Is chastity a lost cause?

IT may look that way, but the answer is definitely, No. It
can never be a lost cause. In fact, things are getting more exciting
in this area. Let’s face this crisis with great optimism.

            And the reason for that is precisely the very same reason
why many of us are pushed to think chastity is already a lost cause.
The complex and seemingly impossible challenges, the ugliness of the
situation has made this virtue more important, more relevant, more
desirable.

            As to whether chastity can still be achieved and lived in
a stable way, you can be sure that it can. Surprises can happen.
Miracles do happen. While we have to do everything we can, let’s
remember that God is always in the middle of things. If Christ was
able to resurrect a dead man, the recovery of chastity in a person and
in society is nothing compared to that!

            Yes, it’s true that we cannot and should not underestimate
the gravity of the problem. Pornography is everywhere and is easily
accessible. Even kids as young as 8 can get it in a click. One can
avail of it with apparent impunity. In fact, one can avail of it also
with apparent great benefits, or so they say.

            We have a good number of people, especially the young, who
are already crazed with sex. Cases of sexual addiction are increasing
by leaps and bounds, and not everything in this regard is reported
yet.

            Marital infidelity is still like a byword among many
people. Flings, one-night stands, hook-ups are getting common. We now
have the same-sex marriage issue. You can just imagine what goes
inside the mind and heart of many people, and the solitary abuses
people commit right and left in thought, desire, word and deed.

            Yet, in spite of all these, there is still hope. We just
have to be realistic, and that should start with a boost to our faith
that with Christ, who already died for our sins, the impossible can be
made possible.

            Which means that we have to feel at home with the reality
that in this life we are expected to do the impossible—with God’s
grace. If you think that nothing works unless it is under your control
or power, be convinced that you are wrong. We have to enliven our life
of faith and piety. This is the indispensable minimum.

            There is no use complaining, feeling bad, getting
pessimistic and depressed. We have to move, and move forward. But we
have to redefine the terms of engagement. We should not get stuck with
those of the past generations that may have worked well before, but
now no more.

            With the many new developments around, the personal,
family, social terrain, etc., has changed drastically. Where topics
like the nature and meaning of human sexuality and the need and
practicability of chastity were a no-no before, now they should be
openly discussed. We have to overcome the initial shyness and shame
that are now quite misplaced if we have to consider how things are
now.

            The way and manner of doing this should also be changed.
Let’s avoid lecturing and preaching, because many young people today
feel they are being spat upon when Scripture is quoted or some
scientific or social data are cited.

            Things have to be done in a more friendly way. A lot of
patience is needed as well as creativity and a large dose of
naturalness. We have to somehow talk like them, with jokes, anecdotes
and entertaining trivias galore. Let’s be wary with being too
intellectual. The young ones resent that.

            Let’s never be shocked to hear the most scandalous things
related to this area. In fact, we should always be reassuring them
that things will just be all right. But we also have to be ready to
give concrete, doable steps to recommend to them. We should not expect
that things radically change overnight.

            Let’s be quick to see the brighter side of things, instead
of getting stuck with the negative details. You can be sure that there
will always be some redeeming elements in the apparent oceanic mess
people can get into. And it’s love, affection, understanding and
compassion that will win at the end of the day.

            Chastity should be presented as a very positive virtue, a
true manifestation of love and a basic truth about us. It should be
presented as something doable but requiring daily effort and daily
struggles where one can win and lose, but hope is always there. It has
to be understood as a consequence of faith and piety.

Our Trinitarian life

WE have just celebrated the great solemnity of the Most
Blessed Trinity. It is supposed to be, and in fact it is the most
important mystery of our faith, the fount of all the other truths and
mysteries of our faith, since it shows us the inmost, intimate life of
God in himself, even before being the Creator of the universe.

            The relevance of this mystery in our life stems from the
basic truth that we, as man, are created in God’s image and likeness,
adopted children of his, and therefore made to reflect and, in fact,
participate in this very Trinitarian life of God. The implications and
consequences of this truth are endless, but let’s tackle at least a
few of them later.

            Through this mystery, which was revealed to us in full by
Christ, we are told that God, though one, are three persons, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, because the absolutely one and simple God is
never an idle God, nor a lonely God.

            He is rather a God who is full of dynamism, an eternal
dynamism of knowing and loving. His knowing and loving are no mere
acts that begin and end, that come from potency to act, but are so
perfect that they create the three eternal persons in that one God.

            God’s eternal knowing and loving give rise to the eternal
relations within God. The God who knows and who loves is the Father.
The same God who is known and is loved is the Son. The same God who is
the very love between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. The
Father, Son and Holy Spirit are eternally inseparable in their dynamic
life of knowing and loving.

            With respect to God’s creation, the three persons are also
all involved, with the Father being the decider or author of it, the
Son as the pattern of creation with us, man, as the masterpiece since
we are his image and likeness, and the Holy Spirit as the implementor
and the keeper of creation, and thus our sanctifier.

            The whole God is involved in our creation and keeps it
according to his will, his designs and the natures in which each
creature is created. In our case, God created us with the power to
know and to love through our intelligence and will, which precisely
make us his image and likeness.

            He will always respect us the way we are, even if we abuse
these powers by making them  as if they are solely our own, to be used
exclusively according to our own designs, instead of referring them
always to God and his will.

            But God, being a Father to us, full of love, mercy and
compassion, will also do everything to bring us back to him even if we
stray. Just the same, there is always the possibility, given our
freedom which can be misused, that in spite of what God is doing for
us, we can dare to go against him and his will.

            The key relevance of the mystery of the Most Blessed
Trinity to us is that it’s a truth that sets the basic tone and
attitude we ought to have toward God and toward everybody and
everything else.

            Its unfathomability should not hinder us, but should
instead spur us to seek God in adoration and in extreme humility.
Without this attitude, we expose ourselves to great dangers, as we
would dare to venture life on our own, and would likely fail to relate
the things of our life, whether favourable or not, to God.

            We would be left to our own devices, and to fend for
ourselves in all the things of this life and of the world, the trials,
challenges, temptations, as well as the successes and accomplishments
that can spoil us instead of improve us.

            We would miss the real meaning and purpose of our life
here on earth, and would simply pursue our own goals. And this is the
general world situation today. They call it the post-modern era when
God is completely left out of the picture and everyone is free to
interpret things the way he wants them.

            We have to learn to deal with God in his Trinitarian
life—that is with the Father who knows and loves, and with the Son who
is the known and the loved, and the Holy Spirit who is the very love
of God.

            Among the practical implications of this truth are that we
need to pray, live always in the presence of God, refer everything to
him to see how we ought to think, say, or behave.

Restore the sense of penance

LET’S do something about this grave concern. We cannot deny that we
are losing the genuine sense of penance. It’s a word that nowadays
hardly figures in the vocabulary of the people, especially the young.

But we, of course, have to be optimistic about this. No matter how
ugly things look at the moment, there is always hope. I personally
believe that the uglier the things are, the bigger also, the brighter
and the more beautiful the potentials for redemption are, if we know
how to react to this predicament.

Yes, our general sense of penance is in crisis, mainly because people
are turning away from God who in the end is the one who sets what is
right and wrong, what is good and evil, what is virtue and sin and
vice.

Our sense of penance is in crisis because our idea of what is good and
evil is now reduced to our personal preferences, or at best to what
can be termed as our social, political, cultural or even ideological
consensus. Our legal system is often regarded as explicitly atheistic
or agnostic, to free it from the so-called religious bias.

In short, we are not anymore referring things to God but to ourselves.
This is what is called the post-modern thinking which, as the
Wikipedia defines or describes, views “realities as plural and
subjective and dependent on the individual’s worldview.”

It proclaims that there can be diverse interpretations of truth, being
and ways of seeing. It rejects sharp distinctions and global and
dominant truths. It sees truth as highly individualistic and
subjective.

And so now, we have public figures like US President Obama and singer
Bono saying that the Christian definition of marriage should not be
imposed on all, which is a distortion of the reality of things.

First of all, the Catholic definition of marriage is not so much a
matter of religion as it is a matter of the very nature of marriage.
And it is not imposed. It is simply taught with the authority of the
Church magisterium. Everyone is always free to go against it, though
obviously he has to face the consequences.

This post-modern thinking is very much in the words of Bono who
recently said: “Marriage is now an idea that transcends religion…It is
owned by the people. They can decide. It’s not a religious
institution.”

Many people today do not anymore have the healthy fear of God, nor of
sin and temptation. What would terrify them more is when they see the
low-batt sign in their cellphone, or the low internet signal and the
circling buffering sign in their computers.

But we should not be daunted by all these developments. What is needed
is a continuing or ongoing catechesis rendered in an atmosphere of
friendship and personal apostolate. If this can only be done, as in
fact it should, since it is a basic duty of a every child of God, then
we do not have much to worry.

Our country is still a strong bastion of Christian faith, supported by
a still large amount of humility, simplicity, docility to Church
authority or any rightful authority, and a breathing piety. Let’s take
advantage of these blessings to counter the onslaught of post-modern
thinking that is afflicting some of our public figures and political
leaders.

With gift of tongues, let’s remind everyone that we are all sinners
because we have offended God and not just anyone, and that we need
redemption, which God so willingly gives us. We have to learn how to
avoid sin, fight temptations, stay away from occasions of sin, and to
make up for the consequences of our unavoidable sins.

Let’s remind everyone that there is a wonderful sacrament called
Confession that more than a tribunal of strict justice is a seat of
abundant fatherly mercy from God. Let’s reassure everyone that God
wants to heal us, to sanctify us, to make us like him since we are his
image and likeness, and children of his.

Let’s tell everyone that God has given us everything we need to be a
true child of God, full of love and goodness, of truth and wisdom,
etc. But let’s not be afraid to go through some suffering which is a
way of our purification and atonement for sin in general, ours and
those of everybody else.

Let’s do all these with joy and optimism, without bitter zeal. God
makes wonders far beyond our wildest and fondest expectations. If we
persist in this hope, then we can truly recover a healthy sense of
penance.