Worth dying for...

"Our faith is personal, never private."

With peace in my heart, in the midst of chaos, though in this small way, I express my reflections on the current climate of our society today especially in light of very recent events: Ireland, Mexico, and now the United States of America.

There is no other way for me to say this other than that I am deeply saddened. I am deeply saddened because those who have felt oppressed, judged, and condemned for so long still have not received the justice and the freedom that they long for internally. It will only be a matter of time until we see that this legalization does not protect anyone, and I predict that it will not take very long for us to see the real ramifications of this for both supporting and opposing this act. I am saddened because we did not rid our society of injustice. We did not begin an age of freedom and "equality." I do not celebrate anything because the way I see it, we have begun an age of slavery and tyranny. The essence of man has been compromised in the name of equality, tolerance, and harmony. 

There can be no true harmony that exists outside ourselves if it is not first a reality in our beings. Our interior lives can not have order if our passions govern our will, our ability to reason objectively, our ability to choose what is right even at the cost of our personal desires. Though I condemn this act of legalizing same-sex union, I do not for one undermine the struggles of those who experience oppression. I understand the hurt, the discrimination because I, too, am familiar with those injustices. I am familiar with prejudice. I am familiar with racism. Although we experience them on different levels, we are one in our struggles, therefore, we must be one in our response. What I know of man's capacity is this: That he is to endure whatever it is for the sake of the call to live a life in which he is a master of himself and not the other way around. This recent decision will not fix injustice, inequality, hatred, persecution or the other evils that plague our communities today because it does not uproot the cause of all of that is disordered in our world -- Self-centeredness, Individualism.

History shows us that slavery and tyranny will never, on the surface, look like the real evil that they are. Do not be deceived into thinking that the most terrible acts of evil are only a thing of the past. If you do not believe that evil can exist in this world, then I do not know how to trust your concept of that which is good. I don't want to convince you to like me, but I beg you to honestly assess our reality. To fully grasp the scope of the current climate of how man relates with the other, how man relates with the truth that orders his subjective passions and desires.

What honestly scares me the most is how much power we have given to our subjective desires and feelings. Desires are NOT bad. Feelings are neither good or bad -- they just are. Actions, however, are either right or wrong. And if we want to live freely, we must be able to accept this reality. We must be able to call wrong, wrong to uphold what is right. To condemn what is wrong is the same action as upholding what is true and what is good. The question is not so much what we believe, but rather what we do about what we believe to be true and how we apply what we believe. We don't do the right thing because it is what allows us to do what we want, we do it because it protects us from doing just that.

Imagine a world where everyone does what they want. It is a world of chaos, disorder, and division: When everyone is free, no one is truly free. The more we move towards a world that is driven by man's subjectivity, we move towards a world where oppression increases. We see that everywhere! No one can "express" themselves, division prevails because there is no objective truth that directs and unites our differences.

What is at stake here in the larger scheme of things is the power of the Truth. Of Absolute Truth. There is a reason people will die for it. It is what gives power to our free will. It is what allows us to have authentic freedom and unity in our world. It is what allows us to celebrate and have our own unique individualities. The Truth is at stake... your true freedom is at stake... not just your civil rights, not just your political viewpoints, not just your "benefits." Such things are not essential for man to be.

What's true at its most basic level is that this world will never be enough. Man has been made to have infinite desires and our struggle remains so long as we are in this world because the world will always have limited resources. We are given the Truth to protect ourselves from falling subject to these desires. What the Church teaches is not hatred, but the Truth that the divine authority of Jesus respects, protects, and allows us to fully experience our humanity in communion with others. The divine authority of Jesus is the law of Love, and this love comes with the responsibility to seek out the absolute Truth and to live it out with apostolic zeal. His Word gives life. Our Catholic faith teaches that it either changes every aspect of your life or it doesn't, but that is totally up to the one who receives Him.

I do not hold all the answers to your questions. I don't have them for myself. However, I do hold the highest form of certainty, which is faith. I have it. You have it. The only question is, what good do you hold to be the Highest Good? Everything depends on that. Everything.

+JMJ+