The Spirit of the Age

So why is American culture, along with many other cultures as well, going off the rails? As mentioned already, Christians share blame in this process because we have not striven to live the Gospel and to hold the culture to Gospel values. More and more people are ashamed of being disciples of Christ. Our Catholic colleges shed their identity to compete with secular schools. Many Catholic colleges prefer to be elite than to be Catholic. Many parochial schools strive to maintain enrollment levels even if it means paying lip service to the faith. Having a winning football team and obtaining as many scholarships as possible are the metrics for success instead of preparing students for spiritual success. Obtaining high-paying jobs seems more important than obtaining heaven.

We have also allowed the secular culture to set the moral tone to the point that Christian ethics have been pushed aside or even turned upside down. Justice is no longer blind and objective but arbitrary and partisan. Inequities are overlooked if done by someone on our ‘team’ but fully punished if done by someone from the opposing ‘team.’ Personal responsibility has been replaced with group entitlement or group guilt such that the innocent living today are held responsible for the sins or perceived sins of their ancestors (contra Jer 31:29-30) while there is an unearned moral cachet for those whose ancestors were victimized. Turn the other cheek (Mt 5:38-39) has been replaced with an eye-for-an-eye (Exo 21:24) and often an escalating sequence of vengeance. The Old Testament teaching of an-eye-for-an-eye eliminated undue retribution while Jesus’ teaching on turning the other cheek is meant to eliminate retribution altogether. Forgiveness is no longer granted but grudges are held tightly. Forgiveness is for the weak while victimhood equates with virtue.

While the moral and cultural decline is accelerating at a brisk pace, we got where we are today slowly. One compromise leads to another until there is little room for compromise without total surrender. One of the best examples of this is how contraception went from a universally understood evil to a nearly universally perceived moral ‘virtue.’ One hundred years ago, all Christians and nearly all religions rightly taught that contraception was gravely sinful. The moral dam broke in 1930 with the church of England allowing married couples to contracept if they had serious reasons for doing so. Soon, the caveat of needing a serious reason was lifted. Soon after that, contraception became a way of life for the married and the unmarried alike. The ‘virtue of responsible parenthood’ opened the door for the normalization of vices such as fornication, adultery, and general promiscuity.

Just as purity and chastity are disdained, so is the idea of sacrifice. Yes, we still laud the sacrifices that others make to keep us safe and secure. We hold policemen, firemen, and soldiers in high esteem when they pay the ultimate price. However, we are glad that someone else is doing the sacrificing on our behalf. Today, our military goes off to far distant lands while we remain at home griping about high gas prices. Yes, we can debate the wisdom of how the armed forces are employed, but if the general public’s biggest sacrifice is economic discomfort, then we have to wonder how soft we have become. Could we sacrifice as our ancestors did in the world wars of the last century? Can we even imagine facing rationing of gasoline, tires, clothing, footwear, dairy products, meat, fish, sugar, flour, coffee, and many other staples we take for granted? If the survival of our country or our way of life depended on it, would we tolerate going without our daily large pumpkin spice mocha frappuccino? For four days? For four weeks? For four months? For four years?

Sacrificing creature comforts for a good cause seems extreme today because we are soft. But sacrifice is the language of love. After all, Jesus taught at the Last Supper “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you” (Jn 15:12-14). Likewise, when the Apostles could not drive out a certain demon, Jesus responded, saying “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting” (Mk 9:29). It is likely that the wicked spirit of this age that darkens our culture cannot be driven out except by the sacrifice of prayer and fasting.

—Fr Booth