Checking wild sympathies
Every time I consider the population issue, whether in the media or in conversations with people, I cannot help but feel strongly stirred and even moved to tears, the heart almost always at breaking point. The problems this issue involves cannot be ignored. They are painfully inhuman, blasting us with hideous images, all crying up to heaven for immediate relief.
There definitely is close connection, yes, like a vicious circle, between ignorance, confusion, "overpopulation" in some areas, poverty and all forms of human misery.
What immediately assails us is the ugly external aspect of this crisis. That would be enough to suck us into the vortex of pity and shame. There are just too many beggars in our streets and churches! There are just too many depressed areas!
It's true that our Lord said, "For the poor you have always with you," (Mt 26,11) but I don't like to admit we will have the poor with us always in the way we have them now.
Sometimes, I wonder if the poor are our social outcasts. There are just so many of them that I think those who enjoy a degree of good life should feel more ashamed, being more of the outcasts than being the elite of society.
But physical squalor is nothing compared to the havoc inflicted in the emotional and psychological aspect of these poor people. Thing is we cannot deny that together with poverty is a clear rise of mental disorders we can see everywhere. This fact truly lacerates the heart.
I dread to speculate on the moral and spiritual aspects. Is the high rate of criminality among the poor, petty in many cases, any indication of some moral and spiritual depravity also?
These are unsavory facts, indeed. But they have to be confronted. No use playing the escapist ostrich approach. Our consciences, if we still have them in good order, certainly would not let us avoid having to grapple with this problem.
But a closer look at the problem would indicate that the solution to this problem, so vast and complicated, cannot be a simplistic one, as in just legalizing and making available all sorts of contraceptives and population control services.
These approaches at best can only give some instant, shallow relief. They don't go deep enough. They even can give false hopes and aggravate the situation. Let's not be deceived by sweet talks of family planners on reproductive health.
Even if we give in to all the demands for these artificial and immoral means as a gesture of respecting people's freedom, I don't think we would be addressing the real problem.
The problem is not simply economic or social or political. Much less is it ideological. Solutions spouting from these founts will clearly miss the point. The problem is not just a matter of numbers. It springs from a sick heart and soul.
The problem speaks of a much deeper crisis requiring a more thorough and solid solution, one that demands total commitment from everyone. Let's try asking how much time each one of us spends trying to resolve the problem, and we'll get an idea why the problem continues to fester.
For sure, there's a big element of injustice and corruption that goes into the severity of the problem. There's also a tremendous amount of ignorance on reproductive health, strictly so-called, and responsible parenthood.
Still these are only symptoms, not the root causes. The problem lies more in our hearts, since we fail to practice genuine charity and concern for one another.
We can talk a lot about globalization in the economic sense. But can we really talk about globalization of charity, of solidarity, in the moral and spiritual sense?
Our problem is that even among the so-called good and holy people—that's all of us—we tend to confine our spirituality to an individualistic dimension. We fail to be truly consistent in extending it to its social implications.
We just get contented with giving easy solutions, not those that necessarily require real sacrifices. We give mostly material solutions, not moral and spiritual ones, those that heal our sick heart and soul.
(Fr. Cimagala is the chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City. Email: roycimagala@hotmail.com)