Literary Giants Literary Catholics (56 page)

Since “anything I can say about such a subject is trivial”, I shall remain silent and point to others who have said what I would like to say so much better than I could ever hope to do. I shall commence, in the company of Eliot, by pointing to Dante and remaining silent. It was he, in the
paradiso
, who put the following sublime words onto the lips of the heavenly vision of Saint Bernard:

     Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son,

     Humble and high beyond all other creature,

     The limit fixed of the eternal counsel,

     Thou art the one who such nobility

     To human nature gave, that its Creator

     Did not disdain to make himself its creature.

Similar praise and honor to her who is “our life, our sweetness and our hope” was the inspiration for the anonymous author of the fifteenth-century “Carol” that ends with this charmingly simple, yet utterly profound, verse:

     Mother and maiden

     Was never none but she;

     Well may such a lady

     God’s mother be.

Finally, my dumb devotion finds voice in “A Hymn to the Virgin”. It dates (how appropriate an example of divine symmetry!) from the very Middle Ages that I had once spurned but which now I honor as the bearer of the light that penetrated my darkness:

     Of one that is so fair and bright

     Velut maris stella,

     Brighter than the day is light,

     Parens et puella:

     I cry to thee, thou see to me,

     Lady, pray thy Son for me,

     Tam pia,

     That I might come to thee

     Maria.

67

_____

W
HAT IS CHRISTMAS
? Presumably the asking of such a question is hardly necessary in the pages of this volume, whose readers have no doubt already found their way to Bethlehem and have discovered its priceless treasure for themselves. The question is, however, not as superfluous as it seems. The billion people living under the cloak of Islam have probably never asked the question. Certainly they have never answered it correctly. Similarly, those caught in the Confucian confusion of China or those hindered by Hinduism in India have failed to ask or answer the question. It is a question to which the Buddhists remain blind, and its answer the Sikhs have not found.

These many millions who have never asked or answered the question are barely culpable. They simply cannot see because their faiths have made them blind. But what of the many millions who have asked the question but have answered it incorrectly? What of the millions of agnostic consumers who “celebrate” Christmas but have apparently rejected its meaning? Truly they are a greater cause of sorrow during this season of joy than any number of heedless Muslims, Hindus or Sikhs. They are not the blind who
cannot
see but the blind who
will not
see.

Perhaps the quest for the real Christmas could be presented to these doubting millions by asking a different question. Rather than asking what Christmas is, perhaps we should ask what it isn’t. It isn’t an annual shopping spree; it isn’t advertisement
ad nauseam
; it isn’t the annual office party, nor is it the hangover that follows it. It isn’t any of these perennial seasonal rituals—all of which, in any case, take place in the season of Advent before Christmas has even begun.

Does such a “negative” attitude place one in the role of an Ebenezer Scrooge, grumbling self-righteously at the desire of others to celebrate? Do sober-minded Christians wish to celebrate Christmas by spoiling the party? Certainly not. And heaven forbid! The spirit of Christmas might not be found in the ringing of a cash register, nor on television, nor in the bottom of the twelfth glass of whiskey; but it is to be found in the ringing of church bells, the singing of carols and the sharing of a bottle of the finest Scottish malt with friends. It is to be found in the giving of gifts, the faces of children, red-nosed reindeer, red-nosed Santas, red-nosed carol singers, red-breasted robins and glowing fires. It is to be found in snowmen, snowballs and snowflakes; and in the holly and the ivy, the mistletoe and the wine. Yule logs, Christmas trees, colored lights, candles, plum pudding, fruit cake and a partridge in a pear tree. It is to be found in all these things . . . but all these things are not it.

“It” is something infinitely greater, infinitely larger, infinitely smaller; it is infinitely more beautiful, more bountiful, more blissful, more bashful and more bold. It is the Kiss of God on the unworthy lips of man. It is man warming himself in the physical Presence of God. It is God warming Himself in the physical womb of a woman. It is humility exalted. It is Life. It is Love. It is the love of life and the life of love. It is He. His is the Presence that Christmas presents.

Life . . . Love. . . Man. . . God. . . Man-God.

The Kiss of Life.

What is Christmas? Christmas is He—and He is worth celebrating!

May He who breathes life into Christmas bring its message of love, its warmth and its light to Everyman. May God bless us every one.

Chapter Seven

⁺
 Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002. 
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Chapter Eight

¹
 Fifth edition, 1964. 
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²
 G. K. Chesterton,
The Resurrection of Rome
(London, 1930), 242. 
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³
 Ibid., 273. 
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⁴
 Ibid., 283. 
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⁵
 Ibid., 286. 
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⁶
 Ibid., 345. 
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⁷
 G. K. Chesterton,
Avowals and Denials
(London: Methuen, 1934), 37. 
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⁸
 Ibid., 135. 
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⁹
 Ibid., 187. 
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¹⁰
 
G. K. ‘s Weekly
, 13 April 1923. 
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¹¹
 Maisie Ward,
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
(London: Sheed & Ward, 1944), 228. 
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¹²
 Anthony Read and David Fisher,
Kristallnacht: The Nazi Night of Terror
(London,1989), 183. 
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¹³
 Quoted in the
Sunday Times
, 18 August 1957. 
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¹⁴
 Ward,
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
, 540. 
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¹⁵
 Louis Aragon, ed.,
Authors Take Sides on the Spanish War
(London, 1937). 
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Chapter Ten

¹
 Joseph Pearce,
Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc
(San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), 230. 
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Chapter Eleven

¹
 Hilaire Belloc,
The Path to Rome (
San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003). 
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²
 Joseph Pearce,
Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc (
San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), 84. 
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³
 Quoted in Joseph Pearce,
Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspirations in an Age of Unbelief
(San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999), 319. 
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Chapter Twenty-Three

¹
 Roy Campbell, “To a Pet Cobra”, in
Selected Poems
, ed. Joseph Pearce (London: Saint Austin Press, 2001), 7. 
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²
 I am, of course, aware of the personal reasons for Campbell’s enmity toward the Bloomsbury group and for his “escape” to Provence, namely, his wife’s passionate affair with Vita Sackville-West. Those wishing to know more of this episode in Campbell’s life should see my biography,
Bloomsbury and Beyond: The Friends and Enemies of Roy Campbell
(London: HarperCollins, 2001). It is, however, my contention that Campbell’s philosophical objections to Bloomsbury are a genuine reflection of his intellectual opposition to the “damp philosophy” of its members and that such objections transcend any personal enmity he might have held against certain individuals. 
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³
 With the possible exception of the “honeymoon” period with his wife in Wales, shortly after their wedding, during which time he wrote
The Flaming Terrapin
. 
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⁴
 Roy Campbell, “The Palm”, in
Collected Poems
(London: The Bodley Head, 1949), 1:50. 
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⁵
 Roy Campbell, “The Serf”, in
Selected Poems
, 5. 
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⁶
 Roy Campbell, “Mithraic Emblems: Mithras Speaks 2”, in
Selected Poems
, 45. 
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⁷
 Roy Campbell, “To the Sun”, in
Selected Poems
, 46. 
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⁸
 Quoted in Matthew Hoehn, OSB, ed.,
Catholic Authors: Contemporary Biographical Sketches 1930-1947
(Newark, N.J.: Saint Mary’s Abbey Press, 1947), 104. 
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⁹
 Quoted in Walter Hooper,
C. S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide
(London: Fount/ HarperCollins, 1996), 25. 
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¹⁰
 Alister Kershaw, ed.,
Salute to Roy Campbell
(Francestown, N.H.: Typographeum, 1984), 26. 
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¹¹
 Anna Campbell Lyle,
Son of Valour
, unpublished manuscript, 111. 
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¹²
 Roy Campbell, “The Beveridge Plan”, in
Selected Poems
, 93. 
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Chapter Twenty-Four

¹
 Roy Campbell, “Posada”, in
Collected Poems
(London: The Bodley Head, 1949), 1:158. 
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²
 Anna Campbell Lyle,
Son of Valour
, unpublished manuscript, 77. 
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³
 Joseph Pearce,
Bloomsbury and Beyond: The Friends and Enemies of Roy Campbell
(London: HarperCollins, 2001), 153. 
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⁴
 Ibid., 153. 
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⁵
 Ibid. 
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⁶
 Ibid. 
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⁷
 Campbell Lyle,
Son of Valour
, 75. 
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⁸
 Roy Campbell,
Broken Record
(London: Boriswood, 1934), 157. 
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⁹
 Roy Campbell,
Light on a Dark Horse
(London: Hollis & Carter, 1951), 316-17. 
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¹⁰
 Ibid., 317. 
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¹¹
 Quoted in Matthew Hoehn, O.S.B., ed.,
Catholic Authors: Contemporary Biographical Sketches 1930-1947
(Newark, N.J.: Saint Mary’s Abbey Press, 1947), 104. 
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¹²
 Teresa Campbell, unpublished memoirs; quoted in Pearce,
Bloomsbury and Beyond
, 164. 
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¹³
 Campbell Lyle,
Son of Valour
, 90. 
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¹⁴
 Ibid., 93. 
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¹⁵
 In his poem “Toledo, July 1936”. 
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¹⁶
 Quoted in Campbell Lyle,
Son of Valour
, 93. 
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¹⁷
 Ibid., 94. 
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¹⁸
 Ibid. 
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Chapter Twenty-Six

⁺
 
Life of Evelyn Waugh: A Critical Biography
(Oxford: Blackwell, 2001). 
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Chapter Twenty-Eight

⁺
 London: Saint Austin Press, 1999. 
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Chapter Twenty-Nine

⁺
 Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 2003. 
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Chapter Thirty-Five

⁺
 An Introduction to
J. R. R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth
, by Bradley J. Birzer (Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 2002). 
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Chapter Forty-Two

⁺
 Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. ISBN 0-618-33129-8, 400 pp., $26.00. 
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Chapter Forty-Three

¹
 From Tolkien’s
Letters
. 
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Chapter Fifty-Five

⁺
 London: Faber and Faber, 2001. 
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Chapter Fifty-Six

⁺
 Grey Owl Press, P.O. Box 5334, Takoma Park, MD 20913, USA, ISBN 096719010X. 
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Chapter Fifty-Nine

¹
 Valerie Eliot, ed.,
The Letters of T. S. Eliot
(London, 1988), 1:374-75. 
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²
 T. S. Eliot,
The Sacred Wood
(London, 1960), 168. 
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³
 Valerie Eliot,
The Letters of T. S. Eliot
, 1:426. 
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⁴
 G. K. Chesterton,
Heretics
(London, 1905), 29-30. 
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⁵
 G. K. Chesterton,
Chaucer
(London, 1949), 226-27. 
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⁶
 G. K. Chesterton, “On Dante and Beatrice”, in
All Is Grist
(Freeport, NY.: 1967), 126. 
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⁷
 Maurice Baring,
Have You Anything to Declare
? (London, 1936), 106. 
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