At times I wonder how much I live in reality. I know in theory how the world is decaying but I can say that much of my life has been fairly sheltered. And I am not complaining. But sometimes I want to know the secret lives of my students. I think some of them would shock me. My students aren't bad but I am certain that some of them are far more worldly than I am. While I don't particularly desire to be worldly I think it would be good for me to know exactly what are the difficulties that my students face on a daily basis, what do they struggle with, how are they tempted.
Last week I was explaining the arguments for God's existence as a review for our quiz. While recapping the argument from beauty, one of my students asked if the devil created ugly things them. I told them that the devil will twist and distort beauty. A couple more questions and clarifications were added and as I was speaking I felt like I would be avoiding the topic if I didn't include it. I told them that pornography distorts beauty. That woman has this inherent beauty and that the devil distorts that by making her purely physical or an object. I noticed a shift in the feel of the room. Some of the boys who previously were making pretty good eye contact were suddenly not meeting my eyes. It wasn't as though they all got red or gave tell-tale signs, but I noticed a shift in the atmosphere. Perhaps I am reading too much into it, but almost a subtle admission of guilt and perhaps some curiosity about it. And I wondered how the scourge of pornography is impacting our Catholic high schools. I want to know how prevalent the problem is and yet I feel as though if I knew I would simply feel discouraged. What a society they are being sent into and are a part of now. It is difficult to try to teach them the truth when doing so means that one must speak against nearly everything found in the culture. They begin to think that the Church is against everything instead of seeing that society is running away from God. This is certain the time of the Church Militant. But have no fear, the Church Triumphant and Suffering are in this with us!
Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.
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