A little Rolling Stones in the afternoon
By Maria Johnson • Jun 16th, 2008 • Category: Monday MusingsOne of the things that I appreciate about being Catholic, besides the obvious theological points, is the unique world view that we have. We get the way things are. We can see the forest and the trees.
I know that sounds a little weird, or as I would write on a student’s essay, that is vague and ambiguous.
I don’t mean to be vague or ambiguous. It’s just an easy way to communicate: we get it.
I thought about this as I was driving to work. I’ll date myself here, but I listen to a classic rock station, and one of my favorite songs by the Rolling Stones was playing, You Can’t Always Get What You Want. You’ll have to look up the lyrics yourself, as the overall message isn’t the stuff of catechesis, but the chorus to the song sends a strong message to me every time I hear the song:
You can’t always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes you get what you need.
I can’t get the tune out of my head, and as I move through my day it pops in and out of my concsciousness. Rather than fight it, I just let it play in my head until something else replaces it. As it happens, here it is lunch time and I’m still singing it, so I thought I’d share it with you.
Whenever I hear this song it reminds me that as a faithful Catholic I get it. So what is this “it” that we get? I think it is a sense of security. I am secure in my faith. I am secure in the Truth. I am secure that there is in fact a God, and He is watching over me.
That security, let’s call it Faith, is an incredible grace. It doesn’t change the way things are, but it does change the way we can respond to them. With Faith, life is a whole lot better. With Faith, we can let go of the worrying and put our trust in God. With Faith, we understand that God has a plan for us and that we can and should put our fears aside to follow where He leads us.
With Faith, we’ll always get what we need.
Maria Johnson is one of the lead writers for That Catholic Show, which is co-produced by Rosary Army and SQPN. You can also buy her books, including a collection of her Monday Musings columns, from her online store.
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I think that this is one line form all the Rolling Stones songs most people know and agree with. I think it stands the test of time and most people can look and say, yes it was hard but we had/got what wee needed.
-Bob
I’m hoping that i never have that kind of security, theologically or otherwise. For me, it’s all about the Road. The road is narrow, as a razor’s edge. Many are cold, but few are frozen. The road requires some focus, and to actually look to see what’s going on.
I understand that seeking insecurity is a minority opinion, if not actually unique. But it rolls off the tongue.
The truth shall set you free. But for the most part, you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s difficult. And as a limited mortal, i expect i don’t know everything. So security is a dead end, so to speak. There are no absolute truths. Not one.
Hi guys, thanks for your comments! Bob, I think that song is probably available as Muzak. How sad is that from a rocker perspective? Stephen, I agree with you about the human condition being one of essential uncertainty. We cannot know if today will bring us joy or pain, riches or ruin. As an adventurer, I can totally see how that might be inviting, even exciting. To say there are no absolutes is a negation of the very statement you made, which you emphasized with an absolute. I fear, too, that it can lead to despair rather than freedom. However, I wasn’t talking about the human condition, but matters of faith and religion, which help to transcend our mortal restrictions.
In matters of faith and religion, there are indeed absolutes. In religion, let’s call it the rules, there are absolutes that an increasingly relativistic society attempts to dilute. Those rules, also called tenets, define what is right and what is wrong. The ten commandments tell us it is wrong to kill. Society (humans) will tack on all kinds of relativistic scenarios where killing is acceptable. Hmmm. Not right–acceptable. We can play with semantics all day–it’s what we do as humans, mix black and white to get gray.
But in matters of faith, we are most definitely dealing in absolutes. That’s what makes faith so unique, so comforting, so accessible if we are capable of taking the leap of uncertainty, accepting our human inability to know fully, and still say the impossible: I believe.
It’s funny but the Rolling Stones lyrics that get stuck in my head most are: “I’m free to do what I want, any old time.” Mostly because I see this as the motto of our society every time I look around. Especially since most people, when they think “freedom”, they actually mean “license”.
I loved your article Maria, I “get it”.
Stephen, I understand where your coming from. Wisdom, is understanding that you don’t know. I get it, but Maria is right, when you say something like: “There are no absolute truths. Not one.” you are stating an absolute truth and making a contradictory statement which is therefore false. A better statement would have been, “There might be SOME absolute truths”. In light of this statement, you can then read Maria’s article again, and get a little more out of it. After all, “Wisdom, is understanding that you don’t know.”