I mentioned yesterday about the tyranny of worldliness. I want to return to that concept at this time. Worldliness, and the attachment to it, is a great problem for Catholics today. A couple millennia ago the Jews were tempted to become more like the Greeks whom they were under. Some of these methods were just outright compromise, others were hard for us to understand, but they were all an attempt to become "more Greek" and less distinctly Jewish. The faithful Jews of the day rightly viewed this as apostasy.
This was largely the result of Alexander the Great's policy of "hellenizing" whomever he conquered (and this relates to much of the story of the Maccabees). Alexander knew that if his subjects were allowed to continue their own religious practices, that they would be more likely to revolt. If, however, he could make them passive citizens who kept the status quo, then he would not have to worry about these kinds of problems as much.
We in America do not have the same kinds of forces pressuring us today (at least not yet), but we do have a similar situation. The world looks at devout Catholics and is threatened by them. They try to convert us in many and various ways, but it is always the same tactic: they tell us that Catholic teaching and practice has to "get with the times" and update it's stance on things. Our theology is called "archaic myth" and our practices are considered a layover from the "dark ages". There are the subtle methods--tv shows and secular music--and then there are the more overt methods--lawsuits when someone refuses to bake a cake for sodomites.
Worldliness is easy to define, but actually very hard for many to recognize. A person has become worldly when his devotion is stronger to the world and its behaviors than to God and His commands. Whenever someone finds themselves at odds with a traditional teaching of the Church, he must ask the question of whether he has bought into the world's lies. If your first question in a challenging situation is not "what does God think of this, and how can I best please Him?" then you have very possibly been drawn into worldliness.
Another aspect of worldliness is attachment to the things of this world more than attachment to things of the next world. Whether it is money, or youth, or power, or fame, or any other of these things that will fade away with time, we cannot be more attached to them than we are to God. It is one thing to be sinfully drawn to worldly things (most of us are at one time or another), it is wholly another thing to have bought into the philosophy of the world (and thus be unable to see our own worldliness for what it truly is).
Nowadays, worldliness is not just a temptation. It has become an all-out tyranny. Pagans, and heathens both tell us that we must conform to the world. I have even read some who have said that they will tolerate our "backwardness" for now, but that there will be a point when they have given us enough time to come around, and that we will need to be "eliminated" (no I am not making this stuff up). Currently, the tyranny is only applied to our hearts and minds (which is bad enough); there may come a time when it is applied even more forcefully to our very lives on this earth.
If you are not aware of where the tyranny of worldliness has affected you directly, then it is quite likely the case that you have given in to it somewhere. Maybe it is in your own life, maybe it is in your family. We each must take a look at any place that we have compromised. Will you bow before the tyrant? Or will you take a stand for your very soul and say "no"? Worldliness is an infection, and once it starts spreading it is very hard to root out. Begin working on it right away.
