Risking Commitment in the Age of Relativism: Let Us Wake Up

The twelve seniors stood before the Sunday congregation in the college chapel.  In a week, they would graduate and, as the commissioning ceremony announced, they would become “witnesses to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) As each one’s name was called, he or she came forth sheepishly and stood before Sr. Cyrille Gill, OP., who in her nineties had seen many Rosary College seniors pass before its ivy walls. She raised her hand in blessing and in so doing, connected the school’s hundred-year history with its emerging future. Boldly, she prayed the words of the Sinsinawa Dominican congregation’s founder:

Let us wake up then, open our eyes in apostolic charity; and if we are called, set out for any place where the work is great and difficult, but where also with the help of the One who sent us, we shall open the way for the Gospel. (Venerable Rev. Samuel Mazuchelli, O.P.)

Like so many young people today, those 12 graduates face a world of challenges as they emerge into the light of today’s society. The glare is often painful and blinding. Too often, the idealism and hope of the young is blistered under the heat of harsh reality. A phrase often used by this society and its “twenty-something” generation is “relativism.” According to Webster, relativism is “the theory of ethics or knowledge which maintains that the basis of judgment is relative, differing according to events, persons, etc.”¹

The concept that all things are “relative” or in relationship with everything else is on one level true. The difficulty arises when a person is unable to declare a certainty because what is considered “true” depends on the circumstances. “I know it’s wrong to cheat, but in this case...” Moral theologians call this type of reasoning “situation ethics.”  For many today, “relativism” is a floodgate for unsubstantiated opinions.  When challenged to support what they believe, some students retort, “I have a right to think what I do.”                                
       
A CSC priest at the University of Notre Dame announced during his homily that he hated one word. The men of Morrissey Hall wondered among themselves what obscene word Fr. Joe Ross meant. Then he ended their curiosity: “Whatever”. I hate the word. I hear it constantly. We say to a friend, ‘Do you want to go to the movies?’ And the response, ‘Whatever.’ We give our opinion in class and someone responds, ‘Yeah, whatever.’ We say we believe in God. ‘Yeah, whatever.” The homily hit home. For a generation inundated by sound bites and technomania, the variety life affords has spawned an ugly offspring: non-commitment. If everything is right, why choose?  If nothing is more valuable, why strive for it? How is a person of faith able to discern, reflect and commit to a religious lifestyle in a world that says “all things are equal”?

The words of the Dominican pioneer priest, Samuel Mazzuchelli, hold a possible key.  “Let its wake up”: awareness; if we are called: discernment; set out for any place where the work is great and difficult: discipline and with the help of the One who sent us: prayer—these are the compass points for those lost on a sea of relativism.                          

“Let us wake up”—the first step is recognizing the floodwaters have swallowed our landmarks.  What we could once see clearly—our Church, our family, our sense of values—is often soaked by society’s waves. Ask yourself, by what you are guiding your life.  I did.  As I was driving in my new car many years ago, I decided to check the alignment of the tires. As long as the car stayed between the lines, I was fine. But as soon as it moved a little to the left or the right I grabbed the wheel back. In that moment, an insight dawned: “that’s what I’m doing to God. I say, ‘Here, you steer.’ But as soon as God takes me in a direction I’d rather not go, I take the wheel back.”  In that one moment, I woke up. I saw clearly that my life had been centered around my own self-promotion and that I was being invited to something more.

If we are called...Discernment is the process by which we come to know if we are called by God into a life of service as a vowed sister, priest or brother.  All Christians are called to be about the gospel, or as the Bishops’ pastoral on world mission states, “we must go and make disciples of all the nations, baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them everything that Jesus has commanded.”²  But the call to religious life is a particular way of living out the Gospel mandates. Discernment can’t be done alone.  No doubt God speaks in everyone’s heart, but as Elijah discovered (l Kgs 19) God often whispers. And it takes a trained ear sometimes to hear those whispers. Engaging a spiritual director or mentor can provide you with an objective listener.  Vocation directors often serve in this capacity, but meeting with a spiritual director can add depth to the questions you bring to the vocation director.

Discernment can be a long and arduous process. Grappling with God can leave us a little unsettled. The patriarch Jacob before he was to be reconciled with his brother Esau, spent the night wrestling with an angel who later turned out to be God. The experience dislocated his hip and left him forever changed; he would be called by a new name: Israel. (Ge 32:25-30) Discernment may also lead us where we’d rather not go: where the work is great and difficult. And if we go there, we may be surprised by who you encounter. For example, meet Miss Lillian, a victim of Hansen’s Disease or leprosy. I had volunteered at a home for the elderly in Spanish Town, Jamaica.  Blinded by her disease, her fingers and toes eaten away before doctors could stop the spread, Miss Lillian was a disfigured seventy-year old who long ago lost the ability to walk. On first glance, I was repulsed. But to truly encounter Miss Lillian was to look upon the face of God. Her spirit, her holiness transformed her countenance so that anyone who really “knew” Miss Lillian knew they had encountered some experience of God.

Miss Lillian was my gift for leaving my safe world and risking commitment.  But it was a gift not wrapped in a pretty package.

Working with the poor, moving into a different world than we’ve experienced, living a more simple life require discipline. In a society of quick fixes, hundreds of headache remedies and myriad possibilities for weight loss, we are not given well to discipline. In fact, barring participation in team sports, we probably aren’t too discipline about much in our lives.  But to live without a strong commitment to discipline is to toss around in a lifeboat without a rudder. We’ll stay afloat but we won’t get anywhere. In early pietistic practices, “discipline” meant a physical flagellation. Though today we wouldn’t advocate beating oneself, there does seem to be wisdom in learning to control our “wants.” While talking on the phone with a friend with the television on, I suddenly announced, “Let’s go for an ice cream.” My friend asked why the desire for dessert.  I realized that though I was attentive to the conversation, my eye had caught a commercial for ice cream and my first response was to buy. I was neither hungry nor thirsty. I was being motivated by an artificial environment, allowing the advertisers to tell me what and when to eat. To live a disciplined life today is as arduous for us as it was for our spiritual ancestors, for our society advocates against it. But if we hope to make a commitment to a vowed life, self-discipline is the uphill hike we face.

But neither awareness, discernment, nor discipline are enough without the fourth: prayer. “With the help of the One who sent us,” we are able to be attentive, to listen to the Spirit, to struggle against the materialism of our culture. Prayer is not an option for a person considering commitment.  It is the absolute foundation of that commitment.  Prayer is not unlike a conversation with our best friend. Finding the best vehicle for talking with that friend may take some experimentation.  A spiritual director can offer prayer styles and techniques, but generally if it feels right, it’s right for us.

I’m a walker and find that after praying the readings of the day, a long walk offers my body and mind something to do, while my heart talks to God.  As much as the style is according to your personality, so is the frequency and duration.  Never underestimate God.  If we only have a few minutes a day to center ourselves and offer a prayer, God is present.

God is present. While our society will scoff and say, “That’s your opinion,” we believe it’s more than just a hunch. Growing in awareness, discernment, discipline and prayer will strengthen our call to proclaim that there are certain foundational values that we believe, as Catholic Christians, do not change with the latest fad. We call them Gospel mandates, particularly the call to love:

Now a lawyer stood up and asked, “Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the Law? What is your reading of it?” He replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said to him, “You have answered right, do this and life is yours.”  (Luke 10: 25-28)

¹ Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged (NY: Publishers International Press, 1977).

² The National Council of Catholic Bishops, To Ends of the Earth: A pastoral statement on World Mission (Washington, DC: USCC, 1986), p. l.

Sister Laurie Brink, OP is a member of the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters.  Her experiences with the poor as a lay volunteer in Jamaica, West Indies encouraged her to seek a permanent and public commitment to the Gospel.  Sr. Laurie is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at CTU.

This article first appeared in Vocations and Prayer Today, January-March 1999, published by the Congregation of the Rogationists.  Reprinted with permission.

Sister Laurie Brink, OP