By Patrick Schmadeke
Evangelization in the world today
It was the fall of 2005 and I was in my high school freshman world history class. Our teacher, Mr. Schnieders, devised an exercise to explain military movement. He drew a chalk line on the floor just beyond my reach, explaining that it represented the border between my country and his. After a brief pause, he inched closer to the line and asked what I would do next. I too inched my foot closer to the line, the same distance as he. His response was to inch closer again and I responded in kind.
The lesson was clear. But it wasn’t just a history lesson about military movement, it also says something about human behavior writ large that seems strikingly applicable to our present moment. In his book, “I See Satan Fall Like Lighting,” René Girard (1923-2015) describes what he calls a “cycle of mimetic violence.” His theory describes human desire as arising imitatively. We see someone else wanting something, which makes us want it, too. This is evident in the desires of our 4-year-old and 7-year-old for everything from Legos to their choice of breakfast food. When one of them wants something, the other does, too. This theory describes common adult desires as well — the job, promotion, vacation destination, car, the newest technology. Dr. Seuss’s story of the Star-Belly Sneetches illustrates mimetic desire too. It’s everywhere; even corporate marketing relies on human action being driven by mimetic desire.
Then there is politics. To describe our current moment as politically heated is an understatement. Sociologists use the acronyms VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) and BANI (brittle, anxious, non-linear and incomprehensible) to describe our culture and the challenges it faces. With political voices on both sides of the mainstream getting louder and more entrenched, ordinary citizens have become either disenfranchised or more deeply entrenched themselves. For both politicians and citizens, the other side is viewed as a threat.
In the midst of all this, Pope Francis has invited the global Church to practice synodality, to listen with care to one another in the context of communal discernment. This call to listen is an antidote to the polarization of our moment, a necessary skill to heal our divisions. The Catholic philosopher, theologian and priest Bernard Lonergan described humans as having an unrestricted desire to know. This is an inquiry that has no limits to the questions it can ask until the criteria for a satisfactory answer are met.
To come face to face with the enormous difference between what one knows and what one doesn’t know is humbling. But we do not live in a season of humility. Being transparent about one’s limits is more important than appearing right, but it would be hard to guess that based on civil discourse. Hubris is fashionable where humility ought to be in vogue.
Then there is the ever-increasing passivity and simplicity in the life of prayer; an unrestricted letting go that takes one beyond immediate concern. This is the sort of prayer that looses us from the grasp of mimetic desire for political power. Girard takes his theory of mimetic desire further with the idea of the scapegoat mechanism. Where two parties have the same desire, and only one can fulfill the desire, violence often emerges. In the context of Girard’s theory, a scapegoat enters the scene that both sides can blame and the violence ends (“the enemy of my enemy is my friend”).
Where I think Girard goes wrong is the scapegoat role he understands Jesus to play. Girard understands Jesus to be the scapegoat of competing factions, which brings about peace. I think that Jesus deliberately chose not to play the power games governed by mimetic desire. Jesus saw humans desiring the wrong things and showed us what was worthy of desire. This was a subversion, a deviation from the expected patterns of normal action. When Pharisees and Herodians (Mark 12:13-17) tried to entrap Jesus, he replied “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” I imagine Jesus wearing a wry smile and an unspoken thought accompanying his statement: “and remember, all things belong to God.” This awareness would be a balm to the present political cacophony.
(Patrick Schmadeke is director of evangelization for the Diocese of Davenport.)
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