I find it only fair to insert a disclaimer here that the preceding words and the vast majority the words to follow aren't from my intellectual vault. As with some of my former posts, I will be sharing pieces of articles written in the 1940's and 50's by Ed Willock for Integrity Magazine. These articles can be found in a book called Fatherhood and Family; Reclaiming the Catholic Head of the Family for our Lord Jesus Christ. Now please don't think me creatively inept, or dismiss these post as regurgitated relics of times past as I find Mr. Willock's writings on manhood, masculinity, and family life to be both inline with my own thoughts on these subjects (especially from a Catholic viewpoint) and amazingly applicable to life today.
Now, as we were saying; There are other forms of human productivity besides parenthood. we could, for purposes of bervity, reduce the number to four. Man produces life in four ways, through parenthood, through thought, through art and through apostolicity. Parenthood is a form of reproductivity that is pretty obvious. It is all very tangible and matter of fact. Thought and art are two categories that have become vague and romantic, encrusted with all sorts of silly notions. So let's talk about them.
Thinking, it can be presumed, is the natural function of any man who has a mind. The product of thought is an idea. When a mind has an idea, spirit produces spirit.There is a sort of wedding between the knowledge that a man has and the things he observes, and out of this wedding a new life is born, called an idea. Ideas, like children, must be nurtured to maturity. To have an idea is both an occasion for rejoicing and the beginning of responsibility. The realization, for example, that "God is good," implies the tremendous obligation of worship. To evolve the idea that"human freedom is precious," may involve the responsibility of giving your life to prove it. To conclude that "every man has a mission to fulfill," is less a conclusion than a beginning. To think habitually "just for fun," is intellectual contraception. To think and not nurture the idea is intellectual abortion.
Men, when they think and teach, are reproducing spiritual life. This is the normal thing to do whether you have attended Normal School or not. Mankind needs ideas more than it needs bread. The man, then, who thinks and gives to others the fruits of his thinking is repaying his indebtedness to mankind in a mature way.
For the purpose of this post, the third form of human reproduction is art. Few words have suffered more the ravages of sloppy thinking. Art is best defined as human skill in making, whether it be bridges or phrases, false teeth or tables, solariums or sonnets. The act of production through human skill can only be analogously termed a reproduction of life. There is, we must admit, an invaluable something in everything made by the craftsman which is a part of himself. When a man makes something, he expresses a certain life that is within him, and the thing made is used to facilitate the life of others. When an artist takes his raw materials (a baker may take wheat, yeast, water and salt; a poet may take nouns, pronouns and verbs) the order that he gives to these materials comes from him. The order of bread or a sonnet is not in the parts. The order is in the maker. He puts this order in his work, and it is this order that the user abstracts from the thing made. The man who by his effort makes the things that sustain the life of the body and the life of the spirit is a mature man. He is discharging in an honorable way, his indebtedness to mankind.
Because Christ has redeemed us and given us a share in his life through the Sacraments, we now assume a new responsibility when we speak of maturity. We have the privilege of propagating the Christ-life. This does not exclude the other forms of reproductivity, but assumes them into a higher end and more glorious purpose. Rather than lessening the importance of parenthood, thought, and responsible work, these now become sacredly significant.
That is why the current lack of Christian apostolicity overshadows all other social problems. Since it has been designed by God as the end to which all the powers of man should be turned, and since within it's scope all forms of reproductivity become more bountiful, and since it is the current that leads all mankind to God and to happiness, in embracing apostolicity we are indeed restoring all life to Christ.
Apostolic reproductivity is not by our powers, but by the power of God. Consequently adverse social circumstances that are obstacles to human maturity, become for the apostle not obstacles but occasions for maturation. If parenthood has become more and more difficult, due to economic pressure and social stigma, we can embrace it to bring more souls to Christ and this thing we accept as a cross becomes a lever by which we can pry other couples free. Once freed of their fears and trusting in God, they can go on to change the economic order, making it comply with the needs of the family. If thinking has become obsolete, we can embrace it, learning the mind of the Church, gaining self-knowledge of man. Then, with this weapon forged in fire we can set others free to find Truth, who is Christ. If responsible workmanship has become extinct, we can bear the cross of slavery throughout the day, and seek in our leisure to gain mastery of tools. These skills are needed to implement the work of decentralization, restoring property, providing homes, publishing, enhancing the liturgy, restoring the ill and the insane. From such skill applied in organized fashion, new social institutions will emerge to displace the over-crowed city, the proletarian apartments, the pornographic pulps, the mass-production factories, the passive congregations and the medical abattoirs. Thus we are faced with a privilege we dare not refuse: to be grown-ups in Christ.
Devoted Husband, Loving Father,Hockey Fanatic, Passionate Catholic.
Resources:
Integrity Magazine Jan 1950, vol.4 no.4 pp 12-20, Ed Willock
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