opinion

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

- Dylan Thomas

This is a poem of life although death is its main theme. Mr Thomas would have all men resist the “dying of the light”. Good, wild, wise and grave, he speaks to all of us for “Old age should burn and rave at close of day”. As much right as a young man has to resent dying, Mr Thomas tells us that even the aged, who have lived a full life, should “not go gentle into that good night.” The light is so special, so valuable, that he insists upon raging against the dying of the light.

But Mr Thomas does give us an out, a hope. It is in the title and the first line, and continues to reverberate throughout the rest of these verses. Mr Thomas says, “Do not go gentle into that good night.” For although the light dies, we ultimately go into that good night. Even though it is dark to us, Mr Thomas knows that it is good. Just as at creation God looked at his works and pronounced them good, so is the place that God has created for us in the “night”, a euphemism for eternity.

Mr Thomas even speaks to the God made man, Jesus, who died as a man on a cross. In the throes of a hideous death, our poet asks the Father, “there on that sad height”, to look at the dying of the light as something to rage against, thereby cursing, but then blessing us his creatures, made in his image and likeness, with His fierce tears. Somehow, through God
living and then dying as a man, we all receive a blessing. However if even Christ rages against the dying of the light as He must have being God and man, that light must be a special one indeed.

So, as we are exhorted by Mr Thomas to “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”, as it applies to our life, we must realize one more thing. Just as we have within us that light, so do all men. All life, all God-created life, is of special value. For those who cannot rage against the dying of their light, the helpless, the infirmed, the unborn, we have to be like Christ and curse, bless them with our fierce tears.

(An original essay by JLVidrine)

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’
- Ronald Reagan

This quote is a corollary to that which Henry David Thoreau said, ” government governs best which governs least.” In our world, anytime that anything untoward occurs a hue and cry arises to invoke a governmental solution. Matters that should be handled by private citizens, local governments or state governments, are demanded to be solved by the Federal government. Our founding fathers did not design the constitution to work in this way.

Just ask the victims of hurricane Katrina which occurred two years ago. House after house, neighborhood after neighborhood, block after block, one still sees the cruel devastation and lack of action. In many neighborhoods, the houses lie abandoned with the occasional FEMA trailer parked out front. Where are the people? They wait in FEMA trailer parks, with relatives, and in other towns. They wait for government assistance and intervention. The program authorized to bring these people home and disburse billions in Federal relief is a hazy gumbo of government mumbo-jumbo gone bad. The citizens of New Orleans reelected the very man who bungled the hurricane preparations, evacuation, and aftermath reaction. Elected official after elected official has been accused, indicted, arrested, and convicted in Louisiana. Governmental agencies charged with rebuilding the Levee system are rebuilding a category three system which failed under the pressure of category three Katrina. What happens when the next one is a category five?

Those citizens who have succeeded in recovering have done so on their own. They did not wait for help but pressed forward with the resources they had to reopen businesses and rebuild houses. These are the true entrepreneurs, risk takers. And that is the crux of my argument, that rebuilding New Orleans is a huge risk. Living below sea level, basically unprotected from a storm surge, and certain to be hit with a hurricane in the future, only the hardiest of risk takers should attempt to live in this setting.

The Federal Government owes its citizens life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are inalienable rights expressed in the Declaration of Independence but are not a guarantee of happiness. If it makes you happy to pursue living below sea level in a hurricane zone, then you have the inalienable right to do so. However, you have no guarantee of attaining happiness and should not expect such a guarantee from the Federal Government. The Federal Government provides best in its obligations by providing for a national defense and ensuring a stable currency to allow the economy to function. When it does these two things, people are free. Free to achieve or fail, free to express themselves, free to pursue happiness.

The American entrepreneurial spirit is summed up for us in the words of Abraham Lincoln, “Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.” He does not mention intervention by a Federal Government to save us from our “victim status”.

Newsweek magazine has a feature article in its current issue written by Mother Teresa hater, Christopher Hitchens. The impetus for his latest diatribe against what most people consider the one person certain to be welcomed into heaven with open arms is a book written by the person in charge of her case for sainthood.

Mother Teresa joined an order of nuns whose primary focus was education. And so, she began her religious life as a teacher. However, she felt a deeper calling in the face of the abject poverty and the lack of care for the lowest castes in Indian society. Through her persistent perseverance, Mother Teresa was given authorization to start her own order to provide care for the lowest of the low, the dying unclean, disease-ridden poor. Her care for these people recognized their human dignity, their humanity expressed best in Genesis, “and they were created in the image and likeness of God.”

Mr. Hitchens, in a multi-page spread complete with photos, jumped at the opportunity to use this book as proof of Mother Teresa’s hypocrisy, the Catholic Church’s use of promoting guilt and unworthiness in the individual as a means of enslaving them, and a disavowal of the existence of God and the Church’s use of such an idea as an opium for the masses. Especially for such a simple, non-intellectual as Mother Teresa.

The book in question has letters written by Mother Teresa to her spiritual director, in which she questions her faith, the existence of God in the face of such suffering, and an inability to feel a connection with God in her prayer life. Mr. Hitchens berates and ridicules those who promote Mother Teresa’s cause for canonization and Mother Teresa herself for living the life she chose in the face of her doubts.

Why did Newsweek chose an obvious secular humanist atheist with an axe to grind to write the main article of an issue about a Nobel prize winner, a truly holy person who unselfishly devoted her life in service to the poorest of the poor? Mr. Hitchens truly disapproves of Mother Teresa’s life, especially her public statements on the dignity of all human life and her strong, consistent anti-abortion stance. In doing so, he only shows his condescending depth of ignorance and bigotry towards people of faith. Minimal research into Mother Teresa’s problems with her faith and spiritual life would have revealed a commonality among all of the church’s greatest saints.

Mr. Hitchens mentioned minimally about spiritual dryness or the dark night of the soul. Most saints were afflicted with these same doubts and questions during their lives. Examples include St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila, and Blessed Padre Pio. The critical element that the “uber”-intellectual Mr. Hitchens missed is the word faith. St. Paul in his Letter to the Hebrews said that “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” He also explains in 2 Corinthians that as Christians, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

The true message of the publication of Mother Teresa’s letters of doubt and questioning to her spiritual advisor is one of faith. The egg-head, pseudo-intellectual represented by Mr. Hitchens does not have faith but walks by sight, his own personal myopic view of the world. Relativism reigns with no moral certitudes. and truth is determined by convenience. In Mr. Hitchens’ ego-centric, self-important world, one’s worth varies with one’s ability to “contribute” to society, to have an acceptable quality of life. Faith, as exhibited by Mother Teresa, recognizes universal, absolute truths. Despite questioning and doubts, Mother Teresa always walked by faith for if she had walked by the things she saw, the human misery and suffering would have sent her running in avoidance.

Faith is belief in that which we cannot see, a hope for the future and in God’s steadfastness. No doubt Mr. Hitchens has questions, doubts, and fear of the unknown future. Maybe as he walks past homeless bums and dirty, smelly street people to get his morning double latte at the local Starbucks, he will ask himself the right questions and then seek out the Truth. Good sources include any of C.S. Lewis’s books (Mere Christianity is a good starting point), G.K. Chesterton (The Life of St. Francis of Assisi), prolific author Father Benedict Groeschel, Thomas Merton’s books on meditation and contemplative prayer, and finally the seminal work on the work of the Holy Spirit, the stages of a fully developed prayer life, and a comparative study of the struggles of selected saints called The Fire Within by Father Thomas Dubay.

Mr. Hitchens, there is absolute truth, and it is not the stinking garbage you proselytize in your Newsweek article. The truth came to us over 2000 years ago. He came in the person of a man creating a singularity in human history. Although He was a man, He is also God. As Mother Teresa did, you may question the reality of this but in the end with an open mind and heart, you too cannot help but see the truth that there is a God who created us, cares about us, and lives outside of time and space with a home there for each of us. I believe this because I have faith in Him and what he said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. He who believes in me will have everlasting Life.” I am also convinced that Mother Teresa, through her walk by faith, is enjoying the beatific vision of eternal life. What life are you choosing?