Faded and jaded

IT may just be pure coincidence, this fashion trend of
faded jeans with cuts and tears in several parts, worn not only by the
young and but even by the oldies.

            I admit that these jeans can look good and stylish with a
snobbish appeal. Insofar as they are just a piece of clothing, we
should not make a big deal. But I am afraid that there’s more to them
than just being a sartorial taste.

            I get this lingering suspicion that they actually reflect
a certain ethos, a certain temper of the times that, in a manner of
speaking, has faded from the original color of our human spirit and is
in fact going in the direction of people getting jaded in their
beliefs and lifestyles. This is where we have to raise the alarm.

            I actually hope there is no correlation between the two.
But we cannot deny that the emergence of the faded jeans, which have
their legitimate value of casualness and informality, has come on the
heels of a certain relaxation of spiritual and moral correctness
worldwide.

            In fact, there are now powerful ideologies with vast and
massive following that are now redefining things such that what were
clearly defined and considered as universally and immutably true and
good before and by the supreme authority of God through the Church,
are now considered false, bad or at least as one more option among
what some say are the many other valid ones.

            There is even a clever appeal to broad-mindedness,
tolerance and charity, all done to demolish any appeal to absolute
moral laws and to build up in its stead and, paradoxically, in a
tyrannical and imposing way, a world of moral relativism, of absolute
subjectivism which, just by the name itself, is already a
contradiction in terms.

            Notice how the concepts of man, human life and its
beginning, marriage, for example, have been redefined to suit some
people’s idea of how they should be. Man is practically not anymore
considered as a creature of God. He is now his own god and creator,
and can therefore think, speak and do as he wishes, beholden to no one
except to himself, or to some government or social and political
consensus.

            The beginning of human life now has many possibilities,
thus paving the way for the legalization of abortion in the different
stages of pregnancy. Abortion can now be resorted to all the way to
the full term of pregnancy.

            Human sexuality and marriage are practically divorced from
any objective reference to love and fidelity as defined by the Church
and reinforced by a careful study of their nature. Some products of
these redefinitions are now the often-touted concepts of responsible
parenthood, reproductive health, feminism, same-sex marriage, etc.,
that can contain many valid concepts but mixed with wrong ones.

            Even God, faith, religion, love and nature itself are now
subjected to purely subjective interpretations with oneself or some
consensus as the ultimate authority to define them. There’s now a lot
of confusion, and obviously some sectors with hidden agenda are taking
advantage of the situation.

            This is now the time to reclaim the truth about things, to
go back to their original, objective basis. This definitely is not
going to be an easy task, but it certainly has to be done, and done
without bitterness and hatred, but with patience, charity and utmost
fidelity to the very source of truth. The ideal to reach is to attain
the exclusivity of truth together with the inclusivity of love.

            Let’s settle first the question of who is the ultimate
source of truth. Is it God who has revealed himself in full through
his Son who became man and left us with the Church, or is it
ourselves, personally and collectively?

            This point is crucial, because if we are not clear about
this, then we can launch into a goose chase of looking for the truth
about us and things in general. Many of us often ignore this question,
much less, take the effort to resolve it. And so we can have a
Tower-of-Babel effect—a lot of confusion, with errors masquerading as
truths.

            It’s indispensable that we study the doctrine of our faith
very well, employing the appropriate human tools of the sciences, arts
and even the technologies and other human systems like our laws,
customs, culture, etc., to bring out the wealth of truth contained in
our faith.

            This obviously would require a personal conversion, since
proclaiming the truth is not simply an intellectual or cultural
affair. It is, first and last, a personal relation with God.