A Christmas Grace and the age of persecution

 

    Is it just me or does it seem like the Spirit of Christmas is going under if not all together becoming extinguished?  This Christmas more than ever, I seem to notice how much The Savior's birthday has come under attack. Maybe I am not paying attention but the enthusiasm about Christmas of past seems to have been eroded  by a nonsensical political correctness or may I say atheistic bullying that has become rampant. The default "Merry Christmas" phrase has been replaced with "happy holidays," and anybody who dares to differ with the so called "culture" and use the earlier instead of the later is accused of not being inclusive and forcing their religion on others as if religion is a poison that should be avoided at all cost. Should I continue about all the headlines I've been reading about countless cases of people complaining and suing left and right to remove a simple nativity scene from a public park, a courthouse, or even a neighborhood entrance with the claims that they are offended by the Christian message. Or maybe is the parent who sues the school because their child was in a school assembly and someone sang a Christmas song. I can continue but I wish not to share the headache that I get from seeing such hatred being directed to Godly things that if embraced would bring great joy to any person with an open heart.
    The reality is that even 20 centuries later, the prophecy remains true that God "came to his own but his own people accepted him not." (John 1:11) But why so much hatred? If those who do not believe in God are as free as they claim to be, why do they feel the need to persecute and trash those who do. Will not the truly free man enjoy his freedom in security? the fact of the matter is that no one is free apart from God, and should one claim to be free apart from the one who is the Truth, the only freedom they have is that of deceiving themselves. Obviously, without passing any judgment upon those who've acted so, it's their lack of peace in a despairing position that defies God that leads them to act in a manner that wishes to bring everyone down with them to the pits of unbelief and hatred of all that is good. To this, may God help them to know Him and love Him.
       Having concluded so however, my fear is not this type which is already cold, rather its in the interior lukewarmness that we all may be tempted to fall into.  Many Christians have allowed the worldly distractions to settle in their hearts and replace the joyful anticipation of the birth of Christ.  Many have become trepid giving in to the intimidation and the pressures of the world.  Now I must confess that were it not for God's grace, I could have despaired and asked like St. Peter "who could be saved," but the Lord has brought me to an epiphany that has made this Christmas a great grace for me.So what is this?
    This epiphany is a simple phrase that a friend of mine said to me a couple of years ago straight from the book of Zechariah 13:9 "I will test them as gold is tested, they shall call my name and I will hear them." This phrase is a great example of what we are going through. In the recent attacks on Christmas and those of us who desire to celebrate it, the purity of our intention is tested and purified. It's in this crucible of suffering and persecution that God purifies our hearts so that we can accept and love him with a greater purity. Even in a natural sense, it's always simple to love others when things are great between us but when things get difficult, our love is tested and if it's found wanting, we abandon those relationships and deem them unworthy.  This is the same case under the current persecution.  Our hearts are purified so that we can Love God for who He Is, instead of loving him for any other selfish reason.
    I remember like it was yesterday when a couple of years ago I was so afraid of simply making a sign of the cross which is deemed a classic Catholic practice that if I had to say grace in a restaurant, I would near go under the table in fear of others seeing me make the sign of the cross. I now laugh at such timidity ,but eventually God started speaking to my conscious by reminding me of those words by Christ that "those who acknowledge me before others, I will acknowledge them before my Father in heaven and those who deny me before men, I will also deny them before my Father."  In the light of these words and by God's grace, I started realizing that by crossing myself and invoking the Holy Trinity even in public was a way of sharing my faith, and God gave me the courage to do so. The next time I was in the middle of a coliseum with non-Catholics and being the lone person crossing myself.  Now, may it be in public or private, I do it for pure love of God and when eyes turn on me with a look of disapproval, I rejoice in the fact that God has given me the opportunity to die to myself so that I can live for Him.

   Coming back to my Christmas observation, we should also take heart to stand with Christ and joyfully proclaim and celebrate His birth and whether we are accepted or rejected, we should be encouraged by his promise from the beatitudes where he stated that "happy are you when they persecute you for my sake, rejoice, for great is your reward in heaven." Again, we should know that God uses the fire of persecution and suffering to purify us just "like gold is purified through fire." Therefore, we should stand firm and receive our newborn King the very Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ with great anticipation and joy. I  joyfully wish all of you a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Happy New Year. May the blessings of Our Lord reign upon our lives now and forever more.

Dress and God: A call for modesty

Recently, I've been thinking about modesty in the light of the virtue of chastity. I admit that was it not for the assurance from the scriptures that "where sin abides, grace abides all the more," (Rom 5:20) I would have despaired by now. All it takes one to see how deprived we are of this virtue is to open his eyes. May it be sitting in the comfort of one's home and watching television, or being out in the markets of modern society, the observant man will conclude just from the fashion trends that we have either abandoned the once revered sense of modesty, or that we have abandoned it all together in search of a pseudo freedom that is not only destructive, but which has robbed many of the dignity that is due a person. I must confess that I have thought about writing on this topic for a long time but my procrastination syndrome to downright lack of ideas has kept me from it. This however was recently put to rest after reading an article titled "a letter to women" by my friend Brendan a university student whose courage has at least inspired me to give it a shot. Let me give you a taste of his no nonsense approach to the subject in a quote from his letter.
   "It is increasingly difficult for me to look at you without disrespecting you with my eyes. What else do you want me to think of when you wear skin-tight clothing? You have stripped yourself of everything that made you beautiful. You have offered yourself to many men and wonder why I do not treat you like the only woman in the world." You can read the rest of the letter here
    Before I continue, let me just make you aware that the this article was published in a university newspaper. Without saying anything further, you can already guess what kind of reaction this stirred to the credit of my friend whose courage was not deterred by an anticipated anger and downright lunacy. I am oft of the thought that especially for a young man and especially when it comes to chastity, being in a college campus is like "having one foot in hell and the other on a banana peel; either way you are going down." But like I stated before, where there is plenty of darkness, the light shines forth all the more, so in the same sentence, I think that the occasion to exercise the virtue of chastity is greatest in this circle.
 Since my friend has already addressed this topic with a forthright approach of which you can read in its entirelity here, I will take an alternate route and ride on the caution for the sake of the weak minded and the undiscerning hearts that may mistake the call to truth with personal attack.
    Now, why put God and dress in the same sentence? The answer can be found in 1 Corinthian 6:19; "do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit." This statement by the inspired Scripture writer forms the fundamental connection between God and how we dress. The first and foremost reason of why we should dress modestly is in honor of God whose love is so great that He has made our bodies a temple of His Holy Spirit and anything that is contrary to this truth is a lack of gratitude on our part of His gracious love. This alone should encourage all people of good will to take care of how they dress, and even in our hedonistic society where we think we have the sovereign right to our bodies to do with whatever we will, there lies a silent voice that tells us otherwise. I have often observed, especially in young girls whose consciences have not been fully desensitized, whereby while wearing either short dresses or tight clothing, there entire engagement when they sit is to try to pull their dresses to cover themselves more. This sense of shame goes to show that deep down inside, when we wear immodestly, we know that we have deviated from the good and our consciences condemn us. 
     However, our society has become so accustomed to this deviation, that we think it is the norm and even a good to let loose and wear or not wear anything and to think otherwise is to repress personal freedom that we have worked so long for.  This mindset goes to show that just like our first parents, in search for freedom apart from God, we succeed only to enter into the bondage of sin.  Unfortunately, the social sin of fashion trends that are meant only to deceive and to tempt have become the norm today.  Although not exclusive to women, this immodesty in clothing is at cancerous stages that only the grace of God and a rediscovery of truth can cure.  These days, the dress that was meant to be worn and sheepishly so in the nightclubs in now worn in the Church and revealing attire that only the unscrupulous of past generations wore has become the dress of choice regardless of where it's worn. The sense of shame is long gone and what is private in one's body has become public display as if it's a commodity to be admired by all.  Oh lost generation we are. So quickly to forget that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and if undeterred by that to remember the words of Our Lord in Matthew 18:6 that; " whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy milestone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." With words like these, we can see the dangers of immodesty both for the one dressed so and for the one who falls in the hands of their temptation. 
   I must say that dressing immodestly is not exclusive to women. While men are more prompt to fall from the women wearing short skirt, tight clothes and revealing tops among other things, men pulling their pants to their knees and showing their undergarments may be a cause of temptation for women. I however think that it might annoy them more than it tempts them. Men however fall mostly in their speech. The way they describe women and loosely use sexual terms in a disrespectful way does the same damage.  So what then?
    While I might point out multiple ways in which we have failed as a society with the promotion of immodest fashion trends to the point of leading some to despair, the prudent thing is to start addressing this issue in a truthful way. Being fallen like the rest, I can say that the premier step is to seek God's help first so that you yourself do not become an object of temptation for another, but also that you may not succumb to the temptations presented to you on a daily basis. This, pampered with speaking the truth in love whenever possible to those whose sense of modesty is all together eroded by society and trying to charitably arouse their consciences to the good that can be found in respecting one's body and not using it as an object of pleasure and allurement but rather as a temple of the Holy Spirit always ready to accept and give love both to God and neighbor. 
    Truly the damage has been done and it's great but once more we should not loose courage of acquiring the holy virtue of chastity which immodesty is its biggest casualty. I therefore urge you ladies to give thought to your dignity as the temple of the Holy Spirit  before you dress and how you ought to respect your body and you guys before you open you mouth to think of the same. It doesn't go without mentioning that the Purity of Jesus Our Lord and that of His holy mother Mary should be our standard. God help us all.