Monday, February 10, 2014

Obsession For This World: Satan's Metal Grip on Us


Whenever somebody tells me I look older than twenty-four, I just smile and say, "Well, perhaps that's how I should be." And then they tell me it's all nonsense, that at my age I should try to look as young as possible, and so to attract the opposite sex, get married, have sex, have children, have a steady income, raise kids, die a peaceful death... To which, I say "Hold on, you don't know whom you are talking to. You don't know what you are talking about."

I am a hipster, meaning I don't follow "conventions". I don't follow certain etiquettes although I always  do my best to be respectful of my society. And what an odd society at that!

In a country where Catholicism is steep, I am astounded to find the mania of my folks for YOUTH. 
We have youth-oriented shows in TV, love songs celebrating young love, TV Ads proclaiming loving life while being young, commercial products aimed at youth consumption and so forth... Well there's nothing wrong with all these provided they weren't cocooned in lies and deceit--a fairy-tale-ish claim that Youth is all there is. 

The Catholic teaching (and I can safely say this as an Eastern Orthodox Christian)on life does not focus on the outward gifts of prolonging Youth, nor does the Christian Doctrine teach us to be obsessive of longevity on Earth.  

CS Lewis correctly observed that of course we live in a TEMPORAL world, and since this whole realm is temporal it is only rational to think that we are meant for the other world:
"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither." 1
The strong shifting of the whole subject of how TRUTH is supposed to be, from absolute truth to relative truth, which has long been infecting the West, has been ravaging our Christian shores ever since we followed suit. It seems to me we Filipinos act like lap dogs imitating our former colonizer/benefactor Uncle Sam on that regard. 




Today I see my age-mate peers so OBSESSED with LOOKING young--looking so young one can't even distinguish a worldly, accomplished adult from a naive, inexperienced child. I've seen some men and women lament the loss of lovelife simply because they feel they don't look like the people from Penthouse or FHM. Or a young adult who feels unworthy just because she didn't get the Fashionista get-up from the latest Koreanovela show. Or a millennial techie who's devastated he can't buy the latest IPhone out of his meager salary.

It frustrates me to see that we have made pursuit of Youth as pursuit of Happiness our idee fixe, with materialism as its barter partner. What a deadly concoction!

Don't get me wrong with my opening paragraph. There is nothing inherently wrong with having a family and living a simple life. However, if we are using all of that as a measure of "life's fulfillment", and as means for accumulating "earthly wealth" then we are getting the message wrong. We are forgetting PURPOSE.

The Purpose for this present, earthly life is, in Orthodox Christian speak, the Theosis or deification: the restoration of Imago Dei in us so we can be ready for God's Kingdom.
"If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this." 2
We are Christians, and yet, we always forget our goal.

Regardless of our circumstances in life we can always choose, FREELY CHOOSE, to be on God's side. Our free will is a gift from Christ and it was given so we can freely love Him. He is the Word, the Truth, the Abstract Philosophy, Love, Justice, Peace, Grandeur, who became a person, thus enabling us to be just like Him. 

When we Orthodox sing the Akathist line: "... trampled death by Death..." we refer to God's magnificent love for us by putting His deity aside on the Cross, dying so He could destroy the venom of Death, empowering us through Christ's name to LIVE our lives to its fullest without the fear of falling to Nothingness or eternal fire of Hell. 

Why do we have to waste our strengths on being fearful and anxious of not living in a youthful edge? Why do we have to waste our money on commercial products that only "help" us to be more fearful of losing temporal life? By forsaking the immaterial body offered by Christ, we put on the damaged natures of ourselves. How are we going to heal if we continue rejecting the balm our Great Physician?

Therefore, as young as we are, we must completely reject the notion that the only sight we have is towards the quest for physical youthful permanence. Like the Saints of old and now, we have to strive for HEAVEN and thus we can become victors in Christ.

 "You see how bright the sun and the stars are. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun" from the inner immaterial light of God. Whenever the angels appear upon earth, they are almost always surrounded by light. Aspire to that enlightenment. Throw aside the works of darkness. We can raise our nature to communion with the Divine Nature; and God is the Light uncreated, surpassing every light that has been created."3
        St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ        
"When you hear that at that time the Lord freed the souls from hell and the regions of darkness and that He descended into hell and did an amazing work, do not think that this does not have any personal meaning for you. Man, indeed, can readily accept the evil one. Death has its grip on the children of Adam and their thoughts are imprisoned in darkness. And when you hear mention made of tombs, do not at once think only of visible ones. For your heart is a tomb and a sepulcher. When the prince of evil and his angels have built their nest there and have built roads and highways on which the powers of Satan walk about inside your mind and in your thoughts, then really, are you not a hell and a sepulcher and a tomb dead to God? ... But the Lord descends into the souls of those who seek Him. He goes into the depths of the hellish heart and there He commands death, saying, "Release those captive souls that seek after me, those that you hold by force in bondage." He breaks through the heavy stones that cover the soul. He opens the tombs. He truly raises to life the dead person and leads that captive soul forth out of the dark prison." 4
 St. Macarius, Homily 13. 11 
  
   

***

Lord, let me know my end, the number of my days,
that I may learn how frail I am.

Psalm 39:4 , NAB



PHOTO CREDIT:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/54943973/Consumer-Behavior-of-Millennial-Generation

http://www.enterprise.bitly.com/blog/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2178914/What-I-want-I-grow-SKINNY.html

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