Personal Faith Is More Important Than Imposition of Tradition. We should not rigidly impose moral laws or traditions – however good – on individuals, if they do not have true faith in them. A law is effective only when people voluntarily live by it through spiritual acceptance, not by force. If we force people who do not believe to live by something they do not understand or love, that good law can become an instrument of destruction.
Family, parish, or social traditions – by their very nature – are meant to build order and goodness. But traditions are not absolute truths for everyone in all circumstances. For some people, their nature and temperament no longer fit that traditional foundation – for example, those who have lost their family roots, are no longer aware of family rules, live by their wandering instincts, lose their souls, live a life of self-forgetfulness, or choose homosexuality… If we try to force them into the mold of “must get married”, “must follow the old ways”, the result is often not happiness but conflict, deception, competition, suspicion, hatred, even violence and breakdown.
In the end, that so-called “family” cannot be maintained, because it was not built on a foundation of true faith. And that person, after a cycle of hurt and failure, will eventually return to the old way of life – as a matter of course – because that was their true inclination from the beginning.
Tradition cannot be used to replace spiritual transformation. External constraints cannot be used to create an inner life. It is important to distinguish clearly between those who need to be led to live according to the truth, and those who have not yet entered the journey of faith – so that we do not burden them with something they do not belong to.