Keep The Faith, Stay The Course

I receive half-a-dozen phone calls daily from people who employ a range of “sales techniques.” Some say I am eligible for massive discounts of their product. Some say their records indicate my need for some sort of insurance. Some ask personally-probing questions about my health or my age. When I ask questions, they hang up.

It's clear these callers are routinely lying. Many people excuse these deliberate exaggerations and dishonest distortions, but excuses obscure the larger issue: excusing lies normalizes evil, and lying is an evil enterprise which intends to deceive others, to deprive others of rightful knowledge, to twist and turn words into tools of obscurity and devious excess. At root, it is an evil, dehumanizing practice.

When we passively accept or actively tell deliberate lies and distortions about others or we deprive others of truth to which they are entitled, we normalize moral evil. Deliberate lies are unquestionably evil - sinful, both in their content and in the intentions of people who willingly lie and choose to deceive.

One Reason

Why is lying -a breakdown in moral probity - so widespread?

One major cause - reported in the research of Dr. George Barna - reveals significant deterioration in many Americans’ belief in God and in the moral restraints of the Bible. Dr. Barna’s results reflect (among other troubling facts) a shift away from a biblical worldview and from God Himself. Here is the link to Dr. Barna’s impressive study: CRC-Release-AWVI-1-Feb-18-2025-Final.pdf

Another recent research study by Dr. Ryan Berge asks if America’s religious decline has leveled off. The answer is not encouraging. Here’s Berge’s link: Is Christianity No Longer in Decline? - First Things

America’s growing anti-religious attitudes are furthered by a plethora of groups and celebrities who (to quote one well-known atheist’s appeal to free speech) fear neither God nor Hell, dismiss God’s role in Creation and reject objective morality in our lives.

Contrary to the nihilist’s viewpoint, we are not cosmic accidents or genetic flukes. Human nature seeks purpose in our lives, and cumulative evidence says we are created by God Who is our origin and our end-point … even if we deny this fact and numb ourselves to the moral limits inherent in our nature.

More Than Indifference

I recall a time in our nation when Presidents publicly invoked the blessings of God upon America. Over decades, indifference crept in, then blatant disrespect and, now, open rejection of God.

Given the precarious status of life on this planet and the colossal Mystery of Creation, it seems logical and wise to honor God and observe His moral dictates; wise to seek assurances from our Creator, assurances for which human nature yearns, assurances which our fractured world can never bestow.

We live in perilous times; America’s enemies are merciless. In addition, the very Earth where we live houses forces beyond our control (tides, earthquakes, tornadoes, the unpredictable Universe around us).

Clearly, dangers exist … so it does not seem logical or rational that some people:

are concerned only with their own comfort and conceits,

pay no heed to moral laws which define human behavior,

are indifferent, even hostile, to the God Who created us,

are oblivious to the marvels and miracles of Creation,

believe we have no soul and our lives mean nothing.

It is quite disturbing that religious commitments of Americans are on steady decline … and has been for decades.

Where To Go ?

Let me be clear: I do not encourage rending of garments nor a spate of ululation nor extermination of dissidents nor wearing sackcloth-and-ashes to the grocery. But we are spiritual, as well as material, beings – body and soul. Our soul enlivens our bodies and is meant to enlighten our minds and inspire Faith

Since our religious quest is innate to our nature, reason and common sense even admit a source of Goodness beyond self. But we are sidetracked by our wayward ego, and we do have a choice to accept or to reject God, our Creator.

Given our need to know, I have not found a better way than the Christian path … especially the Catholic Faith. Catholicism makes enormous sense, even as the Church undergoes another historic hit from persons who

(1) misunderstand or distort the substance of Catholic teachings,

(2) oppose its doctrinal and moral standards, or

(3) find its beliefs and practices too demanding.

Example: Catholicism does not support abortion, transgenderism, assisted suicide and other choices which secularists popularize as “freedom” or “civil rights.” Human dignity demands limits to all freedoms, as the Catholic Church vigorously believes. Human rights are not unlimited, as many secularists hold. We are not laws unto ourselves…

Limits? What Limits?

Some denominations say everyone has a right to unlimited self-assertion. The individual is, they say, morally autonomous. “Let’s not judge,” they say. “We are all the same in God’s eyes,” as if we may say or do anything we wish. To think otherwise, they say, is prejudicial and un-Christian.

Catholicism, on the other hand, honors the limits - the God-given limits - on behavior and upholds moral demands based on the teachings and example of its Divine Founder.

As a result, Catholicism is often unpopular, as Christ predicted. It is often a counter-cultural voice to modernity’s tendency to dismiss Self-restraint, Obedience and Humility as basic habits (Virtues) in Christian life … indeed, in all human affairs.

Some Basics

The fundamental truth of Catholic spirituality is our “relationship” with God through Jesus in loving friendship. Jesus holds out His hand to us as we stumble and meander. He is always ready to assist us. He died to reassure us of His eternal commitment to us, but we have free will; we can turn away, as some do.

So, as we say, Catholic beliefs are sometimes a problem (1) for skeptics who reject Faith, and (2) for erstwhile Catholics who no longer accept the Church as their spiritual home … for various reasons:

Some have a bad time with a testy priest or a punitive nun;

Others are led into doubt by sinful behavior amongst clergy;

Some find no persuasive evidence of Christ’s care;

Some get lost in self-defeating habits and give up in despair.

In response, Catholicism teaches that Grace abounds. For Catholics, “Grace” is not merely good manners or fortuitous turn of events. Grace is a Divine gift by which we share in the life of Christ. Grace inspires us (1) to live according to the guidance of Virtue, (2) to overcome our conceits, and (3 not to give up. We persevere; even when God seems silent to our needs, and grants no consolation in times of doubt, we still persevere.

Lessons

The Church recognizes that we are blessed with the Grace of Faith, yet burdened with the anchors of our humanity. We lug around with us the good and the not-so-good. But Jesus understands our burdens, distractions, weariness, nagging doubts and sorrows. Happily, His constant response is to be always there in permanent friendship and understanding.  

Even when we doubt God, even when we waver, even when we are emotionally drained, He is constant and steady and trustworthy. His Word is a given, His friendship constant, His understanding of the human condition quite personal.

Personal? How?

During His last hours (as you recall), He burned out badly enough to ask His Father to stop all His agony, to let Him out of what was ahead. He expressed His doubts and fears, as his friends scurried into the night and abandoned Him. But He finally said that single, inspiring phrase which rings for us through history: "Not my will, but thine be done."  

So, we believe God is active in our lives every second, even when He seems silent. We believe God speaks not with thunderous revelations but, for starters, through:

the gentle presence of Nature around us;

the beguiling realities of our own bodies;

the incalculable complexities of human nature;

the trillions of planets which exist beyond our knowing;

messages of Scripture, Tradition and the inexhaustible resources of Christian life and Eucharistic worship.

God reveals Himself to us with incredible regularity. Our task is to look beyond our own reservations and conceits … and see what is clearly, miraculously before us – constantly before us.

A Brief Summary

It is within this context of Creation’s Mysteries that the believing Catholic begins to comprehend the generosity of Christ and the mission of His Catholic Church (“Catholic” means “Universal”).

History reveals that Christ established only one church, the Catholic Church, to teach us to live in peace and authentic love, to accept redemption, forgiveness and reconciliation, to revere Christ’s brief life, and to honor His ultimate sacrifice.  

So, we persevere – as must we – because our Faith teaches us that we are ever in God’s keeping at all times:

- even when He seems silent to our needs and demands; - even when we are plagued with doubts and burdened with mean, angry thoughts; - even when we are fully aware of our sinfulness; - even when clouds of weariness hover heavily and sprinkle us with incessant travail; - even when uncertainty and negativity rule.

Sometimes silence is the sound of God listening, since He listens to us in ways far deeper than merely our words.  So, we persevere … despite the lack of solace and consolation.

Finally . . .

Being a faithful, persevering person does not come easily. It is a struggle which even Christ endured. Thus, our struggle is a familiar struggle to Him because of His own human experience.  

So, as friends of Jesus, we will go through our doubts and uncertainty and absence of rewards and lack of clarity … just as Jesus did in His life. However, for us, the path is not one which leads us to death … but to life.  

We are given the Grace to realize that authentic meaning is found in our doubts and in the ambiguity of God's silences which test our mettle, challenge our fidelity, call forth our perseverance and reinforce our trust.

This path is the Way of our Faith, our Hope, our Love … the Way to Wisdom and to the meaning of our lives.

 Daniel Boland is a psychologist and freelance writer.