Oh, the Irony!

Last night was one of the busiest nights I've had for a while. Earlier in the day, I received an invitation from my Fish Camp friend Angela, whom I also know from church, to go dancing at one of the local country dance halls for her birthday that night. Figuring it would be a good excuse to finally go out, I was glad to accept the invitation, but before that, I had several meetings to attend.

I started off the evening by going to daily mass like I've usually been doing on Thursdays, and after that, I had my first Aggie International Ambassadors meeting, although it was, unfortunately, almost on the other side of the campus from where St. Mary's is, and I would eventually have to return to the church for my next engagement.

The AIA meeting was all right, although I'm not as enthusiastic about it as I'd like to be- yet, anyway. The highlight was learning some of the characters of the Arabic script from an Iraqi student officer, but I still haven't fully figured out how I will be involved with that group.

After that meeting concluded, I hopped back on my bike and pedaled like mad through the dark and the cold and rain all the way back to St. Mary's, where the first session of my Theology of the Body study group was meeting. We got to know the other people in the group before watching a video presentation by Christopher West, the champion of Pope John Paul II's radical theology about human sexuality. Some of his points were brilliant and extremely thought provoking, like the idea that the body is the only way we can make visible what is invisible and that it would be impossible to know that someone else existed were it not for his own body for you to experience through your own senses. Also, I thought the idea that each person's existence and no less than human history itself literally hinges on who is having sex with whom was earth-shattering. In any case, the entire theology is deeply inspiring, and God bless JPII for bringing us this new "sexual revolution" at the our we need it most.

Once that was over, it was only a short bike ride (still in the dark and cold, though) over to Harry's where I waited around for a while for Angela, although fortunately, her high school friend Drew who is also in my Theology of the Body study group was there as well. She didn't show up until about half an hour later, but the place was pretty empty while we waited anyway. Once she did arrive, I met a few of her other friends from high school (all of whom were Catholic as well, which was nice), and by that time, a lot more people had started to fill up the dance floor, too.

Now, Harry's is a country/Western type dance hall, so most of what they played up until a certain point was country music, and I had a good time dancing with Angela, one of her friends, and-- ironically-- two friends from my own high school I ran into, one of whom graduated three years earlier than me, despite the fact that it was so crowded everyone couldn't help running into each other and practically no one can dance in time to the music anyway (Texas two-stepping just doesn't work in some meters, people!) Emily (the older girl from my school) and I kept giving each other a hard time about the irony of meeting a Catholic/Church of Christ fellow in a dance hall and bar (if you knew our high school, this would strike you as infinitely more amusing). But everyone that I knew had fun until...

The club music started. Normally, I don't mind modern dance music too much, although after last night, I really realised just how much of it is centered solely around the philosophy of self-centered idolatry and sexual promiscuity (and how painful the constant vibration of an over-worked bass can feel after a couple hours sending tremors through your entire body, let alone your eardrums). It was heartening that everyone whom I was with took to the elevated seating overlooking the dance floor when the grinding started, but I couldn't help but to be struck by the utter, yet tragic, irony of my night once the DJ's started hollering about all the "ladies" "getting laid" that night just before tossing out condoms into the crowd. I mean, here I was just hours before at a study dedicated to the reverence and renewal of our sacred sexuality and a profound turn-around in even the way we understand our own incarnate existence as both spiritual AND physical creatures, and right in front of me, I saw just what it is that we are up against in this culture war.

I've always been fascinated with watching other people's behavior, and tonight was no different, as I had nothing else to do in the meantime, yet this time was tinged with a pang of sadness, or realisation, that I can't remember having experienced before. I've always wondered what our guardian angels think of us, especially since I once heard that the angels have cause to be jealous of us since God created us not merely as pure spirits, but with a corporeal existence in which we can experience creation viscerally and even receive His son in a way infinitely more intimate than ever could in the Eucharist. God knows I've disappointed my own (if disappointment they feel) often enough, but I couldn't help but wonder what must it be like to be down in that crowd, watching-- perhaps even helplessly-- as the creatures you were made to protect heedlessly throw their sacred dignity away.

Anyway, I had fun, but I definitely had a brush with what my Shakespeare professor has been calling "the darker side of the dream" while we've been studying A Midsummer Night's Dream. Thankfully, God has revealed a glimmer of His true plan for our lives to me through the friends I have at St. Mary's, and I was especially grateful for the grace of the Eucharist while I felt a bit "in the lion's den." But rather than be overcome by despair, I find inspiration in the great examples God has given us in the saints, two of whom, St. John Bosco and St. Josemaria Escriva, said:

"Holy Purity, the queen of virtues, the angelic virtue, is a jewel so precious that those who possess it become like the angels of God in heaven, even though clothed in mortal flesh."

 -St. John Bosco

"There is need for a crusade of manliness and purity to counteract and nullify the savage work of those who think man is a beast. And that crusade is your work. Many live like angels in the middle of the world. You, … why not you?" -St. Josemaria Escriva

John Paul II, St. Maria Goretti, and Sts. Mary and Joseph, please pray for us.