Letter Five: The World Outside Our Front Door
My Dear Family:
We live in a neighborhood with a complex culture. Much of our “table talk” going forward will address our life together in the neighborhood. As we said in an earlier letter, the world outside our walls is important to us; we are not, as Catholics, isolationists, hunkering down in a defensive mode, anti-culture. We are, however, “counter-culture.” Let me explain.
I think it is fair to say that our culture no longer identifies itself as “Christian” as it once did a generation or so ago. Christians, especially Catholics, identify with truth revealed in Jesus Christ and His Church. Truth is objective, true for all, but made real and subjective to me through a relationship with Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. For Catholics, truth is true whether we feel it or not.
For the majority of our culture, there is no longer an objective truth true for everyone. What is true for most is their own subjective experience. This means that it is left to each individual to find his or her own truth. It doesn’t matter if one’s truth contradicts another’s truth, for in the end, there is no logic that holds reality together. It usually pans out as a freedom with little or no responsibility. It is often lived out sensually and through emotions. Existence tends to be authenticated through bodily pleasure and feelings. It is often expressed, “you have your truth, and I have my truth, let me run my own life the way I want to.”
Emotions are critical to who we are as humans made in the image of God. But emotions detached from, and exulted above, other interior powers such as reason, will, conscience, imagination, and memory, renders us helpless to mature and relate with others. We no longer understand our emotions and our actions. It is safe to say that our culture is awash in a sea of subjectivity and subsequently, falsehood, alienation, violence, addictions, and the ensuing shame that comes from moral failure of all types.
In our table talk, we will constantly be counter-cultural when it comes to this self-idolizing world view. Sensuality, sexuality, and emotions in their proper contexts are good, but these good things become unholy, mundane, banal, even dangerous, when extracted from original design. Moreover, we have an enemy who is bent on keeping us from the joy God intends for us; we will talk about him in the next letter.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. John Worgul
Takeaway
In a popular culture where everyone defines his or her own truth based on personal feelings, true disciples of Jesus must be counter-cultural, embracing the objective truth revealed in Jesus Christ.
Discussion Questions
- Can you think of a part of your life where you’re already living in a way that goes against the grain of popular culture? What motivates you to live that way?
- What helps you stay grounded in your faith and values when cultural messages are pulling you in a different direction? Are there practices, people, or Scriptures that give you strength?