My dear parishioners, we are well aware human beings are vulnerable to narcissism and grandiosity. Narcissism is arrogant controlling vanity. Grandiosity is theatrical obsession with one’s own importance. Both disordered behaviors strain human perceptions to the limit. Both magnify common behaviors in bizarre ways. Narcissism and grandiosity can be pathological in origin. Or modes of learned behavior. We know when microphones and cameras are thrust into people’s faces, human vulnerabilities and defects are magnified many times over. This effect is intensified by broadcast media’s preference for hedonistic sensationalism, its exasperation with faith and reason, and its sanctimonious default position: anything that can be done should be done. Should shared values and vocabulary disappear, what survives will be endless self-loathing and bullying on an unimaginable scale. Churning below the cloying on-air glamour and peacockery is the chilling message that media narratives determine reality itself. Your life has meaning if and when broadcast marionettes and their puppet masters say it does. If you friend media doyens and follow them uncritically, you’re amazing, cool and exciting. If you don’t, you’re a moron. Or worse, lowlife to be destroyed. Thus the poor, the elderly, infirm and the unborn who can’t follow or friend America’s elite infotainment oracles are flies at a picnic. What has narcissism and grandiosity to do with truth? Absolutely nothing. Self-love and bombast are totally opposed to truth and virtuous conduct. These latter, shunning all forms of belligerence, depend on two great goods: spiritual maturity and a steadfast will to do the right. To serve the truth, to be virtuous, therefore, ordinary men and women must radically humble themselves to impeccable standards of social conduct, educational literacy, moral decency and hard work. Rolling in the dirt for anyone because we stand for nothing is not our national character. If, as American citizens, we obstinately despise our unique and priceless western culture, our cherished Christian traditions and way of life, our surpassing cultural achievements, our democratic form of government, geographical integrity and foundational history, only one legacy remains for our children. To stagger about in the sunless aftermath as history’s laughingstock. To say that we stand at a crossroad is an understatement. Are we willing and able to survive ourselves? We are familiar with the idea of personal integrity. Similarly, there is in our cultural “commons” such a thing as national integrity, a priceless acquisition deserving of every citizen’s respect and protection. It’s not hyperbole to say that national integrity is the venerable north star by which our country charts its course to proverbial green pastures and still waters. [cf Psa 23] For this great nation of ours to mean anything to our children and grandchildren, it must mean something to us today. Moreover, it must be worth defending in the public square whether it’s easy or rough. “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?” [Deu 4:7] A time of reckoning indeed may be upon us. Pope Saint John Paul II, intuiting 21st century challenges said, This will be a Christian century or no century at all. Jesus taught us to love our neighbor and serve others. Therefore, be aware, sensitive to others and committed to action. You may be tested severely along the way. Sincerely in the hearts of Jesus and Mary. Your pastor, Reverend Richard Barker. +++