Popular Culture

In a collection of homilies called Christ Is Passing By  by St. Jose Maria Escriva I found the following gem:

"Faced with traders in suspicion who prey on the intimacy of others, we must defend the dignity of every person, his right to peace.  All honest men, Christians or not, agree on the need for this defense, for a common value is at stake: the legitimate right to be oneself, to avoid ostentation, to keep within the family its joys, sorrows, and difficulties.  We are defending, no less, the right to do good without publicity, to help the disadvantaged  out of pure love, without feeling obliged to publicize one's efforts to serve others, much less to bare the intimacy of one's soul to the indiscreet and twisted gaze of persons who know nothing and want to know nothing of disinterested generosity, except to mock it mercilessly."

These prophetic words were written March of 1961, but could just as well be a commentary on our society today.  The appalling lack of privacy in this world where cameras capture one's most intimate moments of pain, sorrow, joy, fun, embarrassment, and disgrace at every possible juncture is appalling.  Think about all the devices that have cameras.  Where can one be safe from these obtrusive devices?  The viewing public laps up the precious moments of our lives with voracious appetite, seeking more and more or our pains and joys in its insatiable prurient interest.  The proliferation of 'reality' TV shows exemplify our need for scandal.  So many shows that depict human beings at their lowest points, be they teen aged unwed mothers, wayward starlets, plural marriages, interventions, hoarding etc.

We have lost the intimacy of one on one interaction and have instead become a generation of voyeurs.  Seeing people living immorally, suffering, hurting, desensitizes the viewer over time.  How could the soldiers of Hitler's armies have seen the horrific suffering of so many people and continued in their course?  They became desensitized to the horror.

Where is this defense of the DIGNITY of the human person?  It is something that each of us must strive for each and every day.  I love the way that St. Jose Maria puts this; "the legitimate right to be oneself".  And yet this right, which comes from our Lord is something that is sadly lacking in our society.  Our society has robbed the unborn, aged, mentally handicapped and very sick, of their dignity and legitimate right to be who they are. 
Our society tells the unborn "You can not speak for yourself, therefore you may be discarded."
To the aged our society says "Your usefulness as a human being is over now so put yourself out of your misery and don't become a burden to your family."  To the mentally handicapped, "You have no use to us as a society so you should be marginalized and eventually eliminated."  And it goes on and on with a full range of human beings, all created with dignity by their creator in His likeness and image.  Where is their legitimate right to be themselves?

My friends we live in a sinful world that day by day loses more moral ground through what we view as entertainment.  How could crowds of Roman citizens have found sport in the tearing apart by wild animals men, women an children?  The same way we find sport at the tears of others on reality TV shows.  Today we are the Roman audience and the victims are the dehumanized stars of our most popular shows.

Jesus, help us to see your reflection in every face.
Help us to allow others to retain their dignity and to be their genuine self by respecting their privacy.
Help us never become indifferent to the suffering of others.
Help us never to accept sin as the 'norm' for our society.
Help us to work for justice.
Help us to love even the unloveable.
Give us courage to face society as it is and work towards changing it to what it should be.
Be our guide and our source of strength.
Teach us to love as you do.
Amen