Franny of "Franny And Zooey," by J.D. Salinger (1955)

I read Franny last night. I have yet to read Zooey. 

What a vivid snapshot of a specific time and affluent social class!  Similar to a classic, hardboiled detective novel, Salinger confines himself to what his characters say and do--the characters never directly express their inner life. Initially, I found Salinger's constant mindless enumerating of visual details pointless and annoying.  I wondered if this was going to be merely a story of the manners and customs of affluent college students in the early 1950s.  We learn that Franny is dissatisfied and frustrated with her life--perhaps exasperated would be a better adjective.  Moreover, she is apparently in a spiritual crisis.  But oh, the 1950s!  Everyone smokes. They have snails, frog legs, and multiple martinis for lunch.  Franny's fascination with the Eastern religions she has studied echoes a dissatisfaction with herself and her life.  It foreshadows the emergence of the Beats, with Zooey making ironic, sarcastic allusions to her becoming a bohemium.  While the depth of Franny's spiritual crisis slowly emerges over lunch, Zooey has not the slightest bit of interest, let alone empathy.  Indeed, he cannot think beyond the forms of manners and social manners.  But of the Jesus prayer and the end of the story, I didn't see it coming, didn't see it coming.

Side note:  I never liked, Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye.  I now realize that the reason I don't like it is that we never see the inner life of Holden.  If Salinger's point is that Holden doesn't have an inner life, then may God save us.  When he grew up, he became Donald Trump.

The Future of the Catholic Church in the United States

My oldest son, though an atheist, does not scorn Catholicism or any other religion.  He has a fairly disinterested, that is, objective view of religion.  He thinks Catholicism in America is shot, has no future.  Indeed as Bishop Barron says, of each religion in America, we have the highest rate of people leaving.  My son says I underestimate the impact of the priest pedophile crisis.  He observes that the religious groups that are currently thriving in America are tribal--the Mormons, Orthodox Jews, the Amish, and the evangelicals.  He notes that Catholicism is the least tribal religion.  But tribalism is not an option for Catholicism, and rightfully so.   

Mercy

Except when confessing my sins, I never understood the concept of mercy. As such, it always intrigued me.  I read Pope Francis's book about mercy; and yet, I still wasn't able to get my mind around it.  I used to ask, what about repentance, don't we have to first repent in order to receive mercy?  But it says in the Bible that mercy is a gift, freely given--unconditionally--no strings attached. Mercy exists first. It is mercy that enables repentance, not the other way around. Repentance can occur only if mercy exists beforehand. My understanding of this only came after listening to a witness by someone who was sentenced to sixteen years in jail in North Carolina.  People like Nomi Network and The Sisters of Life are agents of mercy.