A Christian Martial Way

The hardest thing about starting a new blog is knowing what to talk about in the first post.  Do you just dive right in?  Do an introduction?  Be completely and utterly inane?  Or some combination of all three?

A beautiful woman once told me that I was rather full of myself.  I don't know if I will ever see her again, but I know I will remember her words forever.  I am full of myself.  My friends can verify that I have actually compared myself to Adonis, and upon being forced to reconsider my hubris, instead described myself as being like King David, viz. ruddy cheeked and comely.  I actually used to introduce myself as an asshole, and I'm fairly certain every girl I've ever dated has considered me to be an arrogant prick at least once during the course of the relationship.  Most probably thought so before the relationship even began.  You called it, Lady.  I am more full of myself than I can stand.

This probably seems like an odd way to begin a project whose purpose is to outline a Christian way of practicing the martial arts.  At least, it probably seems odd to those who don't practice.  Many of those who do practice will probably recognize the essential need for humility in the martial arts.  Arrogance is self-deceit, self-deceit prevents self knowledge.  Without self knowledge, what can one be arrogant about?  Self-knowledge requires humility, and the martial arts involve an ever deepening awareness of the self.  The Buddhist philosophical underpinnings of East Asian martial arts especially use martial arts as a tool for the destruction of the self.  There's really no room for arrogance.

My name is Evan, and I am full of myself.  I am a cocky, teasing, know-it-all, jerk.  There you have it, straight from the horse's mouth.  Yet for some strange reason, people still seem to like me - God love 'em.  I know that when it comes down to it, I would die for those people.  That is really what this blog is about.  The essence of the Catholic martial way is not defeating another, it is knowing when to allow yourself to be defeated, and through defeat to attain the victory and the crown.

I have told you the truth about myself so that from the beginning it will be clear that I am not a saint or a master or anything.  I am just a man.  Everything I write here is ultimately about being a better man, and I may talk about things that I have done, am doing, or still need to do.  I confess my need for improvement, I admit my imperfection.  This is how the way begins.  Acknowledging that I am a sinner, and I need a Savior.  The person, Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the Master.  He is the Way.  He is the Truth.  He is the Life.  I will sit at His feet and listen.  I will follow in His steps.  Every Christian understands this basic first step away from pride and towards humility.  Every martial artist should as well.  But why write a Christian martial way?

The essential difference between the Buddhist martial artist and the Catholic martial artist is that the first seeks to destroy the self, the second seeks to resurrect it after death.  Christians are not nihilists, Buddhists are.  The Christian must die to himself, not so that his self will be destroyed, but so that his self will be raised up and glorified.  Even that is yet superficial.  The Christian is looking for his self to become Christ, as opposed to Nothing.  So the Christian martial artist needs a way of understanding martial arts which frees him from those Buddhist underpinnings.  One cannot blend Buddhism and Christianity.  I tried for years, but ultimately the Christian concept of love and the Christian understanding of the universe and God, forbid any entanglement with Buddhism.

"All well and good," one might say, "by all means do not attempt to mesh them, then!  Simply don't practice the martial arts, and there you have an end to it."  I cannot accept this solution for two simple reasons.  The first is simply that I believe there is great value in the martial arts, utterly independent of their philosophical origins.  The second is that Christendom has a martial character and history.  What do I mean by this?  I do not deny that Christ loves peace, He taught that peacemakers are blessed, that they shall be called children of God (Mt 5:9).  But there are those who see the person of Christ through the filter of their own pet ideology. Pacifists, for instance, see Him as a pacifist, emphasizing His teachings on peace.  Yet it is the truth that Christ also says such remarkable things as, "I have come to bring not peace but the sword" (Mt 10:34).  Christ's Way requires a radical self-denial, and brings into our lives a sundering so severe that He literally states one's enemies will be one's own family.  The truth is that the Christian way is a martial way.  It is a way that will involve enemies.  It will encounter hatred.  It will be met with violence.  It will be assaulted in every manner conceivable.  The assault has already begun, it began two thousand years ago on the Cross, and the Church Militant has not stopped fighting yet.

This is for all of us who want to better understand what we are fighting.  How we are to fight.  Why we are to fight.  This is for all the girls who know they are princesses.  This is for all the boys who would be men, and the men who would be knights.  Chesterton said that fairy tales taught us truth not because they taught that dragons were real, but because they taught that dragons can be slain.  This is for everyone who wants to slay the Dragon.  This is for every David who has to defeat Goliath.  This is for you.  This is for me.  And this is for Him.