Whose View? The Lenses Employed.

The Dispute of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

 | Francisco Ribalta

People perceive the world through various lenses. It may be a lens of their choosing, or perhaps a lens that has chosen them. In the latter case, individuals might be navigating life by adopting a lens that offers the least resistance or the simplest path they've discovered, without explicitly acknowledging its existence. Of the former, the lens may be trained or focused in a way that constrains understanding into a narrow ideological perspective that creates blind spots, or the lens—being a true lens that does not filter the information—may open the viewer to a much wider and more honest view of reality.

When viewed through a foggy lens,

1. Human sexuality appears fluid and chaotic. The mind is ruled by the senses and seduced into submission to the material. The mind becomes addicted to solutions of a mechanical and materialistic kind and, ironically, the person becomes addicted to self medicating himself. When one "solution" exhausts itself, the seeker pursues lesser gods that rapidly or gradually consume identity, health and well being.
2. Abortion is neutral. The heart and mind are trapped in a form of autonomy oriented to self preservation and egoism and thus the person becomes indifferent to nuances that bear the truth of the human person.
3. God or no god, all religions are the same. The falsity of this claim makes it the easiest to embrace and the most difficult to undo. If one is possessed by the idea that one is himself or herself the messiah and that 'my truth' is the standard against which everything and everyone is measured or blandly dismissed, he or she may very well have little or no need for authentic love because their own ability to reciprocate self sacrificial love is inhibited by self possession or diabolical possession.

Through a Christian lens, one oriented to God that graces the viewer with a perception that enables a person to see into reality as it is and beyond, the person can distinguish between fact and fiction, good and evil, and thus avoid despair to enjoy hope and peace in Christ.

1. Human sexuality is, by design, ordered to the creation of new life. CCC 2333 Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life.
2. Human life created by God is sacred. Abortion, because it destroys life, is evil. Paragraph: 2258 Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end.
3. God is revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is love. Everyone, even the atheist, has a religion, be it about oneself and one's immediate preoccupations or about something greater than the finite. The Catholic Faith is not a human construct. It transcends mere human experience and elevates the mind to perceive the Infinite, that Who that is the True, the Good and the Beautiful.

Responding in a situation saturated with relativistic thinking.

"Not my lens."

It might be necessary to fight fire with fire when someone uses the words "my truth" to avoid using reason and to silence debate in order to somehow justify a ridiculous claim. If someone makes a mind-numbing statement, try saying "not my lens" or "I view the matter through a different lens." A question might come up: "What do you mean?" Feel free to depart if the question is never asked. Without reservation, excuse oneself. Don't forget to pray for people who are most in need of God's mercy, and be honest enough to own that you might not have all the answers or the mental agility to respond right away. Give thanks for God's grace, pray, and study. If the question does arise, confine your comments to straightforward assertions supported by the evidence and provide an honest evaluation in polite terms. Gently insist on addressing the matter if or when you encounter a challenge that seems defensive—that is, if the other person is more concerned with winning an argument—and if the conversation devolves into an emotional tirade and is controlled by only arguing, ask for permission to end it. "Perhaps we can continue this discussion at another time."

1 Peter 3:13-17 | Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is right? But even if you do suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence; and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than for doing wrong.

Commit to reasoned dialogue; avoid contentious people.

Proverbs 22:24-25 | Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.

Colossians 4:6 | Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer every one.

2 Timothy 2:23-26 | Have nothing to do with stupid, senseless controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to every one, an apt teacher, forbearing, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

1 Peter 3:9 | Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called, that you may obtain a blessing.

James 1:5 | If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him.

Galatians 5:22-24 | (T)he fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.