I was once accused of being too soft on sin. As far as I can remember, the person who complained would have us revert to the sin-dominated culture of the pre-Vatican II Church, with its emphasis on weekly confessions or not receiving communion unless preceded by confession. The 'old' Church of the 16th century, in which people of my generation grew up, dealt with people primarily in their sin.
Vatican II called people to open themselves to 'the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties' of our modern age. Has this been honored more in the breach than in the observance? Has the incessant bombardment with high-powered advertising techniques succeeded in defining and creating more pressing needs than the need for which we're wired, God? Has 'shop til you drop - choose till you snooze' become a way of life? Costco and Safeway offer more than 40 brands of shampoo to choose from. We have more than 150 cable TV channels. New gadgets and software become available every month, with a warning that we will face some kind of setback if we don't get them. Besides, are we to allow the Joneses get ahead of us?
The quicksands of fear and inhumanity that advertisers incessantly lead us into not only define and create more and greater 'needs,' but they end up shaping our personality and attitude to life: 'I' become the center of the universe; other people, things to serve my needs. The moral norm becomes efficiency; the means, whatever works - be it unethical business practices, exploitation of labor, lying, spousal cheating, murder or mayhem. These are the fruits of narcissism, a condition that renders it difficult for us to look beyond ourselves.
What happens when people cannot get the good things being advertised? A sleeping giant is roused and becomes enraged. Daily domestic violence, family breakdown, child physical and sexual abuse, substance addiction, addiction to sex, porn and gambling, street crime and school violence, racism, sexism, militarism, homophobia, xenophobia.... If it gets you what you 'need,' then do it! Looking at the 'not guilty' pleas being entered in court for the worst crimes makes me wonder if, deep down, these people feel they did nothing wrong; they had a 'legitimate need' to do it! Narcissistic people don't like to use the word 'sin;' they prefer the word 'need.'
I spent more time in seminary developing ways to explain divinity than developing ways to discover where people are at - how they think and form their everyday values and needs, how they live within the home and construct meaning out of their everyday experience. Pre-Vatican II people found that personal sin was their obstacle to living according to God's will. So they confessed their sins weekly. People today find that their individual, personal reasons for living as they do, are not the same as those for living authentic Christian lives. The old Church met people in their sinfulness. Today's Church appears to be ignorant of what makes people tick. It doesn't really meet them in their 'joys and sorrows, fears and anxieties.' 'Irrelevant' is a word many people use about the Church today.
You'd get the impression from some of our bishops that Vatican II has been tried and found wanting. Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm convinced that the vision of Vatican II has not yet been tried! The Irish Prime Minister described the Vatican last Wednesday as 'narcissistic,' one of the worst characteristics of our society. Narcissism is one of the major negatives of modernity that the Church should be targeting, not wallowing in! While the Vatican is not the Church, nevertheless clergy and people are conditioned and constrained to swim in its culture, narcissistic or otherwise.
If the Church is soft on anything today it is narcissism. It needs to acknowledge that it acts as a cover for sin and evil in the world. It should assume responsibility for helping people by inviting them to a conversion of mind and heart which can rectify narcissism by getting people to look beyond themselves. Otherwise there will remain only a social or legislative approach to these ills - which is inadequate to respond to what is primarily a spiritual problem.
PASTOR EMERITUS
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