Are we distracted and insensitive?
Recently, the Holy Father urged all Christians to embrace our call as evangelizers of the modern world. Evangelization today primarily involves combating the indifference of the world to the Gospel. The message of the Church, according to the Pope, “needs to be renewed today in order to convince modern persons, who are often distracted and insensitive.”
I think that description – “distracted and insensitive” – is very apt for modern man. Too many people are modern-day Esaus, who exchange their birthright as children of God for the mess of porridge that is modern entertainment, news and technology. And I think, as Catholics, we need to look and see if we too fall into that same distraction and insensitivity. A few questions we can ask ourselves:
- Do we go from place to place with our faces buried in our cell phones or other gadgets?
I have always been surprised by how often I’m able to engage people in public settings – airports, subway stations, etc. – but of course that would not be possible if I don’t even look at them! Today we receive a constant stream of information, but in doing so we can become distracted from the more important things of life.
- Do we spend time each day in quiet meditation and prayer?
I know first-hand how quickly modern technology can ensnare you. The gadget that is purchased to make life easier becomes the chain around your neck. We must not allow the allure of technology to keep us from spending quiet time with the Lord – and with other people.
- Are we insensitive to the troubles of others?
We live in a self-centered world, and every message of modern culture cries out, “I gotta look out after me!” But the essence of Trinitarian love is self-gift, in which we pour ourselves out to others. Do we care about the plight of others, even those we don’t know well? My wife has been going to the same hair stylist for a few years, and over that time she has engaged him in many conversations. Recently his son tragically died, and my wife had a Mass offered for the son and sent her stylist a card. He was very touched by the gesture. Would this had happened if my wife had simply ignored her stylist?
Before we can effectively spread the Gospel to others, we must live it in our own lives. Take some time today to ask yourself how you can become less distracted by the things of this world and more focused on the things of God.
It might be a bad idea for us to go around evangelising for the following reasons:
-Most Catholic formation school (for laity, religious, and priesthood) are teaching “Sacred” Scriptures in opposition to the doctrines and dogma of the Catholic Church. They teach agonistically against the Magisterium of the Church.
-They are often sarcastic about the validity of Scared Scriptures and treat it like a pure mythical literature, instead of the Word of God (i.e. writing my human means through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.)
-They abuse of the historical-criticism method, without ever teaching about the Divine inspiration behind Scared Scriptures. They in fact believe that all Divine interventions within the Text of Scared Scriptures are a man made invention to complete a mythology.
-In many cases they offer their opinions in contradiction to Catholic doctrine and dogma, to the point of making fun of it and rarely teaching what Church teaches.
-They often have support from a variety of activist members of the laity, religious, priestly, and episcopal in their approach to Scriptures.
-Some of the common themes that they teach is: that the holy fathers of the Church can’t be trusted; that the Virgin Mary wasn’t a virgin; that St. Joseph was invented by St. Matthew; that any hint of Divine Intervention is an imaginative story created after the fact that was added to the text to express some hidden symbolic message; etc…
I would recommend that Pope concentrate more on resolving the abuses that are rampant in Catholic formation institutions, before he asks us to go around evangelising. It’s long overdue for the Church to rein in these people, whom through their teachings, have driven the faithful outside the Church and caused so many people to loose faith in the message of the Gospel due to the scepticism that is taught. It is no coincidence that a false application of “divino afflante spiritu” and the Second Vatican Council has resulted in many parishes being closed down (due to low participation in the Mass); that there is now ignorance by Catholics about the teachings of the Church; and that many have left the faith to join other faith groups or become atheists.