Piety for our times

Piety is, of course, an indispensable virtue, because whether we like it or not, or are aware of it or not, we live it in one form or another. At least, we become aware of the seeds of piety early in life.

That’s because we are always in need to relate ourselves to someone superior to us—be it our parents, our elders, and ultimately, God, regardless of how we think about him.

It’s possible, though, that at a later time and usually after many disappointing experiences, one may just have piety with his own self, since he only believes in himself. Let’s not talk about this possibility. Let’s just focus on what we normally—at least as of this time—think of piety.

With the increasing pace of modern life, with its fascination for technology and values like pragmatism, etc., it’s crucial that we take a close, serious look at our responsibility to develop piety toward God.

This is becoming an urgent necessity, since many now are the factors that tend to snuff out our sense of piety. The many concerns and pressures we meet everyday have an effective desensitizing effect on piety.

This is not to mention that especially in our very complicated times, we also meet a lot of puzzles and contradictions that erode our faith and piety in a supreme being that is supposed to be supernatural, all wise and all powerful.

It’s a predicament that actually has been experienced since time immemorial. The Bible, from the Old Testament to the New, is full of such stories. We start to question, then doubt, and can even fall into unbelief, once our expectations and understanding of things seem to be consistently contradicted.

Why do evil men enjoy success and the good ones suffer? Why are those who try to pray and lead a moral, saintly life, usually end up poor, maltreated, etc., while those who seem carefree spiritually and morally appear to have a good time?

 It’s situations like these that actually call, yes, even demand a genuine, deeply-embedded piety, rather than lead us to despair and bitterness. It really depends on us on how to react to these predicaments.

We just need to realize that as much as possible we should not allow the many disappointments and contradictions in life or our intoxicating successes to simply play upon our senses and reasoning that can only absorb things to a certain point.

They should be handled by our faith, with its corresponding piety, that allows us, with God’s grace, to accept and somehow understand whatever can happen to us in this life.

With faith and piety, we allow God, more than our own devices, to guide us through any situation we may find ourselves in, good or bad, big or small.

This is a point that we need to understand well. Very often, our understanding of piety veers more toward something human than divine. It’s a joint effort, of course, but with God making the initiative and us corresponding to it as best we can.

We have to let go of the attitude, often unspoken, that makes us the main actor of piety. Toward piety, our attitude should first of all be that of obedience, docility, submission, before it can be something active and fruitful.

Pope Benedict, in his Porta Fidei that declares the Year of Faith we are in now, says: “To the extent that he freely cooperates, man’s thoughts and affections, mentality and conduct are slowly purified and transformed, on a journey that is never completely finished in this life.”

We need to give teeth and body to this cooperation with God through a clear and concrete plan of piety that should center around prayer, sacrifice, recourse to God’s word and sacraments, etc., for these are where we get in touch with God.

In this regard, and in view of the current conditions of the world, we just cannot have a life of piety that is led more by us than by God. We need to have a plan adapted to our particular circumstances and to the objective requirements of our spiritual and moral life.

In short, we have to outgrow the mentality that keeps piety a low priority in the hierarchy of goals we have to pursue. It’s something basic on which all the other goals of our life have to be founded.

We need to have a living, breathing piety that infuses us in all aspects of our life with an immediately-felt sense of love for God and others. It should be a piety that would definitively define our life.

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