May 4th, 2014
Image a wake— An old fashioned wake in an old-fashioned neighborhood, a small parlor so everyone was crowding in and pretty close to each other.
The deceased person may be a middle aged woman who leaves behind her mother and her son. And, of course, there is a line of mourners filing by and saying their prayers and expressing their sympathies.
Hardly ten feet from the casket, sits a woman’s son. He is about 12 years old. And he seems oblivious to all that is going on around him because he is sitting with a buddy playing a video game.
One of the mourners stops at the couch and she expresses her sympathies to the young man.“I am sorry for your troubles”.
The boy does not even look up. He just keeps pressing the buttons and playing the game
This scenario is not hard to imagine really. It is not difficult to think that the young man did not seem to care that his mother was dead—or that her friends felt bad. He was too busy blasting virtual enemies with virtual weapons. He was enjoying himself—and too bad for his mother. Too bad that she was dead—but please do not disturb him with something that does not directly touch him.
Some of us seem to be closing ourselves off –isolating ourselves—first from this world and then from God.
I mention this as a symbol of what so many of us find disturbing and unsettling about modern life. Some of us seem to be closing ourselves off –isolating ourselves—first from this world and then from God.
And in doing so we are killing our capacity to love and be loved. We are destroying the spiritual faculty that God has given us that helps us to believe in God and in Godly things. We are wrapped up in the material world that the supernatural world bores us.
And yes we can blame it in large measure on our entertainments and devices and virtual realities. Because we begin to think that with all these devices, we have all that we need—virtual friends—virtual relationships—virtual talent—virtual life. We don’t need anything or anyone else.
And when we begin to think that this world—my world—is all that matters—then we lose the faith. It is that simple. It is that easy.
Did you ever wonder why the early church met with such great success in preaching about Christ and Him crucified and Him risen?
Sunday in Albs
For example, today is Sunday in Albs—where thousands and thousands of early Christians who were baptized the week before—would come to Mass in their white robes and tell the world that they were no longer infants in the faith.
They were now ready for the strong meat of the Gospel, They were now ready to go out into the world and preach about Christ crucified and Christ Risen.
And they came into the Church by the thousands. not dozens—not hundreds—but by the thousands. And this great success went on for hundreds of years.
And for most of this time these converts to the faith knew that once they were baptized—they were marked for ridicule—for abuse—and most of the time for death.
They were hated by the Jews who thought all this a blasphemy and they were hated by the Romans who thought all this to be unpatriotic treason.
But they turned to Jesus anyway! And why? Because they were thrilled to hear of such a wonderful God. In a certain sense—it was easy for them.
Remember, our pagan ancestors lived in cultures that meditated on spiritual things all the time. Our ancestors knew there was a world beyond this world. They knew the universe was bigger than just themselves and their petty concerns.
They had no trouble understanding the story of God and Jesus because they understood there was a heaven above and hell below and a god of some sort that ruled it all, and they were excited to receive the good news of a good God who would save them from suffering and death.
Of course, that has all changed for us moderns. We are bored with such news about supernatural realities and miracles. We really don’t care. And rather than millions entering the church every year—millions seem to be leaving. What has happened?
How is it that no one even cares whether there is a God or life after death or a resurrection?
The answer—in a word—is modern life. For modern life has taught us that we don’t need a God or a religion or a faith. We have all we need in all the things that we have in our hands.
Satan’s greatest victory has been the creation of modern life.
Satan’s greatest victory has been the creation of modern life. You see modern life is so subtle that it does not care if you believe in God—as long as you live your life as if there were no God.
At that point then, things like God and Jesus and the Resurrection and heaven and hell do not really matter. Those supernatural things are blips on someone else’s screen. Your life is about you—nothing more. And it is not too long after you have reached that level—that you lose whatever faith you had, and you leave the church. and you don’t get married. And your children aren’t baptized and the whole thing falls apart. That is where we are today.
How many millions woke up last week, realized it was Easter and yawned and went back to sleep.
Modern life teaches us surely that as long as we have our entertainments and games and devices—our virtual realities—our avatars—our memes—our cyber life we really don’t need anything more than that.
And please don’t bother us with things like God and Jesus and the Resurrection and Easter and heaven and hell and death. Don’t bother us—we have all we need.
And that is when we end up like the little boy at the wake—and that’s not a good place to be.
On this Sunday in Albs all I can hope is that each of us can figure out at least a personal strategy by which our use of the things of this world will not allow us to be used by the Prince of this world.
That we can put everything in its place—and God before all. And if we can do that, then the news of the Resurrection of Jesus will continue to thrill us as much as it did our ancestors.