Rooting our sense of morals

Sad to say, many people today appear to be at a loss as to what morality means.It seems that the sense of morals is getting extinct.

Many do not make the effort to study and understand it well, and much less to incarnate it in their lives.

They can have a vague idea that it has something to do with their actions, with their behavior, whether they are good or bad. But they would not know what makes an action good or bad, or what ultimate, universal law, if any, to follow to guide them in their actions.

At best, they just follow what others do, what is popular or in fashion at the moment, what their culture or some social or political consensus somehow would indicate. If not, they just follow their own fleeting feelings or estimations in a given situation.

So what happens as a result is a generalized sense of morals that is badly founded and oriented, and therefore prone to be shallow, reductive and diminished, given to appearances only, erratic and inconsistent, deceptive and vulnerable to be manipulated.

This, I think, is what is happening now. Many people have a shaky sense of morals, one that is basically based and oriented towards oneself, towards one’sor a group’s interests and their own, very individualistic idea of what is good and bad.

It’s a sense of morals that is highly relativistic, made worse by the creeping mentality of a dangerous sense of democracy where people just want to be indiscriminately tolerant of anything.

There’s now a craze on terms and slogans like respect for the plurality of cultures, one is absolutely free to form his own opinions, preferences, options without as much considering those of others. If one or a group wants contraception, abortion, same-sex unions, euthanasia, etc., let them have it. It’s their right.

Democracy in this frame of mind would just be an exercise of a freedom that is not firmly rooted on a basic, universal law that would govern all of us in spite of our unavoidable differences in temperaments, backgrounds, cultures, etc.

In fact, many people now claim there is no such ultimate, universal law that can guide all men in all places, times and situations. At best, we can just have some kind of consensus.

In short, we make ourselves our ultimate source of law, of what is good and bad. There is nothing to look beyond ourselves. As if we made the universe and everything in it, including what is good and bad.

This is the reason why we have to undertake a serious and sustained effort to study the true essence of morality, and to actively teach and propagate it. There obviously will be difficulties, conflicts, discussions, etc. These are normal occurrences that should not deter us from that effort.

I like to believe that these difficulties can only serve to clarify matters and issues, and even to correct errors that can assume the appearances of being right and good, and can count on a wide support of public consensus.

Truth is morality cannot simply be focused on actions without considering the kind of persons we are. And it cannot just talk about kinds of persons without considering where we came from—that is, without considering the unavoidable question of God and religion.

This is where the real problem lies. It’s about people not wanting to go all the way to tackle the question of God and religion. They shy away from these. They get contented simply with what is practical and popular.

This is not to mention the fact that there are people who already claim that morality has nothing to do with God, because in the first place they do not believe in God. While no one is forced to believe or not to believe in God, we just have to clarify and determine the truth about God, his existence, his providence, his will and laws, etc.

This is fundamental and indispensable because with this question hanging in the air, the inevitable consequence would be a sense of morals that is largely vague and inconsistent.

We need to tackle the question of morality as being based on God more seriously and persistently. This is a question that is more important than the social and political issues that we like to flood ourselves with.

The question of God should not just be confined to displays of popular piety that thanks to God we also have aplenty. It should be made to bear on the need to develop a consistent sense of morals.