CHRIST AS THE YARDSTICK

By Rebecca C. Costales 

One of my friends came for a visit and, over lunch, we talked about our lives.  He mentioned that people at his office didn’t seem to know right from wrong. In truth, we live in an age where people’s concept of rightness is based on ‘Everyone’s doing it, so it must be right.’ 

The Lure of Media

Ours is a society of popular culture reflected in the media.  The influence it has on children and teenagers is quite alarming.   Watching ‘reality’ shows on TV you’d wonder: ‘What reflects what? Are these shows a reflection of society with producers getting their ideas from society itself, or are they producing a different reality that people easily adapt to?’  Think of the amount of sex and violence on TV, it’s astounding. Think of the youth watching it.  Delve more deeply into the kind of music, advertising and news that you read and watch everyday, and you get the picture of how far the media can contaminate our lives.

Stereotyped Christians

For us, people who choose to follow Christ’s life as the only yardstick with which we measure our choices and actions, it seems that we are slowly becoming the minority in society.  We are called deviants because we veer away from the norms and behavior of the society we live in. This choice is a sacrifice in itself, for to live a Christian life is to expect to be branded as ‘too different, too religious, too traditional, too conservative, too passé.’

Better than words

But God didn’t say to those who are faithful to Him, ‘Remain unsociable and locked up in your own worlds. Mingle only with people who are themselves holy.’  How can we win souls for Him when we remain hidden or unsociable?  It is not that we have to actively expose ourselves to evil and pray that we are not tempted. But rather, that we live our human and divine life in the world and influence others by our virtues.  ‘I do not pray you take them out of the world,’ says our Lord, ‘but to keep them from the evil one’ (Jn 17:15). He is telling us to stand up for what we believe, to embody our faith in the responsibilities that we are called to in our lives — as parents, as priests, as students, as professionals.  How can parents explain to their teenage child that pre-marital sex is wrong when he reasons out, ‘Pre-marital sex is generally accepted in society, so it must be right.’ How can a doctor stand up for his faith if he prescribes and promotes contraceptive pills? And there are many more instances when one is faced with a challenge regarding faith and morals. There are times when our own communion with the less good has made us less good, when we are not strong enough to resist the world.

Point of Existence

When I look at my own life, it is a bittersweet struggle, a struggle to become deeply aware of Christ’s presence at work, with the people I meet, in my conversations, in the ordinariness of my life. But it is a struggle that is motivated by love for God and fear of sin. After all, the life of Christ is the only valid yardstick with which I can truly measure my own existence.