I ended up venturing this year into the field of Catholic Twitter. It’s a great place to socially engage but it also has a lot of problems. For me, I have autism, and I do not do well with in-person engagements let alone social engagements. While I made different friends there, I also experienced an element of toxicity in the interaction. A lack of engagement with my own parish and an increased engagement with people online was definitely leading me to become what I have heard others call a “Toxic Trad”.
St. Nikolai Velimirovich talks about in his homily for November 18 in the Prologue of Ochrid how humility is our greatest virtue and turning the other cheek is the most thorough example of humility. He relates an example of how one of the disciples of the monk, St. Macarius, had gone into the home of a nobleman who had a demon-possessed daughter who would become quite aggressive around others. No monk would even dare enter his home but would demand he come to the monastery to complete the purchase of baskets he had sold. But this monk did, presumably unaware of the nature of the situation. When he entered the home of the man, the daughter slapped him across the face. In response to this, he showed his other cheek and the demon came out of the girl, causing her to become calm.
This is what turning the other cheek looks like. It means being a witness to people even when they are treating you rudely. There is a cry among the “toxic Trads” that we must all fight back against a wicked government. But look at how St. Katherine of Alexandria fought back against the wicked Emperor. Did she throw him down with violence or did she merely hold firm in providing a witness for all who saw her? St. Katherine of Alexandria held firm in the midst of ghoulish cries for her own death. She was about to be ripped into strings of meat by the wheels that approached her but she held strong in the midst of the danger and the wheels broke apart as the Divine Judgment fell upon the wicked who stood in the room all around her.
There is so much victimhood being and identity politics that has consumed the “Trad Cat” world in Twitter. Twitter already is a toxic place. I had tried to voice my opinions on this but it goes largely unheard. I had to ultimately retract myself from the entire Twitter environment lately and go completely under the radar. I don’t imagine any of the people I used to engage with will ever find me again and that might be for the best. I will pray for them though. Especially old and dear friends. I hold no ill-will toward anyone and if they do find me again, I just want to offer my own apologies for the hurt I caused them and call them my friend again. But I cannot continue in such an environment which consists of punching and punching as a means to witness Christ. That is not my style. If the “Trad Cats” on Twitter want to call that effeminate, then I will have to let God be my judge.
As the Archimandrite was telling me the other night about what his father used to tell him, “Clean up your own backyard and maybe the neighbors will get the message.”