Show Notes
Episode 35 Being Both Big and Small September 28, 2020.
Intro: Welcome to the podcast Coronavirus Crisis: Carpe Diem!, where by God’s grace, you and I rise up and embrace the possibilities and opportunities for spiritual and psychological growth in this time of crisis, all grounded in a Catholic worldview. We are going beyond mere resilience, to rising up to the challenges of this pandemic and becoming even healthier in the natural and the spiritual realms than we were before. I’m clinical psychologist Peter Malinoski and I am here with you to be your host and guide. This podcast is part of our Souls and Hearts, our online outreach at soulsandhearts.com, which is all about shoring up our natural foundation for the spiritual life, all about overcoming psychological obstacles to being love and to loving.
Thank you for being here with me. This is episode 35, released on September 28, 2020 and it is titled: Being Both Big and Small.
Ok, so it’s time for questions from our listeners from the last couple of sessions. But only I got only one question from the last session in the Resilient Catholics Carpe Diem! community, and she essentially answered it so well herself in our RCCD discussion boards that I don’t have a lot to add. So I am going to make up a question – from an imaginary listener who wants to remain anonymous, so I am going to call him Johnny Hind: The good thing for a host about making up questions is that you can have them be exactly what you want them to be, and that’s what’s happening now.
From Johnny Hind: Dr. Peter, what about responsibility? What about being grown up? I’m confused about how, the challenges of this world, I’m supposed to be mature, wise, virtuous and so on. That doesn’t sound like being a baby or a toddler. I can’t just curl up in a corner suck my thumb and wait for God and Mary to rock me to sleep all the time. I have responsibilities! How do I be both small, childlike, trusting and but also grow to the fullness of manhood or womanhood?
Those are our questions for today.
So for the last five episodes, numbers 30 to 34 we have been discussing being small, being like little children, going beyond just accepting our absolute dependency on God – but embracing it.
following the words of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Matthew 18 1-4 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 19 13-15 Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people; but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” And he laid his hands on them and went away.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.
John 15:4-5 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
1 Peter 2: 2-3 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation—
Now we are going to look at the other side of the coin. Maturity, Responsibility
St. Paul in 1 Corinthians
13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.
Ephesians
4:15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to
grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ
Sirach 15 Do not say: “It was God’s doing that I fell away,” for what he hates he does not do. Do not say: “He himself has led me astray,” God in the beginning created human beings and made them subject to their own free choice. If you choose, you can keep the commandments; loyalty is doing the will of God. Set before you are fire and water; to whatever you choose, stretch out your hand. Before everyone are life and death, whichever they choose will be given them.
CCC 1730-1738 Freedom and Responsibility.
So here we have the two demands. To be childlike and to be mature. To be small and to be big. These demands, to be small and big can become extremes. And in the spiritual life, there are two heresies that reflect these two extremes: Quietism and Pietism.
Two extremes:
Quietism The Spanish theologian Miguel de Molinos developed Quietism. From his writings, especially from his "Dux spiritualis" (Rome, 1675), sixty-eight propositions were extracted and condemned by Innocent XI in 1687
Catholic Encyclopedia. Quietism in the broadest sense is the doctrine which declares that man's highest perfection consists in a sort of psychological and spiritual self-annihilation. and a consequent absorption of the soul into the Divine Essence even during the present life. In the state of "quietude" the mind is wholly inactive; it no longer thinks or wills on its own account, but remains passive while God acts within it. Quietism is thus generally speaking a sort of false or exaggerated mysticism.
Passivity in therapy. Psychopathology-ectomy. Want a general anesthetic, and for me to remove all the dysfunction and problems while they rest. With my psychotherapy scalpel. You’re the doctor, you’re supposed to be able to do this.
Pietism is a movement within the ranks of Protestantism, originating in the reaction against the highly intellectualize and reified Protestant theology of the seventeenth century, and aiming at the revival of devotion and practical Christianity. Its appearance in the German Lutheran Church, about 1670, is connected with the name of Philipp Jakob Spener – German Lutheran Theologian, Father of pietism.
His sermons, in which he emphasized the necessity of a lively
faith and the sanctification of daily life
It is primarily one’s own individual achievements, the way a man as an individual lives up to his religious duties and moral commandments, the way a woman imitates the "virtues" of Christ, that ensure them justification. Spiritual growth is an individual self-improvement project that minimizes the role of the Church, mystical body of Christ and all believers.
In therapy, pietists have to do it all by themselves. Unwilling to receive help. Suspicious of it. Might reduce the magnitude of their own achievements, They have to be captains of their own ships, bootstrappers.
The quietist says, “Do nothing for yourself.” God does it all. I’m totally passive. God takes all the action.
The pietist says, “Do everything for yourself.” God is passive and inert. I take all the action.
So we have Quietism and Pietism. Huh, those rhyme. Quietists and Pietists. All of a sudden I am feeling kind of poetical. You know, this podcast, it’s a creation of culture, it’s not some low-brow, dumbed down, mass-market tabloid of a show. No, we are cultured here. We bring in the arts, literature, sometimes even music. You know what I’m thinking…
I’m thinking maybe I should compose a poem to help you remember the different between quietism and pietism. This is a true story, in college, I briefly considered a career as bard, a poet for hire, who would compose verses for special occasions. Wow, this is like a dream come true..
I’ve got that same feeling coming on me now that I get just before my kids are grimacing and accusing me of uttering a “Dad poem.” Which is like a Dad joke that rhymes. It’s got to rhyme.
There is no need to call on the muses (that’s pagan anyway). I think I’ve got this. It’s coming to me. Ok, I’ve got it, get ready, here we go.
The poem is called “The unhappy couple” -- But don’t worry it’s going end well, that help will come to them. Let me see.. Hmmm.
Exhausted from toil was the pietist
While depleted and numb was the quietist.
These souls, pseudo-devout
Need counseling no doubt
Quick, call a Catholic psychiatrist!
All right, now let’s get serious, let’s plunge into, let’s grab onto the questions that our imaginary anonymous listener Johnny Hind has offered us.
be diving into the question of what responsibility while being receptive. If we are supposed to have a great childlike confidence in God, if we are to be like parvulos, like little children, itty bitty ones in our relationship with our Father God and our Mother Mary, working through the trust issues from our first two years of life, what does that mean for our accountability, our responsibility, our obligations in the Christian life? How are we supposed to be childlike and trusting, but also mature, grown-up and taking responsibility for our lives? How do we reconcile all these seemingly contradictory positions? Stay with me for answers. We digging into these questions, and do you know where we will find the answers? We will find the answers buried like treasures, in the soil. Our answers to this apparent paradox are to be found in the soil.
So let’s start at the beginning. A very good place to start, so I’m told. And when I think of beginnings, I think of Genesis. Creation story.
Living Soil: Fertile Crescent Near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. That soil was already good. Very alive. Very fertile.
Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis.
This is the Hebrew word for "man". It could be ultimately derived from Hebrew
אדם ('adam) meaning "to be red", referring to the ruddy colour of human skin, or from Akkadian
adamu meaning "to make". According to Genesis in the
Old Testament Adam was created from the earth by God (there is a word play on Hebrew
אֲדָמָה ('adamah) meaning "earth" – red earth (clay)
When God made Adam and Eve, he chose to need the clay, like a potter needs the clay.
Isaiah 64:8 But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.
St. Augustine, Sermo 169: God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us.
Receptivity not equal to passivity, quietism. Potter and clay
Potter needs the clay. Living clay. Genesis 2:7 then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
We choose how to care for our soil. Soil amendments – fertilizer, what we take in. Tilling. Rototill or broadfork. Mulching. Watering. Composting. Removing the rocks. Aerating. Encouraging the worms, the microbial life.
Matthew 13:4-9 “A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears,[a] let him hear.”
Ist major point.
Active Receptivity. Preparing. Plan of life. Dedicated time to pray. Conversational prayer. Time for reflection. Caring for the natural foundation. Journaling. Getting in touch you’re your mindset, bodyset, heartset, soulset. Being recollected. Being ready for action. Sunday Mass, maybe daily Mass. Regular confession. Examinations of conscience (that are relational)
2nd major point. We choose what to plant in our soil. What do we take in? Through our senses. Netflix? Internet news over and over? Social media? YouTube? Shallow romance novels? Porn? What are we taking in? What seeds are we planting in our soils.
Galatian 6:7. whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. You reap what you sow. You get to choose what you are sowing. Varieties are important. Tomatoes this year. They fit my soil.
Plan of life. What we take in with our senses. We might not will that what we take in will grow, but it will grow.
Natural processes.
So much work to do conventional farming. Adding N, Phosphorous, Potassium. Don’t trust the soil, use it as a holding ground. Or get rid of it altogether – hydroponics, where you grow plants in gravel in a nutrient rich solution.
Humility, Awe, wonder.
Mary and Zechariah.
Dad poem, day play on words… Put it on the forum, email or call, I will announce who solves it. Prize: Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Curtis Mitsch and Edward Sri. First volume of the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture by Baker Publishing. I have two copies, I bought one, and then I loved it so much I bought the entire, this is my number 1 go-to scripture commentary for the New Testament and I have a lot of commentaries. And Ted Sri has been a close friend of mine since the early 1990s, and I really like his work.
Email me at crisis at soulsandhearts.com or call or text me on my cell – 317.567.9594, the first one to get the right answer to what the dad play on words is gets the prize. I will look at the time stamps.
Feed back on the episode.
The RCCD community brings together people like you, people that are really interested in growing more and more resilient, both in the natural realm and in the psychological realm, and who are seizing this day, this moment as an opportunity for great spiritual and psychological growth. We are adding features to the RCCD community.
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Go to soulsandhearts.com, click on the tab that says all courses and shows and register for the Resilient Catholics Carpe Diem Community.
Upcoming Zoom meeting September 29 7:30 PM Eastern time. Openness and receptivity. Garden wall exercise. Really great for people who are afraid of God. You can actually see and feel how God respects your boundaries and limits and doesn’t want to invade or violate you or take you over, but to be separate but near. We will record parts of this so RCCD community members can do it on their own.
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