Some Things to Ponder
Given that most Catholic parishes have static (i.e., seldom changing) websites - if they have one at all - and that we're slow to take advantage of podcasting and other forms of contemporary communication, this video is really challenging. Among other things, it points out that information is growing at an exponential rate, as are our abilities to calculate and communicate at greater speed. At the end of the video, the question, "What does it all mean?" is raised. The answer given is completely unsatisfactory: "Shift happens."
Yes, information is being made available to more and more people, but without moral guidelines and without a belief that objective truth exists, how we use the information available becomes a frightening question. More information is not helpful without a moral framework from which to evaluate it. Information must be interpreted, and interpretations depend upon the interpreter and a whole host of variables: personal experience, philosophical worldview, vested interests, fears, desires, goals, vices, virtues, and faith (or the lack of it) all will determine how information is interpreted. The debate regarding global warming is just one issue in which we have lots of information, and very different interpretations of that information.
All the more reason why it is vital for Catholics to have a strong moral compass with which to evaluate all this information, and the fortitude to live according to that compass at work. But even that ability is contingent in many ways upon the life-changing personal encounter with the risen and ascended Lord. Because there will be more and more competing interpretations of the exponentially increasing information we have to deal with, mere "head knowledge" will very likely not be enough to do what is good, right and just in the absence of the personal conviction and supernatural graces that flow from a profound religious experience of the Holy Spirit.
Watch the video - what do you think?
Thanks for the link, Pat!
Labels: Encounter
posted by Fr. Mike, O.P. @ 6:55 PM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
Note the soundtrack "Mars, The Bringer of War."
I'd say this underscores the need to learn how to learn, and cultivate an attitude of daily openness to wherever the heart of God may wish to take us. Definitely we need to lose the idea of rear-ward looking to some golden age long gone and open our sails to the Holy Spirit's direction of today.
Yes, anonymous, I had noticed Holst's music. It is rather ominous, isn't it? Fr. Michael Sweeney, OP has a wonderful parish mission entitled, "Friendship With God." In it he points out that in the garden, Adam and Eve chose to eat from the tree of knowledge, rather than from the tree of life. We are constantly choosing to know, rather than to live!
Because of original sin, and the fractured nature of our humanity, knowledge can be used for great goodness or great depravity - and the same with new technologies. Take the internet, for example; we have a lot of wonderful information at our fingertips as well as misinformation passed off as truth. It has also become a venue for pornography and has made access to it easy and private.
I just remember that Christ is our Hope! God is (still) God and the creator of ALL. Even as people populate, even as technology advances to greater and greater capacities, God made people with souls that long for Him, that long for friendship with Him. The ominous Holst music reflects the dread and fear that some have with increasing population (especially tapping into our fear of oriental threats) and technology, remember also the triumph of joy over fear.
Listen to Holst's Jupiter (wasn't a hymn of this tune sung during a papal mass recently?), the Bringer of Jollity and hear the triumph of good over evil, not easily wrought, but with a price; this is how our "culture war" will be fought. Nothing new here recalling the early Christians resistance to the Roman Empire machine. Be not afraid! Christ is our HOPE!
--Alisa
Why do you assume you're the first person to realize this? I heard Brent Bozell on Colleen Campbell's program on EWTN and he reinforced my thought that a lot of this hysteria is basically an urban legend. The sky isn't falling. There are plenty of Catholics with a sturdy moral focus, who bring up their children with an equally sturdy focus. Are you trying to drum up business or something?
Anonymous,
Who is assuming that they are the "first person to realize this?" You are right, the sky isn't falling, but still this is precisely the information we need as Catholics to have the awareness necessary to plan and execute our mission in the world with the maximum effectiveness possible. No matter how many Catholics we have with a sturdy moral compass who bring up their children accordingly we still must remember two things. First, that temptation and abuse frequently come from the uncritical use of science, technology, and information (the new knowledge in question) therefore we must be aware of the size and scope of that new knowledge so that we will not be caught off guard by the moral and ethical dilemmas the new knowledge will undoubtedly present. Secondly, the exponential growth in new information is itself a new challenge. Not only do more people have access to new, different, and potentially conflicting information, but the sheer amount of information they have access to means that the Christian proclamation is competing more intensely than in the past with the market of new information and knowledge. It presents a new challenge for holding someone's attention long enough to present the Gospel with clarity. Thus, those who work in evangelization and catechesis must develop a solid awareness of these trends so as to develop a proper response.
This was a helpful post, for which I am grateful to Fr Mike.
The video reminded me of an excellent article I read in *LOGOS: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture* (2001), called "Curiosity and the Integrated Self." (Here's the link to it online: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/logos/v004/4.4kennedy.html )
One of the article's sections is also called 'Curiosity and the Integrated Self' (scroll 2/3 down), and this is where I found something that has really stuck with me. Namely, that when it is functioning as a vice (and there is much these days for it to feed on), curiosity
- prevents us from attending to the right things, and
- prevents us from attending to things in the right way.
Yet -- God knew, when he created us, the situations we were going to find ourselves in, and with His grace, I do believe it is still possible to be single-minded toward Him, and growing closer to Him.
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