Summer fun and decency

MODESTY and decency are virtues we need to live always. That’s because we are not pure spirits, like angels. We also have bodies, like the animals. But as persons, we need to blend these two elements properly. Modesty and decency have to do with this human concern.

Especially now when we are entering summer and the idea of vacation, fun,
sports and entertainment very much in our mind, it is good that we have clear criteria to guide us on how to treat and “carry” our body.

Fact is there are shameless excesses in this regard provoking both confusion and controversy. The body many times has been used as tool for sheer vanity if not for fostering a sexuality detached from its proper purpose and context.

A neighborhood billboard, for example, showing a bikinied girl inviting all
to some Jamaican Nights is one such provocative issue. We need to clarify matters.

The human body can be looked at from different angles. It’s good that we know how to integrate them into one united view that would ultimately uphold, defend and enhance our dignity as persons and as children of God.

From the physical point of view, we can readily distinguish which parts of the body can be shown and which parts should be hidden. Only those not in their proper mind can commit mistakes at this instance.

From the point of view of purpose and functions, we don’t have to be told to know which parts have to be given as much space and freedom as possible, and which parts have to be restricted.

We can go on with other considerations, and we always get an idea of what to show and what to hide in our body. But the ultimate consideration that gives order to the others, in my view, is that of our faith and religion.

Here we consider the human body according to the will and plan of God. We thus realize that the body is not just a material object. And more than being inseparably united to our soul, we know that it is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It should be treated with utmost reverence and care.

The human body is not to be played around with total disregard to morality.
And morality is not just a matter of what we like or what we find convenient, etc. Morality is referring all our actions to God as their proper end.

This is where some people flunk, often rationalizing their actuations as the exercise of their artistic rights and their freedom of expression, blah, blah, blah.

As if there are people who find joy and ecstasy in restricting the rights and freedoms of others. It has to be told and told again that rights and freedoms are not just a matter of choice. They are ultimately and constantly a matter of upholding who we really are.

Are we just objects and animals that can be played around without relating us to a spiritual end, and to Christian believers, that would be a supernatural end—a life in participation in the life of God?

Or are we persons whose very nature involving body and soul demand a measure of privacy and intimacy that should always be protected? To Christian believers, are we not only persons but also children of God who use the body according to God’s will and not just our own will?

It’s when the exercise of rights and freedom is not referred to God, when one refers them simply to his individualistic idea of what’s good and bad that we get into some trouble with respect to the use of the human body.

It would be good that the effort to know who we really are could be pursued calmly and relentlessly so that we would know and get convinced about the importance and constant relevance of modesty and decency in our lives.

This is also how we can recognize the false values cleverly embedded in many commercial gimmicks that use our body for immodesty and indecency.