Chesterton's Iceberg Floats Along

I know I have written a lot on Chesterton the last few days, but the debate presently going on about him is interesting: it provides us with an opportunity to explore the idea of virtue, what it means, how we live it and the part it plays in our sanctification. For one thing we might actually realize that virtue is not as rarefied as we may think it is and how it is actually meant to be a part of our basic human experience. In God's plan we were meant to be naturally virtuous, sin was to be an alien thing, sadly that was undone by the Fall, but our lives here on earth are meant to be a reversing of the unnatural dynamic and God gives us grace to help us in that process.

Anyway, a quick post to bring another article to your attention. Dale Ahlquist, that great Chestertonian, has written a response to Steven Drummel's piece on Chesterton's lack of temperance. It is a spirited defence of the man, well argued and informative. It is worth reading. I hope the priest conducting the preliminary investigations include this one in his file and takes note of what Ahlquist has to say.

Some interesting points of information in it. I didn't realise that St Pius X liked snuff, and I doubt Blessed Pier Giorgio was impressed when some Vatican official airbrushed his pipe out of the beatification picture. I heard somewhere that the Ven. Pius XII stopped a Cause when he heard the candidate liked to smoke - anyone hear that? If true that is ironic given that it is said that Pius like a cigarette himself. Other saints with habits: St John Paul II liked the odd cigar and he had a very sweet tooth which he liked to satisfy with very sweet Polish desserts. St John Kemble, the English martyr, was puffing his pipe when news of his execution arrived, he decided to have another pipe before preparing for his end. And in case you haven't heard St Therese of Lisieux asked for an eclair as she was dying and ate it and enjoyed it! Chesterton would approve. 

Chesterton, Babette And The Chocolate Eclair

I have been thinking about one of the subjects of my last post, G.K Chesterton's weight and his alleged lack of temperance. I've done a little reading around it and discover that we have here the tip of an iceberg which has been floating between two camps for years: those who like Chesterton and those who are uneasy with him, with others clinging in between on common ground between the two, and the issue of his weight/temperance/gluttony has been a subject of one of their heated debates. I'm not going to wade into the row, but I just hope that the priest conducting the initial investigation will find enough evidence to allow a Cause be opened.

However I have been thinking about Chesterton's love of food and drink and if we can jump what appears to be a hurdle, he will make an important contribution to the Church and our understanding of the Saints in the sense of their appreciating God's gifts. 

It is an established tradition that we venerate the ascetic in the Saints, and quite rightly. Hagiographies praise Saints for fasting and penance, and correctly so. We are astonished by the Saint who fasts for forty days, taking nothing but water, or who abstains from certain foodstuffs, like meat for example, and their practice is held up as a virtue, and indeed it is, if they do not go to extremes. However we have to careful when we praise such practices in these great men and women, that we do not fall into an Albigensian frame of mind and end up seeing food as bad and a barrier to growth in virtue - the virtue is temperance and too much denial can be intemperate. 

St Benedict in his Rule speaks of moderation and also generous hospitality. Our own Rule, that of St Albert, lays down that Carmelites should abstain from meat, but still requires hospitality to be shown to visitors by the Prior. True virtue, I think, lies in moderation, in abstaining when necessary but also enjoying food and drink as a gift from God. I am a real son of St Teresa in this regard as she tells us that there is a time for fasting and a time for partridge. I see St John Marie Vianney's regrets in later life as an indication of this: as an old man, with the wisdom age and sanctity brought, he regretted the extreme fasting of his youth as youthful indiscretions - he was not the only Saint with such regrets. I also see in one of St Therese's last requests another confirmation of this: as she was dying she fancied a chocolate eclair and asked for one - she was given it and she enjoyed it. It seems dying in an odor of sanctity does not necessarily exclude a treat.

Faith and food is one of the themes of that great Danish movie Babette's Feast. In the movie we have a great Parisian chef, now working as a cook in the household of extreme Puritans, who inherits a sum of money and who wants to spend it on a fine feast for her employers and their friends. It is an extraordinary feast of a movie and an exploration of the difference between Catholicism and Puritanism, As Babette praises God through her art of fine cooking, sharing her gifts and dishes most generously with her employers, they are in a tizzy as to how to respond - such sumptuousness goes against everything they believe and live. It is Babette who has chosen the better part here, food is God's gift and we must celebrate that.

Chesterton would be a real life Babette, a man who eschewed slim austerity in favour, I hope, of a more moderate and generous approach. His friend George Bernard Shaw, an unbeliever, was a vegetarian and a secular ascetic, as Chesterton sought to bring him to faith (he failed there, sadly), he also tried to bring to him to a different view of food (he failed there too).  Asceticism for the sake of asceticism is not good, it must be a vehicle to a greater good - to self-control, greater virtue and the ability to put things in their proper context in terms of our relationship with God. It is this latter end which urges us to see food and drink as wonderful gifts of the Lord to be appreciated and enjoyed. If sanctity consisted in complete abstinence from food or its enjoyment, then Jesus would not have eaten, yet if there is one thing that is clear from the Gospel Jesus loved a good meal and never refused an invitation to be fed. This led to his being accused of gluttony and drunkenness (cf. Luke 7:34). True virtue is to be found in the imitation of Christ, if we deny what Christ confirmed then we had better think again.

I hope the investigator into Chesterton's Cause will find enough evidence to recommend its initiation. He may find a man who struggled with food and drink, but that would not necessarily prevent a Cause, we would have to see how he dealt with it and it may provide the Church with a patron for those who themselves struggle with eating disorders. Anyway, we shall see. I will keep praying and hoping, and reading Gilbert. Today is a fast day, the Church's penitential day, so I observe that, as should we all, and Sunday is a feast day and we should all observe that. (Note to self: I wonder if I can pick up an eclair tomorrow for Sunday? Like Therese, I am partial to eclairs!)

Words of wisdom from G. K. Chesterton

Bounding Into The Communion Of Saints

 

I know this is probably old news for many of you now, but the developments concerning a possible Cause for G.K. Chesterton are very positive and I hope they will eventually come to completion beneath the balcony of St Peter's in the not too distant future.  For those who may not have heard: the Bishop of Northampton is appointing a priest to begin an initial investigation into the life and virtues of Chesterton with the view to possibly opening the Cause for his beatification and canonisation. 

 

A Cause for Chesterton would be significant as it once again calls our attention to the fact that the once "traditional" "pious" view of Saints is not an accurate one, reminding us that holiness is an altogether stranger thing than comfortable piety - it is dynamic and variant and raises up the most unusual of people. 

 

Chesterton is certainly proof of this.  Large as life, keen for a debate, even wacky in ways, Chesterton was unique and certainly left an impression.  A keen intellectual, he wore his genius easily in a way which could only be pure Christian humility.  Child-like he was as sophisticated as any gentleman and yet there was nothing false or affected about him: what you saw was what you got.  He could beat any speaker in a contentious debate and be beaten by any child in a game of draughts all conducted in the same spirit of gracious joy and engagement.  In debate and controversy he was the epitome of charity - indeed I personally think he was more charitable in dealing with his opponents in controversy than Blessed John Henry Newman was.   He counted all sorts of characters among his friends, and his two closest were Hilaire Belloc and George Bernard Shaw - now there are two extremes!  Some of the funniest stories about Chesterton concerns his refereeing these two in controversy. 

 

And that brings me to what I think is the greatest element of Chesterton's sanctity - his joy manifested through his incorrigible sense of humour.  Chesterton is one of God's great comedians.  If you read any of Chesterton's books you will find yourself laughing even when he is arguing serious points.  Joy and humour permeated his life and work.  He was a believer, as I am myself, that despite even the greatest tragedies that ultimately life is a comedy, a black comedy at times, but a comedy nonetheless.  Why so?  Because, as Chesterton would teach us: God exists, he has a plan and redemption has been offered to us through the death of Jesus Christ.  In Christ everything can be changed, and even death, the greatest tragedy, must yield to life.   Julian of Norwich piously phrased it as "All will be well, all manner of things will be well", Chesterton phrased with his boisterous joy.  This is perhaps the greatest argument for Chesterton's heroic faith and hope.  And as for heroic love - well he had that in abundance for God and for his fellow man.  If ever there was a model of one who loved his enemy it was Chesterton.

 

I pray this initial investigation will indeed lead to beatification.  Some might not think this is important.  As some would say, with all the problems in the world the last thing we should be concerned with is making Saints.  Well Chesterton would say that it is because of all the problems in the world that we should be concerned with making Saints, because if we do not have models and inspirations for us in the midst of these problems then we'll lose hope and get bogged down in negativity and eventually lose our faith.  When the Church loses interest in the Saints, then she has problems, and we can see that particularly in Ireland: as candidates for Sainthood in Ireland languish through neglect and apathy we see the Church here has problems, one of them being an inability to see how important holiness is in the life of a disciple of Christ.  As I have said before, and firmly believe, successful Saint-making is a sign of the health of a diocese or local church.

 

So hearty thanks to the Bishop of Northampton and I encourage all of Chesterton's fans to get working: Chesterton's glorification will be a gift to the Church and another sign of hope.  And it will encourage all of us to strive for holiness.