On Keeping Up Appearances

The Catholic Thing

By Fr. Benedict Kiely
The BBC is rightly castigated in these times for its left-wing bias and sub-par journalism, seeing anything representing the Western Christian heritage as abhorrent, and the values of other cultures as inherently superior. Apart from the costume dramas - the adaptations of the works of Charles Dickens, for example - there is one other thing they used to do very well, and that is what was called "situation comedies."
One of the classics, still shown in both the U.K. and the United States, is the show called "Keeping Up Appearances." Starring the great actress Patricia Routledge, who plays the part of Mrs. Hyacinth Bucket which she insists on pronouncing "Bouquet"). It details Hyacinth's attempts, along with her long-suffering husband, to move up the social ladder from her decidedly middle-class existence.
Class is still the predominant means of social identification in Britain, with everything from accents, words used, and home décor, being the way to tell where a person belongs. Mrs. Bucket is, of course, a terrible snob, but all the laughter in the show, which I believe ran for five seasons, is about the attempts of Hyacinth to be something that she is not, and the fact that others know exactly who she is.
She wants to keep up the appearance of being bourgeois and respectable, despite the ridiculous situations she gets into. That respectability, based on outward appearance and social conformity, would be, in her mind, the key to social mobility and acceptance, and her position in society.
Sometimes when one reads the letters of St. Paul, the endless discussions about circumcision and the Law can feel not only peculiar but rather irrelevant in the life of a twenty-first-century Christian. Yet we know, the word of God is not only an inexhaustible treasure, but a fountain, as St. Ephrem the Syrian said, which can never be emptied.
There is always something, some word, phrase, or verse, even in the most obscure texts, which becomes a word of encouragement or challenge, comfort or chastisement, if we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.
St. Paul, in the letter to the Galatians, a community who was being swayed by false prophets, writes: "who are they, these people who insist on your being circumcised? They are men, all of them, who are determined to keep up outward appearances, so that the Cross of Christ may not bring persecution on them."
That temptation, not just of keeping up appearances, but worrying about human respect, is a danger for all times and all seasons, proving again that seemingly obscure passages of Scripture can speak a word that is needed.
The desire for human respect is not just a danger today, when it is in fact not very respectable to be a Christian, especially if you wish to advance in the media or academia, but is perhaps even more dangerous when Christian conformity, nothing too radical or dramatic, is acceptable in polite society.
The saints, the men and women who take their faith seriously, always disturb respectability. They make the world, as Chesterton said, "stand on its head." The saints are never worried about keeping up appearances; they are worried about fidelity. The burning heart of St. Paul's message which, as he says, is the real reason people are so concerned about conformity and exterior appearance in relation to the Christian faith, is the fear of persecution.
This persecution does not have to be "red martyrdom," dying for the faith as so many of our brethren are doing right now in Nigeria, Syria, and many other countries. The "white" martyrdom of fidelity is what, for the moment, we face in the West.
It is the fidelity of such a figure as the late, great, Cardinal George Pell, falsely accused, but faithful. It is the fidelity of Paivi Rasänen, the member of the Finnish parliament who, for merely Tweeting that marriage was between a man and a woman, and deploring the participation of her Church, the Finnish Lutheran Church, in the so-called "Pride" march, was...