Goal for the Life Night:
The goal of the night is for the teens to acknowledge and destroy the ILLUSIONS that we live by (relative truths), and to immerse ourselves in the TRUTH that has been revealed through the Holy Spirit (Absolute Truth). The night will help break the myths concerning human freedom and God’s law, and show the teens that we are truly free when we live in His Truth and LIGHT
Life Night at a Glance:
This night is based from John Paul the Great’s encyclical “Veritatis Splendor.” It is a night that combats relativism and enlightens the teens with the freedom that comes when we live in the Spirit of Truth. We live in a culture that teaches it is up to the individual to determine what is good and evil. This is a huge problem because we possess a fallen nature. The teens will be presented with the concepts of absolute truth, and that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the life. So many times humans come to believe that when we submit ourselves to Christ and the Church we lose our freedom, but in reality, it is by surrendering to the laws and truths of God that we are truly free!
The “theme” of the night is Star Wars…who doesn’t like that? So it’s a time to have fun with the environment, announcement, and “theme” but at the same time, hitting the teens hard with deep theological Truth. “God’s law does not reduce, much less do away with human freedom; rather it protects and promotes that freedom. In contrast, however, some present-day cultural tendencies have given rise to several currents of thought in ethics, which centre upon an alleged conflict between freedom and law. These doctrines would grant to individuals or social groups the right to determine what is good or evil. Human freedom would thus be able to “create values” and would enjoy a primacy over truth, to the point that truth itself would be considered a creation of freedom.” (V.S. 35).