From The Everyday Apostle by Fr. Edward F. Gareshé
Another apostleship that Fr. Gareshé discusses is the Apostleship of Praise. Fr. Gareshé begins by distinguishing this apostleship with the Apostleship of Encouragement (which we discussed in a previous post). Encouragement does not necessarily require praise; but it is difficult to praise in the manner Fr. Gareshé desires without providing encouragement.
Praise is something that we deal with in our practical daily lives. This is important to recognize. One of the great things about Fr. Gareshé's reflections is that they do not live in the abstract. We daily are involved in the giving and receiving of praise (and its opposite, blame). In fact, if you are like me, I think honesty requires that we say we find it hard to resist making such judgments. And these judgments have influence.
"Praise and its opposite, blame, have a tremendous moral power in forming ideals and attitudes and opinions and points of view. All of us, whether we like it or not, are moved by other men's authority and depend on their judgment and lean on their estimate of the value of things. What they praise, we are apt to esteem more highly; what they blame is lessened in our sight. If they are contemptuous or indifferent, we are very likely to be inclined to contempt or indifference, too."
Some sectors of our culture have reacted to that fact by calling into question the act of judgment altogether. But in doing so they have had to come up with other (warped) explanations fro what drives humans to make judgments. Fr. Gareshé instead seeks to remind us of the impact of our actions and to encourage us to exercise our actions prudently.
"Praise what is worthy." That is the subtitle of this chapter and a great summary of its message. To praise what is worthy means to praise from a heart formed by the Catholic faith's understanding of good and evil. Responsibility begins with one's own formation. And in praising what is worthy, not only do we help mold our fellow man in ways that accord with the Truth, but we give witness to it: to the non-believer. Consider the opposite:
"How sad it is -- how queer it must seem, even to the non-believer, when he reflects on it -- that a Catholic should judge and estimate men and things by the mere worldly values of time and of this life, when by his profession of Catholicism, he should weigh them by the standards of Heaven and of eternity! What a huge incongruity: to profess the doctrine of the Crucified, who came to overcome the world, and yet forever to have on our lips worldly maxims, worldly estimates, lauds of money-getting for its own sake, talk of pleasure-having for its own sake, nay, even praise of prosperous scoundrels, or skillful evildoers who are the very foes and executioners of the Crucified!"
Fr. Gareshé touches on a problem that I think we are currently struggling with in the United States. As evidence of a failure to live out the Apostleship of Praise, Fr. Gareshé warns us not to fall to the tendency to promote as representative Catholics people "who are poor types indeed of what the Church desires in her [sons and daughters]":
"Because a man owns to the name of Catholic and has won place and esteem in the world, by his profession, it may be, or his fortune or his wits, we are often all too ready to trumpet him abroad as a great Catholic citizen and point to him with pride as a bright example of his kind."
This passage speaks to me as being at the heart of the battle over Catholic politicians these days. There is an effort underway to disassociate Catholic "worthiness" from the appreciation of cultural advancement and assimilation of previous generations and to re-link it with the faith itself.
Also, the Apostleship of Praise, Fr. Gareshé reminds us, is a message for all:
"We may perhaps here object that we are quite too insignificant and of too slight importance for our praise or blame to have all the weight with men that has been just described. But our importance, or want of it, merely changes the reach and power of our praise. That we are obscure does not take away our influence; it merely confines it to a narrower circle. Within that circle, where we are known and loved, our praise or blame has still its own moral power, inevitable and strong."
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