Jan 21 Wed
Should I follow the eternal Law or Newfangled Things?
Newfangled described a person who was fond of new fashions or ideas. In current usage, the word typically describes anything new, hip, hot, or happening, such as cutting-edge technology or popular slang.
These persons rarely perceive painful happenings as trials sent by God to test our fidelity, and certainly not as chastisement for sin. The New Testament God, they believe, is too loving for that.
St. Augustine argued that God sends trials to the good and the evil alike, not because He is vengeful, but because He has ordained suffering as a means for spiritual growth.
What Newfangled Things (as Any Other Things) do for us, and to us, depend on our attitudes toward them and how we use them. They may well be trials or chastisements – if not for our culture, then for some of us as individuals. A New Thing promised to make our lives better, paradoxically and simultaneously, can destroy them.
To see God is the purpose of our existence. All other things, including the great goods of family, of religious life, of charity, are ordered to this. Self-control, moral correction, and forgiveness are how we are restored to health while on pilgrimage on this earth, as we sigh for our Heavenly Country.
Newfangled Things tend to work in the opposite direction and, therefore, can be dangerous: their shiny allure draws us into them. In our desire for them, we look away from God and His Commandments. So did Adam and Eve before the Tree in Eden.
In pulling us away from God, Newfangled Things do not generate peace, a fruit of the Spirit that allows us to see God. They create anguish in the soul. When anguish reigns, God feels absent, for the anxious, albeit unwittingly, have installed themselves in God’s place.
How can we receive the New Thing of 2026 as a means to grow in faith? We can put Augustine’s Biblical advice into practice.
First, we strictly regulate our exposure to Newfangled Things. When we choose “new things,” we should do so, not merely because they are new, but when they are better. On this, Saint John the Evangelist strikes harder than Augustine: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.” (1 John 2:15-16)
Second, we seek a prudent approach for patiently correcting those in our care who have succumbed to sin. Parents care for children, family members for one another, and friends for friends. These days, unless we have a public role as teacher or pastor, private is the sensible choice.
Third, we practice forgiveness: we forgive those who trespass against us while also asking forgiveness from those whom we have hurt. We need not worry about the world and who has wronged whom: we have no control there. The home and family are what truly matter. For our families to be centers of love, we must forgive our spouses, children, parents, and siblings – and ask for forgiveness, as needed.
With forgiveness comes peace, and with peace we see God. And when we see Him with a heart filled with faith and with love, no Newfangled Thing will be able to drag us from Him.
With excerpts from David G Bonagura, Jr.