MORAL RELATIVISM & CONTEMPORARY CONSECRATED LIFE

1. MORAL RELATIVISM & CONTEMPORARY CONSECRATED LIFE

2. The Da Vinci Code • Dan Brown based himself on a non-canonical “Gnostic gospel” and on a fiction [The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail] • This story of Jesus was according to Brown’s sheer imagination….and so, is very far from the recognized four canonical gospels! • Such fictitious efforts make the objective truth about Jesus get distorted in the long run

3. Relativism • Often, in today’s world the objective truth about things have been diluted or even completely distorted by the subjective opinions of individuals and groups • This, in fact, is a direct result of personal experiences acquiring the status of a ‘source of knowledge’ • Of course, personal experience has its own place in the acquiring of knowledge, but it surely does not give the entire picture of things, the whole truth • Unfortunately, today, all such individual-personal relationships are granted an equal status of truth. “Your opinion is true, and so, also is my opinion”!

4. Relativism • When each and every opinion is granted equal status, then, relativism simply follows! • Relativism is when all points of view are accorded equal status and value. • It is when a point of view lacks a common reference point. It is exclusive subjectivism. It excludes any link with other views • Giuseppe di Rosa: The individual becomes the measure, the standard of everything

5. Relativism • When each and every exclusive individual point of view [that is cut off from a common reference to reality] is assigned an equal value, then, each and every such individual point of view automatically acquires a relative, “true” representation of reality. • Thus, all points of view become “relatively true”! • Every opinion acquires the status of “truth”!

6. Moral Relativism • Every community/society has its own accumulated ‘wisdom’ [eg., fire will burn; better to store food for the off-season,…etc.] • Every community/society has also its own accumulated ‘moral wisdom’, i.e., of what is right and what is wrong [eg.,respecting elders is praiseworthy; killing is wrong,….etc] • But if and when the individual person/group becomes the unique arbiter/judge of what is right and what is wrong [without any reference to the accumulated moral wisdom of the community/society], then, we have moral relativism.

7. Moral Relativism • We as human persons, do not live in isolated ‘monads’! We live in society with other persons. Thus, morality or moral truths cannot be reached except in and through others and with others. • The individual person is not the creator of what is right and what is wrong, or of moral truth. • What is right and what is wrong exist independent of human subjects, and so, we need those ‘others’ in reaching those moral truths. For simply as individuals cut off from others, we just cannot reach them at all!

8. Moral Relativism • Moral and immoral acts: three criteria for judging [the act-in-itself, the circumstances and the intention]. All three criteria are essential in order not to fall into moral extremisms [Thomas Aquinas] • Those who judge the morality using only the act-in-itself, fall into the error of objective absolutism! • Those who judge the morality using only the intention, fall into the error of subjective relativism!

9. Moral Relativism & CL • Along with materialism and hedonism, another serious ‘ism’ which the CL has been attacked with today is surely moral relativism. In fact, the latter can be held responsible for the former two, also! • In what follows, I will try to highlight just eight concrete areas of CL where moral relativism has had negative effects

10. 1.The Meaning of a life-long Commitment • “Is it humanly possible to make life-long commitments?” • “How can we make a commitment for life when we do not know what is to come tomorrow?” • They forget our human history and also the life of Jesus Christ who never wavered in his commitment in spite of the ever-changing circumstances!

11. 2. Individual over/above the Community • For a relativist community and others are of least importance, because only what he/she holds and does, matters. • In this way of thinking, the individual person is said to have individual rights over and above the community and community obligations. • The main error here is to forget that whether in CL or anywhere, we, human beings, live with others, in society/community

12. 2. Individual over/above the Community • Some even go to the extent of invoking the sacred Catholic principle of ‘conscience’, to justify their relativistic positions! • But the cherished Catholic teaching on conscience has always upheld the right of every human person to uphold, follow and live according to his/her conscience that is properly formed [GS 16; DH 2,3,14; VS 54,58,59,64]. • It is surely not an individualistic, isolated conscience that the Church upholds as sacred [the Latin etymology: ‘con’ + ‘scientia’, together would mean: “to know with”]

13. 2. Individual over/above the Community • Pope Benedict XVI at Regensburg • Some religious even daring to talk of individual, personal rights! [Timothy Radcliffe: “on the day of his/her profession, a religious relativizes his/her individual rights in order to absolutize the institute’s common projects”] • Legitimate authority of a superior, too, is often diluted, as a result of relativism! [VC 43]

14. 3. Commitment VS Job • Since a life-long commitment is perceived as impossible, any task is seen as a job [“lack of job satisfaction” for some religious!] • Tasks of Religious Life are often paralleled with secular jobs [talk of ‘retirement’ even before a person gets old or incapable!] • Sandra Schneiders: tasks of CL are seen as “just one aspect of life” – CL itself becomes just relative to their other commitments, which at times may have priority!

15. 4. Being VS Doing • A necessary logical consequence of regarding CL as a mere job, is the prevalent craze to be ‘work-oholics’, to be “achievers”, to be “doers” of things! • Doing becomes more important than being • Activity has become so important that being or spirituality for doing those acts become irrelevant [T.S. Elliot: to do the right thing for the wrong reasons!]

16. 5. The Meaning of Religious Vows • The 3 vows of CL are ‘counter-signs’ to the prevailing secular trends. • They imply a swimming against the secular currents of Hedonism, Materialism and a Distortion of the concept of Freedom [VC 87]. The vows relativize these currents and absolutize God and his Kingdom. • But, today, Relativism, has reversed this order in most of our CL!

17. 6. The Interpretation of Charisms • Relativism goes by each and every individual whims and fancies! • In its legitimate evolution, CL has gone through many changes, but there are also certain essential elements like the basic charism and other essential traditions which are peculiar to a congregation/order [VC 3, 37] • The recent lament of a Superior General of a well-known male clerical Congregation

18. 7. Erroneous Comparisons of CL with Marriage • CL has a special place in the Church and the world. • Both Marriage and CL have their own unique dignity, and so, they cannot be compared and contrasted, whenever it suits us! • “CL is not natural”, “CL is an abnormal life”,….etc.!!!

19. 8. Aberrations in Formation • Haphazard programs of formation, influenced not by a spirit of CL, but purely by individual whims & fancies of formators, based mostly on modern psychology, sociology,…etc. • Some formators subjectively interpreting the charism of a congregation, and passing it on to future generations! • The importance of the ratio of formation for every congregation: an anti-dote to relativistic tendencies of some formators [VC 68]

20. Conclusion • Today, moral relativism is a given, and it has come to stay! • The Church’s remedy to this is to emphasize the need to put our individual subjective moral judgments into an on-going dialogue with the objective moral norms/practices [a common reference point] of the Church and the Congregation. • The Church invites us in CL to follow a via media between the two dangerous extremes of subjective Relativism and Objective absolutism in CL. In fact, CL has a duty to lead the way in this respect for the other followers of Christ.