Shiny Happy Traditionalism

 If you're a trad, you've heard this before.  "If you look at the lives of the saints, they radiate with joy.  Meanwhile trads just want to be be bitter.  Traditionalists just need to be more joyful!"  You still see this from time and time.  Indeed, I know I've given that talk myself over the now 2 decades I've been involved with this trad business.  I don't talk like that anymore, and I haven't for some time.  I think it gets just about everything wrong.  It gets the saints wrong. It gets joy wrong.  It misunderstands why there is occasionally a lack of joy among trads.

- It Gets the Saints Wrong

Somewhere, and I'm not sure where, we began viewing the saints less as human beings, and more as avatars of a certain disposition.  Ergo saints were never angry, they were just quiet people who smiled and prayed without ceasing.  That's not what a saint is.  Saints have personalities.  In the Bible, sometimes those saints were angry with God.  Sometimes they argued with God.  Sometimes they argued with each other.  While that was occasionally a problem, God never seemed to be bothered by Habakkuk's questioning him, Paul's rebuke of Peter probably helped Peter (eventually) see the light on the Gentiles.

The reverse is also true. Just as anger can pass, so can feelings of joy and euphoria.  This is why the Charismatic movement ultimately fails:  it places as the height of Catholicism moments of emotion in time, intense euphoria that eventually passes.  The answer isn't to keep seeking out greater moments of euphoria.  That's not Catholicism:  that's spiritual cocaine.  What makes a saint is to not let these moments tell the whole story.  Our existence is not euphoria or crankiness, although both emotions are part of the human experience, and can be healthy!  The Bible doesn't say "don't be angry" it says "be angry but do not sin."

- It Gets Joy Wrong

Joy is not something you can just will into being.  You can't say "I'm going to be more joyful" like you would when you say "I'm going to set my alarm to wake up earlier every day."  Joy comes not from thinking joyful thoughts, but in doing things that give a cause for joy.  Mary is the cause of our joy not because she thought about being joyful, but because she said yes to God, and partook in His plan with a complete and total commitment.

If we want to promote joy, we need to promote a more active traditionalism.  We need more parishes celebrating more masses and more events.  We need more traditional devotions, a better family life, etc etc.  None of that involves thinking happy thoughts, and its often frustrating and annoying.  Yet it provides joy.

- It Gets Traditionalism Wrong

Traditionalism can be a lot of things to many people, but fundamentally, it is about being a means to an end.  This is opposed to a certain train of thought (big among converts and media companies promoting traditionalism) that treat traditionalism as the be all end all of the faith.  It is our exodus from the awfulness that is contemporary Catholicism.  Let's give them a point:  contemporary Catholicism is awful.  If you've already found traditionalism, which is the be all end all, why are you still so angry?  We've got it made!

That's not Catholicism, and its not traditionalism.  The Latin Mass and our rich heritage is a gift given to us from God, for the purpose of honoring Him, and in doing that, we find our own purpose.  Compared to contemporary Catholicism, it provides a better framework.  Yet in honoring God, we're going to become aware of injustice, of wrongdoing, of the effects of sin.  That is going to anger us.  It is going to cause us to occasionally become cranky.  We should not look down on this for one very big reason

- People will just be cranky somewhere else, somewhere darker

There was once a pretty well known priest blogger who said that traditionalists need to throw the cranks out, to show to the wider Church that "this is not who we are."  Heeding this priests advice, several parishoners went to their parish priest and asked him to expel a certain bitter Catholic who espoused a lot of things.  Things which, while not heretical, were still a bit ridiculous.  They told the priest he was a crank, and everyone knew he attended Mass there, and it was damaging their reputation.

The parish priest, a man who spoke with a deep firmness in his voice (a firmness that would occasionally unnerve people) responded  "cranks need the sacraments as well, though not as much as you clearly do."  He understood something fundamentally true about human nature:  humans will always be cranky.  You can't eliminate cranky anymore than you can eliminate gravity.  What you can do is provide an environment that channels those feelings into something better.

We don't do a very good of that.  As a result, Catholics turn to your Taylor Marshalls.  They get deep into American politics.  They surround themselves with people who understand its okay to be cranky, because there's plenty to be cranky about.  Yet they are often caught in a circle of crankiness, and they become increasingly bitter and cranky.  There's no channeling that crankiness into something more productive, because in many ways they are isolated from that which is more productive.  Most cranky traditionalists don't have a nearby parish they can go to.  The local parish might offer a diocesan Latin Mass, which is great.  Yet they don't view that person as part of the community, as part of the family.  At best, they are an honored guest.  At worst, a nuisance to be tolerated.  It is incumbent upon the Church to give them something to do, or they will find something to do.  When I say the Church, I mean all of us.  

Want to reduce the influence of Taylor Marshall, or of those for whom they feast on urine and vinegar?  In addition to making the Latin Mass more widely available, just grab a bottle of scotch, sit them down, and talk about how we live our faith.  Have a barbecue.  Go visit another parish and have drinks/food with people there.  Come up with ideas for service.  See if you can talk with leaders at other parishes about why the Latin Mass is great.  Ask other Catholics if they'd like to pray a rosary together.   Go help an overburdened parent with their kids.  None of these things are going to get rid of people being cranky.  But they will help them manage that better, and give them something to do beyond imbibing nonsense that just makes them even angrier.

But first, give me all the shiny trads, and the happy trads, and let me know who to avoid, because that isn't real.  Its kayfabe, and not very good kayfabe.