Mission Monthly – September 2001
“Mirrors are everywhere, nobody ignores them. Toddlers play peekaboo with themselves, teenagers probe for blemishes or incessantly comb their hair, the middle-aged measure their stomach overflow or search for gray hair and wrinkles. All these [and more] are reflected dutifully and clearly in the [modern] mirror… Precisely because we see ourselves so well, we fail to look harder at our true image. The surface reflection is only skin deep… our inner self lies deeper than what appears to our sight.”
Fr. Vladimir Berzonsky
Those of us who remember Saturday Night Live in its early days may recall comedian Billy Crystal’s imitation of Fernando Lamas, It’s better to look good than to feel good.” For years tennis superstar Andre Agassi has promoted the Canon “Sure Shot” camera with the slogan, “Image is Everything.” This often is the world we live in: superficial and shallow. The sad truth is that many people, even Christians, not only seem content in superficiality, but often prefer it. It’s much less demanding and it allows one to escape the intimate intensity of facing the true nature of his inner-self and that of others, which can be overwhelming and painful.
This is not new to man’s experience. Further I would argue that this problem has grown exponentially in our industrial age, the movement of populations to large urban settings, the introduction of mass marketing solely for the purpose of selling a product and the rapid technological advances in communication and entertainment mediums. Isn’t it also interesting, as in our example, how advancement in mirror technology from highly polished pieces of metal to precise, multi-purpose tools, in some ways, has paralleled the diminished willingness and ability of a man to examine the inner character of his “true image.”
The struggle with identity and self-worth is compounded by a perceived and relentless social pressure to at least give the appearance of success, be it financial, material, emotional, even spiritual. This pressure entraps us with “appearances” of freedom from “common” constraints, thereby having the ability to think freely, move freely, purchase freely, travel freely, speak freely, and finally to be free from the restraints of any of life’s God-given and natural limitations. The most violent aspect of this very real spiritual struggle is when a man places his value and identity in the custody of frail and malignant images. When a man falls prey to such deception (the idolatry of identifying himself apart from his real inner self) any healing will require a deep and painful road of repentance.
What are we to do to battle this grave temptation? First of all, with all hope in God, we must simply and obediently strive to faithfully live the life of His Holy Church. The life of liturgy and prayer, fasting and sacrament, virtue and sacrifice, stewardship and community. By His grace, it is only through this that we can attune our hearts to silence, peace and the very real presence of the Kingdom of God “in our midst” (Luke 17:21). Secondly we must be willing to stand directly and firmly against the false images of life presented to us in “popular” opinion and culture. Life is not the temptation to financial prosperity found on Wall Street. It is not the false presentation of beauty jammed down our throats by Madison Avenue. It is not the easy solution to life’s problems found in a thirty minute sit-com. It is not the high drama of romance, fantasy or action and adventure as presented by Hollywood. It is certainly not the unrestricted and base sexual images presented to us in advertising, pop music, MTV, much of television and movies, and most tragically in pornography. Yet all these images (and more) so very often become that to which a man measures his identity and self-worth.
As Christians we of course reject ALL of this and hopefully seek to find ourselves only in the mirror of the face of Christ. It takes great grace, faith and love to fight our superficial tendencies. How thankful must we be that WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!