The ranting of the godless, which the Book of Wisdom decries suggest the attitude of the world against believers in Christ. By now, Christians living in contemporary society must have grown used to these tirades of the impious who cry wolf about hate, intolerance and discrimination but do not mind using every discriminatory tactic to further their radical agenda. The gradual awakening unfolding before us is that enmity of the world is the lot of everyone closely associated with Christ. Jesus forewarned His disciples in John 15:19, “If you belonged to the world, then the world would love you as its own. But because I chose you from this world, and you do not belong to it, that is why the world hates you.”
You have certainly heard the charge from some media groups and their pundits that our ideas do not square (well) with modern society and that we should adapt to the values (or lack of values) of present-day society. Both we and our adversaries are confronted with the question: Can Christianity absorb the errors of this age without losing the Christ-principle within it? It will amount to nothing less than a frivolity to avail of, to ascend to, to adapt to the deviant mores that have necessarily produced the current crisis in society. Worldliness and godlessness are twin sisters; and their primary enemy is the Christian-spirit. The only option for Christianity confronted by the deadweight of modernity is to consistently and deliberately swim countercurrent, since “to marry the spirit of this age would leave us as widows in the next.” So-called Christian groups that have attempted to bargain with worldliness have found themselves emptied and de-Christianized. Mediocrity has become the penalty for their loss of conviction.
The world allows only the mediocre to live. It hates the very wicked and the very good. It hates the very wicked, like serial-murderers, because they disturb its possessions and security. It hates the very good, like our Blessed Lord and His teachings, because He disturbs its conscience (Sheen). The Book of Wisdom 2:12 notes why the world hates virtue and people who pursue virtuous living: “He annoys us and opposes our way of life, reproaches us for breaches of the law, and makes known to us the sins of our way of life.” Consequently, social engineers think that by redefining a sin it would no longer sound offensive and deplorable. Hence, by means of accompanying slogans, moral evils are sugarcoated to sound like they are desirable good: so when you hear words like privacy, individual rights, equality, gentlemen’s club, alternate lifestyle, etc., they no longer sound like moral evils. Because they are polished words of propaganda, they can actually be employed not just to advance the causes in question but even to vilify the non-consenting as well as anyone who questions the falsehood inherent. Sadly, such triumph of radicalism has become entrenched as a dictatorship of relativism—an expression coined by the legendry Pope Benedict XVI. Mechanized opinion, imitation of cheap celebrities, dependence on ‘they say’ or ‘they’re wearing’ for guidance has dwarfed the senses and numbed the intellect.
In this age of sophistication and arrogance, our Lord teaches us today the value of littleness and humility. To the apostles arguing about who was the greatest, He presented a little child. He clearly tells them that in order to see anything big, one must be physically little. That is why, to every little child, according to Fulton Sheen, his dad is the biggest man in the world. As he ceases to be little, the world shrinks in size. Anyone who magnifies the ego to infinity cannot learn anything because there’s nothing greater than the infinite. And anyone who thinks that she knows everything, not even God can teach her. God’s lesson on humility and littleness was to become a little baby in order to serve and save His creatures. Even modern theorists and research consistently show and agree that true greatness comes through service of others.
Fr. Chukwudi Jo Okonkwo