Turn on the TV any given night and you’re bound to find some program that deals with some sort of makeover.
It might be ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Grab the remote and move along the dial to TLC (The Learning Channel), and you’ll find Stacy and Clinton of What Not to Wear fame trying desperately to take their subjects from frumpy to fabulous. NBC’s The Biggest Loser is an effort to help the weight-challenged change their eating habits and lifestyles.
Last but not least, one of the most bizarre makeover-type shows out there has to do with the addiction to stuff: hoarding. TLC’s Hoarding: Buried Alive is an attempt to make over the lives of folks who are literally putting themselves in jeopardy because they can’t bare to part with anything and end up, well, as the show’s title indicates, just about burying themselves alive.
None of these so-called “reality TV” programs are all that bad, content-wise. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is actually on the Parents TV Council’s family-friendly list, and the show is dedicated to helping families facing serious challenges, usually of a financial nature.
What Not to Wear does a great job of helping people put their best foot — or should I say “shoes” — forward fashion-wise. There is nothing wrong with dressing nicely and in a professional manner. And helping people lose weight and get back on track physically is also a fine effort, as is helping a relative or friend come out from under their mountain of clutter.
But do you notice a pattern here? All these makeover shows only deal with externals: the home, the wardrobe, the scale and piles and pile of junk.
I have yet to see even one episode of any of these programs address what’s on the inside.
What we really need is Extreme Makeover: Catholic Edition. After all, given the long list of social ills that seems to keep getting worse, thanks to the very toxic and slippery slope we’ve been on, who couldn’t use a spiritual makeover?
That said, don’t hold your breath. It’s highly doubtful that one of the major broadcast networks or cable channels would spend the time, money and effort to develop a program that deals with issues that go well beyond the surface.
First of all, it’s not “sexy” enough or bizarre enough for prime time. Secondly, and even more importantly, in my humble opinion, as someone who came back into the Church kicking and screaming along the way, real self-examination, real change is very hard work.
It’s painful to take a good, long look at your life. In today’s instant-gratification-and-all-about-me culture, not too many of us want to go deeper. Instead, we often opt for the quick fix. It’s very challenging, after all, to admit your mistakes and humble yourself before God and ask forgiveness. Your first inclination is to stay right where you’re at and maybe just do a few minor “makeovers” that you hope will get you far enough in the Lord’s eyes to land that ticket into heaven. Again, I am speaking from personal experience.
The old saying “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know” is very true when it comes to the idea of total abandonment to God, and especially within the Catholic Church.
For years I had one foot in the secular world and one foot in the Christian world, trying to convince myself that as long as I became a little better at living up to the minimum requirements of my faith then everything would be just fine — and, for the most part, I could still do things my way.
Like so many others out there in TV fantasy land, I was looking for a quick fix. A little sprucing up spiritually, or so I thought, would be just fine, thank you. Boy, was I wrong.
If we can learn anything from any or all of the current extreme-makeover shows, it’s that we are continually in need of our own extreme spiritual makeover. Even if we are practicing our faith to the best of our ability, as long as we are alive God is not through with us. He doesn’t just come into our lives with a paint brush or a treadmill and temporarily “make over” our situation. He’s in it with us for the long haul. Once we come to accept and embrace this reality, we find true fulfillment that lasts much longer than the new clothes or remodeled home. That’s because we worship the ultimate makeover artist.
Teresa Tomeo is an author, journalist and radio and TV host.
Her latest book is Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed to the Culture.
She co-hosts The Catholic View for Women on EWTN.
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Your concept is simple and I agree with most of what you said. I do think one point needs to be clarified, however. I don’t think that ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is worthy of as much praise as you say it is. First and foremost, many of the families featured on the show are not at all in a “bad” situation relative to families in poor countries outside the American bubble. Secondly, the show promotes vulgar excess. In most cases a humble home would be just fine as far as helping a family in need goes. But instead, the hosts and their crew put in elaborate decorations, appliances, pool tables, etc., and often even invite celebrities to the new house. The essentially create the “Superbowl” of house construction.
It’s this sort of “Supersize Me” or “Superbowl” mentality, that bigger is always better, that we must always go gaudily over the top or go home, that I find so cheesy and in such poor taste. It promotes greed and excess. It also serves to separate families more than to unite them, because each member can resort to his mini universe where he is the master (the cat themed room, or the hockey room, etc). This is oh-so-American. I say build the humble, functional home and donate the rest to an orphanage in Calcutta, or children sold in to prostituion for a buck ninety-nine in northeast Brazil. That is to say, people who REALLy need it.
Side Note: I’m not sure what the spiritual equivalent of “Extreme Home Makeover’s” gaudy excess would be, but it’s an interesting point to ponder.
Thank you, Teresa, for such insight! We Catholics do have an “Extreme Makeover” series. It’s called, “Apply the Sunday Mass homily to your life—really.” Our call to evangelize the whole world can make us the Ty Penningtons of Christian life.
Admittedly, much easier said than done. I’m still having trouble with one our retired priest mentioned one Sunday, when he couldn’t get back to sleep at 2:30 am—“Lord, help me to become more holy.” THAT is the daily basis of an Extreme Makeover.
If every one of the committed, practical Catholics in any given nation did normal evangelisation work with like-minded people we would become a New Creation, the New (Person) in Christ Paul speaks of, we would transform the culture and TV and elected officials would themselves get a badly needed makeover!
This might be good for EWTN. However, broadcasting one’s spiritual flaws has to have the backup of clergy as it sounds it “could” border of public confessions.
If all of the committed practical worked with like minded believers the New Creation. the New Person in Christ, would sweep out the TV crud and get a Gospel of Life Government, all inspired by a spiritually healthy majority. Sin would abound but Grace moreso as Paul tells us
This would be a cool show for EWTN. Each person would be guided & filmed as they spent a whole year doing Pythagoras’ Challenge.(I hope I’ve credited correctly.) Participating in the prayers of mass every day. Reading spiritual lierature and the bible. Going on retreats. Learning to pray the Liturgy of the Hours. Praying the Angelus at 6, 12, and 6. Each episode would conclude with where that person is today in their faith journey. It would be a way cool form of Journey Home.
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