Reminder on fidelity

“Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.” (Mt 5,17)

We have just been reminded of these words from our Lord recently. They tell us there are things that do not change and we need to conform to them no matter what. They form the basis for the need for fidelity that we should cultivate and aim at all the time.

We cannot allow ourselves to drift in any way the wind blows, because that surely will not take us to our proper end, nor bring us in ways fit for our dignity as persons. In this rapidly changing world, it is imperative that we be clear about what these things that do not and should not change are.

This knowledge, which should be abiding and operative, is urgently needed these days when we are pressured to dance to the tune of change as dictated by the tenets of practicality, popularity, relativistic morals and other purely worldly values.

The intensity of such pressure is undermining our sense of commitment, perseverance and fidelity to the constants of our life. We are compelled to give knee-jerk reactions to events, and so to be shallow in our grasp of things, myopic and narrow-minded.

We are pushed to be flippant and frivolous in our talk and behavior, not serious and sober. We seem to be egged to have no long-term plans, just short-term, induced not to think in metaphysical terms but rather to think with feelings alone.

Nowadays, deception, betrayals and treachery are getting common. People easily make promises and just as easily also break them. Words people give are just words with hardly any spirit to animate them to reality and to bring to their ultimate consequences. The now Bisayan slang “estoryahee” (tell it to the Marines) captures the general skepticism and cynicism people have toward one another.

People enter into relationships, vows, contracts and marriages driven not so much out of true love and care for the others as simply out of selfish and opportunistic motives. People seem to become more of users than lovers. They treat others more as objects than persons.

Their sense of justice is more anchored on their own interest rather than that of the others, and much less, that of God. In fact, their sense of sin is disappearing, since what is right and wrong is now purely a matter of personal, subjective or at best some consensual judgment. There’s nothing absolute, because God is often excluded in the equation.

Just look around. While within the Church these sad phenomena can also take place—Christ was not even spared of Judas and the Church from time to time can be rocked in scandals—the world now seems to be making as norms and standards the irregular status of infidelity and promiscuity.

A congressman dies and two or three women fight over the custody of the body and the legacy. A movie star divorces her husband and after a day she is seen cavorting with another man in public.

Even among ordinary folks, when asked whether they are single or married, a good number now respond with the now notorious word, “complicated.” It’s clear that the sense of fidelity is waning fast, is ebbing away in the minds of many of us.

What should we do? Obviously, the first thing to do is to pray, to ask everyone to beg our Lord to give us more grace, more light, more strength to effect another conversion in the hearts of all. And out of this prayer should come practical initiatives.

We have to rein in our emotions, passions and urges, and submit them to the workings of reason and grace. This requires a continuing formation that should be given in all places—not only in schools, churches, offices, but also in the media, in the streets, billboards, farms, etc.

This formation should include not only the doctrinal aspects which cater more to the intellects of the people, but also the human and spiritual that would truly enter into the hearts of the people, creating deep, firm convictions and permanent but ever-improving virtues.

We have to realize that fidelity, commitment and perseverance is a matter of one’s true relationship with God. It’s not just our own making, our own choice.

Let’s hope that we can also count of credible witnesses and models of fidelity, commitment and perseverance, especially among our leaders and other people of influence.