The Rock
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AWARENESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD IN CHORUSES FROM ‘THE ROCK’ BY T.S. ELIOT Comments by Monsignor Luigi Giussani 1
Choruses from ‘The Rock’ 2by T. S. Eliot can be read according to a sequence of three stages. It starts with the chorus in which the position of the Church is opposed to the position of a world that doesn’t want it any longer (Chorus I). The Christians (Chorus II) must try to resist and live, to walk, to struggle in this world that doesn’t want them any longer. But they are aware of all their limitations, of their defects, of the burdens they carry, that are their own burdens and inherited burdens. Chorus III explores the serious question that they also, the Church itself, the Christians themselves, are invested, are impacted by skepticism, by the skepticism and materialism of the whole world, of the whole society. “Is it the Church that has abandoned humanity, or has humanity abandoned the Church?” The answer is affirmative in both cases. Where lies the emphasis of the poet’s reaction? Eliot says that wherever the Church is rejected and wherever the Church itself is penetrated by the worldly spirit, by the “secular” spirit, humanity comes up short, the human suffers. “Life you may evade, but Death you shall not,” is written in Chorus III. You can avoid the Church and its suggestions in life, and do whatever you want, but you cannot avoid watching everything that you create fall apart in your hands. The world not only doesn’t want the Church, but persecutes it. “And what do you want?” says Eliot. “Do you perhaps want the world to accept the Church? Why should it accept it?” Why should men love the Church? Why should they love her laws? She tells them of Life and Death, and of all that they would forget. She is tender where they would be hard, and hard where they like to be soft. She tells them of Evil and Sin, and other unpleasant facts. They constantly try to escape From the darkness outside and within By dreaming of systems so
AWARENESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD IN CHORUSES FROM ‘THE ROCK’ BY T.S. ELIOT Comments by Monsignor Luigi Giussani 1
Choruses from ‘The Rock’ 2by T. S. Eliot can be read according to a sequence of three stages. It starts with the chorus in which the position of the Church is opposed to the position of a world that doesn’t want it any longer (Chorus I). The Christians (Chorus II) must try to resist and live, to walk, to struggle in this world that doesn’t want them any longer. But they are aware of all their limitations, of their defects, of the burdens they carry, that are their own burdens and inherited burdens. Chorus III explores the serious question that they also, the Church itself, the Christians themselves, are invested, are impacted by skepticism, by the skepticism and materialism of the whole world, of the whole society. “Is it the Church that has abandoned humanity, or has humanity abandoned the Church?” The answer is affirmative in both cases. Where lies the emphasis of the poet’s reaction? Eliot says that wherever the Church is rejected and wherever the Church itself is penetrated by the worldly spirit, by the “secular” spirit, humanity comes up short, the human suffers. “Life you may evade, but Death you shall not,” is written in Chorus III. You can avoid the Church and its suggestions in life, and do whatever you want, but you cannot avoid watching everything that you create fall apart in your hands. The world not only doesn’t want the Church, but persecutes it. “And what do you want?” says Eliot. “Do you perhaps want the world to accept the Church? Why should it accept it?” Why should men love the Church? Why should they love her laws? She tells them of Life and Death, and of all that they would forget. She is tender where they would be hard, and hard where they like to be soft. She tells them of Evil and Sin, and other unpleasant facts. They constantly try to escape From the darkness outside and within By dreaming of systems so