Mankind’s Essential Illness

Learning the true meaning of authority and power

01/28/2018

Mark 1:21-28 Then they came to Capernaum, and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!" The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, "What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him." His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

            I’ll never forget a novel I read in high school that was as chilling as it was challenging. It was called Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding in 1954. The basic plot is that an airplane carrying a group of pre-adolescent boys crash-lands on a deserted island and their struggle for survival turns into a search for the true meaning of authority and power. The boys divide into two rival camps, one led by Ralph, who is reasonable and prudent, and the second by Jack who is rash and passionate. Being pre-teens and very impressionable, they begin to believe the island is haunted by a mythical creature they call the “Beast” and they start to have nightmares about it. Reasonable Ralph tries to calm everyone down by denying it exists, but jealous Jack plays into their fears by exaggerating the stories and dreams.

            Jack and his followers part company with Ralph and spend their time hunting wild pigs and painting their faces, giving in to their animal instincts. Gradually, Jack’s lust for power grows so strong that he wants all authority on the island. He persuades Ralph’s followers to abandon him and join Jack’s bunch and they agree to hunt down and kill Ralph.

             At the very heart of the story, a small boy named Simon has an imaginary conversation with the decapitated head of a wild pig stuck on a pike surrounded by buzzing flies, whom he calls the “Lord of the Flies.” The razorback – the razorback – helps Simon understand that the real beast lurks not in the jungle but in the heart of each boy. In an assembly of all the boys, Simon tries to articular this idea, but he’s terrified of public speaking. Golding writes: “’Maybe,’ Simon said hesitantly, ‘Maybe there is a beast…What I mean is…maybe it’s only us.’ Simon went on, ‘We could sort of…’ Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness” (Lord of the Flies, 69). But Lord Acton, the 19th century British politician, very ably articulated mankind’s essential illness when he famously remarked: “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” which is exactly what happened to Jack. In other words, true power and authority does not consist in killing those around you – like Jack judged – but rather in killing the beast within you – your passions and vices – like Ralph realized.

             Jesus’ listeners are also witnessing a struggle for power and trying to understand the true nature of authority. Jesus displays real power by casting out an unclean spirit. But did you notice what the unclean spirit said when Jesus turned his attention to him? He cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” The unclean spirit – indeed the entire world of evil – only knows one kind of power and authority, namely, Jack’s kind: the power to kill others, so the unclean spirit asked, “have you come to destroy us?” But there is another kind of power in the universe, namely, God’s kind: a power wielded not to destroy but to create, not to condemn but to show compassion and mercy. The only thing God’s power seeks to destroy is selfishness, the Beast within, “mankind’s essential illness.”

             Do you know what those boys needed on that island? They needed a good Catholic school, with some holy nuns and priests to instill a little fear of God and a lot of fear of them. Dostoyevsky, the insightful Russian novelist, argued: “If God does not exist, everything is possible” (The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Bk. 11, Ch. 4). Everything was possible on the island because there was no Catholic school to teach those boys that God exists. Anyone who’s attended Catholic schools reminisces on those days with pleasure and even pride. I was a St. Theresa Cougar before I became a Catholic High Rocket and finally a University of Dallas Crusader. The nuns, priests and lay teachers who taught us may have been strict at times, but they were trying to teach us the lesson of self-mastery. The first step on the long journey to true authority and power is to rule and govern yourself; before you can discipline others you must learn self-discipline.

           Let me share a few humorous memories of my Catholic school days. In fourth grade at St. Theresa, one nun told a student that if he didn’t sit still in his chair and not keep getting up, she would tie him to his chair with a jump-rope. Five minutes later that’s exactly what she did. Our principal at Catholic High School gave us a sex education talk in ninth grade. The only piece of advice he gave that I remember was he said French-kissing a girl was like using someone else’s toothbrush. And that sealed the deal on my path to priesthood. One day in August the temperature was close to one hundred degrees, and there was no air-conditioning at Catholic High. Instead of letting us go home early, our principal put a large sign on his door asking, “You think it’s hot here?” signed, “God.” By the way, there were actually two rooms that were nicely cooled, the chapel and the library. How do you get seven hundred snot-nosed boys to become saints and scholars? You air-condition the chapel and the library and make the rest of the school hot as hell.

          I’ll never forget Fr. Tribou’s definition of a man. He taught us that “a man is he who controls the animal within which he lives.” That’s what the “Lord of the Flies” – the decapitated Razorback – was trying to teach Simon and the other boys on the island: control the animal within which you live or you will become one. True power and authority is not the ability to kill someone else; it’s the ability to kill your own selfishness. That’s what Catholic schools teach because that is “mankind’s essential illness.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!