"The rivals then form doubles: in taking each other as a model, each becomes an obstacle to one another. Doubles invariably lock into a reciprocity of escalating frustration and antagonism, and this becomes violent". Rene Girard
"The rivals see each other as monsters". Rene Girard
Matthew 11:15, Revelation 2:29
The culture is convulsing in a mimetic crisis of epic proportions and what Girard identified as the "monstrous doubles" is shaping what we perceive to be real. This shaping of perception has permeated the entirety of the culture.
This crisis seeks resolution of the escalating conflict in the assignment of scapegoats and the lists of potential victims are being vetted and proposed, indeed many of the proposed victims are already being leveraged in order to obtain social cohesion.
The Church is not outside this mimetic crisis. The dynamics of monstrous doubling and scapegoating are within the Church and undermining the Church as the bearer of the antidote to the culture's malady.
The Church fails inasmuch as her members imitate the monstrous doubling and recourse to scapegoating that afflicts the culture. This is a sign of the negative effects of cultural assimilation. The antibodies of the Gospel threaten to be overcome.
Bishop Barron referred to Rene Girard as someone whom the Church will one day appreciate as being akin to the Church Fathers. I agree with him. But right now his words are prophetic- telling us a truth that we refuse at our own peril.
The Church cannot provide the healing salve of the Gospel to this mimetic contagion if her members remain under its thrall. She must first apply the Gospel's subversion of mimetic rivalry and scapegoating to her own members.
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