Society is becoming increasingly less personal. An indifference to the Divine, a strong emphasis on technology, growing challenges to human dignity, a disregard for the sanctity of human life at all stages, a preoccupation and glorification of physical sex and a misunderstanding of the true nature of freedom collectively contribute to an unhealthy individualism.
A spirit of strict individualism is a violation of human nature. The human person is deprived of the capacity to enter into a meaningful relationship with others. Negation of the ‘other’ is contra-natural. Those involved in marriage and friendship are reduced to mere acquaintances lacking commitment, and their relationship ends up being devoid of intimacy and truth. The need for another is often mistakenly satisfied with physical gratification alone. The result is devastating. Kathy DeVico, in her article, “Love of God and Love of Self in Friendship,” writes, “Today more than ever before, out of our technological and impersonal Western society there echoes the cry for human contact, exchange and sharing at a level deeper than the superficial one to which we are all accustomed.” If the cry for true spiritual interpersonal communion is unheard and further secularized, the resulting situation will be pathetic.
— John S. Bonnici, Person to Person: Friendship and Love in the Life and Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar (New York: Alba House, 1999), 2.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In