Antanas J. Van Reenan

Reflections
A Spiritual Gift: The Lithuanian Perspective

America is the richest country in the world, yet it appears to be in the midst of a spiritual crisis as it looks for a "wake-up call" to regenerate its sense of people’s community. America’s political culture, rooted in rationalism, appears powerless in the area of psychic regeneration in spite of its great material wealth.

It is in the realm of "spirit" that the political culture of the East-Central European peoples may offer a potential antidote to an America that does not see itself as a living organism but rather as a sum of isolated individuals. Within this context, if one looks closely at the peoples stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea and eastward into Russia, this area’s cultural history has demonstrated historical power to function as a source of light. It is in this very region of Europe that the many activities of the human spirit are interrelated and not isolated. For illustrative and comparative purposes, one need take only two examples that serve as entry points into the "corpus mysticum" of the peoples of this region: first, the solitary act of a gifted Polish pianist and, second, the group activity of a Lithuanian folk dance group.

In the first instance, if one were to look at it from an American standpoint, the pianist would be simply viewed as an individual playing the piano. However, from an East European viewpoint, the playing of the piano is not a solitary act. Rather, it is an act – through the vehicle of music – that solidifies the integral wholeness of the individual who is a manifestation of the Polish soul. In the psychic realm that permeates all of East and Central Europe, the pianist is a manifestation of something greater than himself with umbilical ties to his national community (national individuality). Thus, this Polish pianist is more that just "a pianist" – he is Poland personified.

The same dynamic holds true in the second example. Here the Lithuanian folk dance group is more than just a collection of isolated individuals who have come together, in the American sense, for an ephemeral dance experience. Within the paradigm of the Lithuanian soul, the folk dance is a visible manifestation of the group’s moral and spiritual solidarity with the dead and with the living -- an unspoken message that the Lithuanian community is an extension of its past, present, and the future to come. It is no accident that there are no "solos" in the Lithuanian national folk dances. Rather, as the group dances, it personifies Lithuania -- its past, present, and future. So it is with other East European folk dance groups -- Poland personified, Bulgaria personified, Latvia personified -- as the dancers step out of chronological time and into a timeless collective "corpus mysticum" that has been fired by an unspoken spirit of solidarity able to reach across time and space.

Consequently, it is on the level of soul that the peoples of East-Central Europe can offer historical examples of "national spirit", "regeneration", and a "moral awakening" to America. Historically speaking, the spiritually rich East and Central European peoples have demonstrated, time and again, a powerful "will to awake" and harness themselves to reverse seemingly hopeless situations -- partitions, occupations, and systematic short-term and long-term undertakings to destroy their language and religions. Once again, these peoples have prevailed.

The latter part of the twentieth century has found American materialism and rationalism running "on empty" in the rarified air of First Principles as it tries to grapple with the spiritual needs to regenerate a people, whether its own or, for that matter, the people of Russia. All of America's billions are powerless to "awaken Russia" and harness its people to reverse their present state of moral and civic degeneration -- a degeneration that has its roots in the imported and alien idea system imposed on the, during three-quarters of the twentieth century. This system proved to be hostile to the very soul of its people -- a soul that Vladimir Soloviev and other Slavophiles expressed. What is missing in the American paradigm of our era is what German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies says is the real concept of community -- a concept encapsulated in the German word Eintracht (harmony-cum-concord) -- in which a real community is based on mutual understanding, concord, and unanimity. Conversely, a society, as in the case of American society, which is characterized by inner conflict, mutual tension, and the rule of a mechanical quantitative majority, presupposes no organic societal ties.

Having reached a point in time when it is possible to argue that the American condition is "a society without a soul," or "a society without Eintracht," America may consider taking a closer look at the intellectual pedigree of the organic concept of community as exemplified by East-Central European peoples. In the process, America may learn that this area of Europe has much to offer. Specifically, Eastern Europe is not solely a thought-receiver but can also become a thought-sending center because it is fired by a dynamic that organically intertwines national ideals, spiritual rebirth, and a sense of community that does not translate into a sum of isolated individuals.

This gift of spiritual wholeness -- which America now needs in order to understand its spiritual greatness of the past and to awaken its potential greatness in the future -- can be a gift of East-Central Europeans to America.

also:

• Thoughts for Lent, and
• The Pope’s Issues for Jubilee Year 2000:
  Jubilee Year: December 24, 1999 to January 6, 2000