What we think is the right road
We need to "chill out." Just relax! The Supreme Court decision legalizing homosexual marriage hasn't made the sky fall, has it? The moral doomsayers were wrong, weren't they? The republic still stands, and no bolts of lightning have struck any high-ranking political or judicial figure. Just stay cool – and be tolerant!
But it's the wrong road
Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a scholar and senator. In 1993, he wrote an article called "Defining Deviancy Down" in which he discussed growing public tolerance of and permissiveness toward what formerly had been intolerable behavior. Consider, for example, "public language." Things are said now in public – with contemptible language – which would never have been heard in the locker rooms of the 1950s. Movies and television offer "entertainment" which is hard to distinguish from a sewer. Social codes have changed, for the worse. And this is not even to mention appalling problems with regard to drugs, sexual ethics and rampant violence.
Recent polls indicate that the American public is much more inclined to accept conduct on a number of moral issues which, we would have rejected as immoral not long ago. As one source put it: "On a list of 19 major moral issues of the day, Americans express levels of moral acceptance that are as high (as) or higher than in the past on 12 of them, a group that also encompasses social mores such as polygamy, having a child out of wedlock, and divorce."
There are two possibilities here.
One is that we have "evolved" and are willing to permit, even to commend, behavior that would have astonished and ashamed our grandparents. We have finally stopped being "judgmental," and we're willing to let people enjoy themselves. Welcome to the 21st century!
The second is that, worn down by the tsunami of moral evil swirling around us for the last 42 years (I begin with the date of Roe v. Wade), we have accepted, step by evil step, greater and graver evil. We have too often ignored the reality of mortal sin. Welcome to Dante's Inferno!
We would be mistaken to confuse correlation with causation; that is, just because two things happen together doesn't mean that one of them has caused the other. Still, we must ask: Is there a broad societal contempt for Gospel truth that has led to legalized abortion, to increasing acceptance of euthanasia, to decreasing moral standards, and, almost inevitably, to homosexual marriage? Have liberalized codes of speech and conduct in movies led to an increasingly coarse and vulgar society? Is the moral sky falling?
Have we defined deviancy down? Have we too often compromised with evil? Have we apathetically accepted behavior and speech which are contrary to the Gospel? There is a Catholic answer to these questions.
The Church teaches that evil has a first cause: our fallen nature. "Ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of education, politics, social action, and morals," the Catechism teaches (407; also see 418 and 1783). Vatican II said that the whole of human history "has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil" ("Gaudium et Spes," 37), and St. Paul instructed the Ephesians and us that our combat is against "the cosmic powers of this dark age" (6:12 GNB).
When we tell ourselves that certain decayed moral standards won't cause the skies to fall, we deceive ourselves. We are playing the devil's game. Unrepented venial sin can, and often does, lead to mortal sin, for we are what we repeatedly do (CCC 1863). "If we do not behave the way we believe," observed Bishop Fulton Sheen, "we will begin believing the way we behave." That is why it is so important for us Catholics to hear sound preaching and to have holy, reverent Masses. St. Paul, learning of bad teaching in Ephesus, warned, "Some people there are teaching false doctrines, and you must order them to stop" (1 Tim 1:3).
God graciously gives us time to repent (2 Peter 3:9, Rev 2:21), but repentance must not be delayed (Acts 17:30). The sky hasn't fallen because of sin and evil. Not quite yet.
Deacon James H. Toner serves at Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro.
It has been a rough few months for the Church. We are told that disagreeing with the dominant culture by affirming age-old truths is discriminatory and bigoted. Are this summer's legal decisions harbingers of dark days ahead for those committed to expressing their religious convictions in their daily lives?
Yes, storm clouds seem to be gathering on the horizon – but there are still reasons for hope. This week, thousands are gathered in Philadelphia to celebrate traditional marriage and family. Pope Francis is also among us. At year's end, we begin celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy.
The following words of St. Augustine come to mind: "Bad times, hard times – this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times."
How are we to live well in these tough times? Our foundress, St. Jeanne Jugan, can help answer this question. Like us, Jeanne Jugan lived in harsh times for the Church. Born at the height of the French Revolution, our future saint faced challenges on many levels. She was catechized clandestinely by a group of consecrated laywomen euphemistically known as "trotting sisters."
Jeanne's father, a fisherman, was lost at sea when she was 4, leaving her mother alone to provide for her young family. Life was austere, but neighbor helped neighbor and Jeanne learned firsthand about the corporal works of mercy. A woman of few words, she would let these works of mercy define her life.
After opening her heart and her home to an elderly woman in need, Jeanne quickly gained a reputation as someone who would never turn a needy person away. Many of her early residents had led unfortunate lives; some were quite unsavory characters. Nevertheless, Jeanne saw Christ in each of them and treated them with such love and respect that they were transformed – so much so that the townspeople no longer recognized them!
A visitor from England, later identified as Charles Dickens, wrote the following after witnessing Jeanne in action: "There is something so calm, so holy about this woman that, seeing her, I felt as though I were in the presence of a higher being, and her words went so much to my heart that my eyes – I do not know why – filled with tears."
I think that St. Jeanne Jugan would have agreed with St. Francis of Assisi's famous counsel, "Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary use words." And I think this is the advice she would give us today: "Respect others, no matter how they treat you ... Show everyone, especially the poor, the same kindness and compassion you would show Christ Himself ... Lead others to the Truth not through the eloquence of your words, but through the beauty of your example ... Let the charity of Christ work through you – for only Love can melt hardened hearts and bring them back to God."
St. Jeanne Jugan would likely give us one more piece of advice on how to live well in tough times. If she were with us today, I think she would beg us not to give in to discouragement. She often told the young Little Sisters that they were grafted into the cross and must carry it joyfully unto death ... not mournfully or grudgingly, but joyfully! As Catholics living in what has been called a "dictatorship of relativism," we have been given a heavy cross. But this cross is not insurmountable, for nothing is impossible with God. We follow a God who assured us that the first shall be last, that strength is found in weakness, that those who are persecuted will be blessed and that the meek will inherit the earth!
We believe that St. Jeanne Jugan is still living among us, obtaining for us the graces we need to continue her char-ism. I am confident that she is standing with the Church as we strive to stand up for religious liberty and Christian values, repeating something she often said to her young community: "If God is with us, it will be accomplished."
Sister Constance Veit is communications director for the Little Sisters of the Poor.