, which is from en or in and theos for god. The word meant “inspired or possessed by a god.” However, this word was typically used in a derogatory sense to describe excessive religious zeal. It seems that even back then, caring too much about religion made people uncomfortable.
Zeal, especially religious zeal, has always had a negative connotation in polite American society. However, from the previous etymology it appears this connotation is not necessarily exclusive to recent or American society. Zeal is used to describe Jesus at his famous table-flipping episode in John 2:13-25. It seems weird to describe it this way, but that zeal was certainly uncomfortable to those experiencing it in the story itself. To go a step further, I’d say it’s even more uncomfortable to modern readers, even the faithful pious ones, as evidenced in the way the story is often described somewhat defensively (“even Jesus flipped tables,” “I’m gunna be like Jesus and flip tables, haha.”). However, zeal is a biblical virtue that not only is necessary for a complete and fulfilled spiritual life, but is also a virtue that is particularly poignant for today’s culture.
So much has already been said about the prevalence of the sin of acedia. This has been especially prevalent in the same populations described above with some saying the problem has been continually exacerbating with each subsequent generation. As every spiritual theologian has recognized, sin is purified by its opposing virtue. This is how Dante purified his souls on the second stage of his spiritual journey, Purgatorio of The Divine Comedy. Here, souls on the fourth terrace of sloth, or acedia, must run around the terrace of this seven story mountain remembering the example, or model to use Girardian language, of Mary, who went “with haste” (Luke 1:39) after conceiving Jesus to visit St. Elizabeth and attend to her needs toward the end of her own pregnancy. It does not take much to see the zeal, I’d also say the enthusiasm in the actions of Mary, but then too in the meeting between these life giving, world changing mothers.
This virtue, and those who model it, can be called world changing because of that which causes it. Aquinas said that zeal “arises from the intensity of love” (ST I-II. Q 28. A 4). It is no accident that Aquinas uses the analogy of friendship to describe this intensity. It is an intensity that seeks to remove whatever obstacle hinders that friend's ultimate good. That obstacle may be the fear in that friend from encountering the ultimate good of relationship with Jesus or the commitment of giving himself over to God’s love. There is an intensity of love that helps a friend return to the sacrament of confession for example. The intensity moves one closer to, uniting with, the object loved. Mary’s zeal moved her closer to Elizabeth and Our Lord’s zeal was meant to move the worshippers at the Temple closer to his Father’s.
When we consider the way humans’ desires are conditioned, the purification that the biblical virtue of zeal facilitates in our own soul and the charity that fuels it, it is no small jump to see how essential and effective a role enthusiasm has in evangelization. Your enthusiasm for anything, but especially the Catholic Faith, will condition the degree of desire those in your sphere develop. Enthusiasm is the more positive zeal, that which will convict and then purify the sloth that has deadened the world to the infinite variety of spiritual goods God has placed in it. Pray for enthusiasm and thank God for it, and don’t let the fear of cringe make you hide it. Remember, cringe is dead, and enthusiasm is literally inspired.