The proper context of tolerance
Now that we are more or less forced to live tolerance, given the multiplying kinds, classes, types of people, cultures, lifestyles, mentalities, etc., etc., we should be clear about the real character of this trait that seems to be urgently needed.
For sure, tolerance just cannot be taken to mean anything goes, and to simply be passive to things in general. That would be a perfect formula for chaos, a free fall to decadence and perdition, both personal and social.
We should avoid falling into the trap of regarding tolerance as indifference and passivity, permissiveness, promiscuity and a long list of isms – relativism, isolationism, quietism, etc.
Tolerance cannot but be an integral and living part of charity. As such, it has a very active character. If it involves patience, waiting and suffering, it is because it is in its nature to understand, to be compassionate and forgiving.
It just cannot be a function of practicality and convenience, or of worldly calculation and the so-called prudence of the flesh. It just cannot be a matter of being politically correct.
That would be inhuman, not to mention, unchristian, since it would lack the proper foundation and source of its life, meaning and direction. It could not rise above being a plain trick, gimmick, and pretension. Sooner or later, we would realize we are just fooling ourselves.
Its passive side is always infused by the active spirit of self-giving that goes all the way, which is what charity is all about. It’s love in action, a love that knows no measure. Its passive side is never a sign of helplessness and fatalism. It is always taken up by the forcefulness and designs of love.
It’s love that enables us to waive certain rights, to suspend judgment, to bear the faults and burden of others. As an old song says it, it enables us to smile even if our heart is aching. But it has a clear idea of how things should end. Yes, it can be open to things, but it has focus.
That’s because, love makes us strong, and the strong can bear the weak. Not the other way around. The weak, the one without love, cannot bear the strong. Tolerance, properly understood, is always a sign of strength, not of weakness.
In the Christian culture, tolerance as an expression of charity is brought to its maximum level when one is willing, like Christ, to die rather than violate love. And that death is not a defeat, but rather a triumph. In that context, death has not conquered the person. It is the person that has conquered death.
Having said all that, we also have to remember that charity always goes with the truth. Tolerance, being a part of charity, should not compromise this aspect of charity.
For Christian believers, the union of charity and truth can only be seen and achieved in Christ. We just have to try our best to have a living relationship with a living Christ, not a theoretical or hypothetical Christ. Our tolerance has to be lived in this context, and in no other.
This living union with Christ involves many things. In fact, everything. We have to learn to pray, know his life and words, his doctrine. We have to develop virtues. We have to see the organic connection between God, Christ, Church, bishops, etc., and live according to that economy.
And so, we have to be ready also to uphold and defend, to fight and die for the truth in Christ. Charity has that intriguing character of being at once both strict and lenient, intolerant and tolerant, just and merciful.
So, in this regard, we have to be wary of the continuing and subtle attacks on truth and charity and even on tolerance waged by some elements. Recently, I learned of some Hollywood movies that tend to deconstruct the nature of family, of marriage. We have to be ready to do a battle of love and truth with this trend.
Locally, we have the RH issue that is trying to masquerade as a human right, or women’s right to their body, or as an expression of freedom of choice. Then, there’s that campaign to deodorize the gay culture.
While we have to be understanding with everyone, we always have to uphold the truth about our sexuality and gender. I don’t mind having gays around. There’s always space for them. But if they do nothing other than purr like pussy cats in heat, and convert the world into a theater of their antics, (fill in the blank).
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
