BECAUSE of the many comforts and amenities brought about by
factors
like advances in the sciences and technologies, we are also developing
certain lifestyles that together with their many advantages bring with
them certain dangers.
Medical doctors now talk, for example, of lifestyle diseases that
more than genetic or hereditary causes are consequences of a mix of
unhealthy attitudes, environmental factors, and the usual food and
drink usually taken these days.
These lifestyle diseases can refer to heart attacks, strokes, cancer,
etc., that are becoming the prominent killers of our times. They are
brought about usually by a lifestyle, and even of a generalized
culture of indulgence that usually goes together with laziness,
aimlessness and idleness.
So instead of healthy food like fish and veggies, many people now
just go for meat and junk food. They tend to over-eat, making gluttony
a kind of value to be learned and lived these days.
Instead of the necessary physical exercise and activity, many of us
spend hours just sitting before the computers or TV. These are the
so-called couch potatoes. No wonder we have a lot of obese people and
people with elevated sugar, blood pressure, etc. There is also a surge
of smoking and overdrinking.
Stress is also becoming more pronounced now. And I believe it’s more
subjective than objective, because while it’s true that the sources of
stress have increased, the capacity to handle it has also decreased,
but to a degree that outpaces the sources of stress.
This phenomenon, I believe, is due to a large extent to the erosion
of the spiritual foundations on which our life depends. Many people
succumb handily to an easy, light and fun-filled ways of doing things.
They do not anymore see the value of suffering and sacrifice. They
consider these elements in our life as purely negative, to be avoided
at all costs. They fail to see that the suffering and sacrifice are an
integral part of our life here on earth, given our wounded human
condition.
The suffering and sacrifice, the difficulties, trials and challenges
can actually be an occasion to develop more virtues. And if we believe
in the Christian faith, we would know that these things are precisely
the means to our perfection and salvation.
But many of the people today are at least ignorant of the spiritual
and religious meaning of suffering and of life in general. Many have
even gone from religious ignorance to religious indifference and even
beyond that, to religious hostility
We now have many agnostics if not atheists, perhaps more of the
practical type than of the theoretical type. This is the real
lifestyle disease that we have now. It leads to a weakening of the
spiritual foundation that gives support and nourishment to all the
other aspects of life.
Many people do not know how to pray. And if they ‘pray,’ it is just
muttering of words, expressing what one has inside, rather than a
filial conversation with our father, God, much less, a participation
in the prayer of Christ himself, which is the ideal form of prayer,
since our prayer should always be through Christ.
Many people are ignorant and even averse to the doctrine of Christ,
now authoritatively taught by the Church. They always find fault or
some excuses not to follow Church teaching.
Many people are not developing virtues. Rather they are in fact
quickly falling to more and more vices. They are becoming less and
less spiritual, and more and more sensual.
All these are the very virus that is behind the so-called “culture of
death” that is spreading in the world today, including our own
country. The passage of the RH Bill, now a law, lends credence to this
claim.
That this law is made to bank on prolife premises like respect for
constitution, recognition of the value of marriage and family, promise
to protect life of both mother and child, access to “safe”
contraceptive means, etc., is a clever move to hide the real intent of
the law which is to institutionalize the contraceptive mentality in
our country.
It will take time before the real effects of this law can be seen. We
seem to prefer to close our eyes before the overwhelming pieces of
evidence provided by many countries that have legalized the RH.
Legalizing RH can only mean a contraceptive mentality that eventually
will lead to abortion and other perversions.
At the moment, we now hear about divorce bills. Some people are now
talking about same-sex marriage and euthanasia. These are the other
parts of the lifestyle disease we have now.
like advances in the sciences and technologies, we are also developing
certain lifestyles that together with their many advantages bring with
them certain dangers.
Medical doctors now talk, for example, of lifestyle diseases that
more than genetic or hereditary causes are consequences of a mix of
unhealthy attitudes, environmental factors, and the usual food and
drink usually taken these days.
These lifestyle diseases can refer to heart attacks, strokes, cancer,
etc., that are becoming the prominent killers of our times. They are
brought about usually by a lifestyle, and even of a generalized
culture of indulgence that usually goes together with laziness,
aimlessness and idleness.
So instead of healthy food like fish and veggies, many people now
just go for meat and junk food. They tend to over-eat, making gluttony
a kind of value to be learned and lived these days.
Instead of the necessary physical exercise and activity, many of us
spend hours just sitting before the computers or TV. These are the
so-called couch potatoes. No wonder we have a lot of obese people and
people with elevated sugar, blood pressure, etc. There is also a surge
of smoking and overdrinking.
Stress is also becoming more pronounced now. And I believe it’s more
subjective than objective, because while it’s true that the sources of
stress have increased, the capacity to handle it has also decreased,
but to a degree that outpaces the sources of stress.
This phenomenon, I believe, is due to a large extent to the erosion
of the spiritual foundations on which our life depends. Many people
succumb handily to an easy, light and fun-filled ways of doing things.
They do not anymore see the value of suffering and sacrifice. They
consider these elements in our life as purely negative, to be avoided
at all costs. They fail to see that the suffering and sacrifice are an
integral part of our life here on earth, given our wounded human
condition.
The suffering and sacrifice, the difficulties, trials and challenges
can actually be an occasion to develop more virtues. And if we believe
in the Christian faith, we would know that these things are precisely
the means to our perfection and salvation.
But many of the people today are at least ignorant of the spiritual
and religious meaning of suffering and of life in general. Many have
even gone from religious ignorance to religious indifference and even
beyond that, to religious hostility
We now have many agnostics if not atheists, perhaps more of the
practical type than of the theoretical type. This is the real
lifestyle disease that we have now. It leads to a weakening of the
spiritual foundation that gives support and nourishment to all the
other aspects of life.
Many people do not know how to pray. And if they ‘pray,’ it is just
muttering of words, expressing what one has inside, rather than a
filial conversation with our father, God, much less, a participation
in the prayer of Christ himself, which is the ideal form of prayer,
since our prayer should always be through Christ.
Many people are ignorant and even averse to the doctrine of Christ,
now authoritatively taught by the Church. They always find fault or
some excuses not to follow Church teaching.
Many people are not developing virtues. Rather they are in fact
quickly falling to more and more vices. They are becoming less and
less spiritual, and more and more sensual.
All these are the very virus that is behind the so-called “culture of
death” that is spreading in the world today, including our own
country. The passage of the RH Bill, now a law, lends credence to this
claim.
That this law is made to bank on prolife premises like respect for
constitution, recognition of the value of marriage and family, promise
to protect life of both mother and child, access to “safe”
contraceptive means, etc., is a clever move to hide the real intent of
the law which is to institutionalize the contraceptive mentality in
our country.
It will take time before the real effects of this law can be seen. We
seem to prefer to close our eyes before the overwhelming pieces of
evidence provided by many countries that have legalized the RH.
Legalizing RH can only mean a contraceptive mentality that eventually
will lead to abortion and other perversions.
At the moment, we now hear about divorce bills. Some people are now
talking about same-sex marriage and euthanasia. These are the other
parts of the lifestyle disease we have now.
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