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Opinion

Faded and jaded

- Fr. Roy Cimagala - The Freeman

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.

 

APPEAL

BUT I

CERTAIN

CONCEPTS

CONSIDERED

DONE

EVEN GOD

GOD

HUMAN

NOW

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