Tag Archives: Christian community

Jesus, Facebook and true encounter

07 Saturday Jul 2018

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jesus-friend-requestLiving in our social media age has led me to ask the following questions in light of today’s gospel (Mk. 6:1-6). “If Jesus were alive today would he be on Facebook?” “If he were on Facebook, what would he post?” “How would we react to his posts? Would we like them, would we unlike them, would we unfollow him, would we perhaps even defriend him?”

I just returned to Facebook after a short break and I took the break not because I think Facebook is evil and trying to control our thoughts – advertisers have been attempting this since the dawn of trade – and not because I don’t want to see people’s pets or what my friends had for dinner – I’ve posted both of these myself. (It’s interesting, I will post what I think is a thoughtful reflection and maybe get a few likes. I post a picture of my dogs and I get hundreds of likes! What’s up with that?!)

I took a break from Facebook because I was tired of the demonizing of the “other” (whoever that might be on whatever issue) that I often see, especially around political and social issues. The negativity is toxic and it does wound one’s soul I believe. I reckon the effect of viewing a steady stream of negative posts and memes on our psyche to being similar to being force fed an unceasing diet of bags of potato chips. It does nothing but leave a person’s soul and intellect bloated, obese and capable of only belching noxious gases in return.

I tend to believe that our Lord would not be on Facebook and not because he does not want to know what we had for dinner or our pet’s latest escapade but because we see throughout the Gospels how he values true encounter and true relationship. Although social media has positives – keeping people connected and sharing information to some degree – it is neither true encounter nor does it give space for real dialogue or for real friendship.

We are told in today’s Gospel that the people in our Lord’s “native place” – the ones who knew him and his family – took offense at our Lord when he returned and taught in the synagogue. “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands?” These people preferred to stick with their “perception” of Jesus rather than take the risk of true encounter and true relationship with him in that moment which, by its very nature, challenges and changes people.

For this reason, Jesus was not able to “perform any mighty deeds there”. The gospel even says that our Lord, “was amazed at their lack of faith.” Our Lord was amazed and the people missed that opportunity for new life! No mighty deeds were performed there.

Avoiding Jesus, which can even occur within a life of attending Mass devotedly yet choosing to remain with our limited perception of who we think Jesus is rather than risking a true encounter with him, has effects. The opportunity of new life is missed and we, like the people in Jesus’ “native place”, are less because of it. Our Lord departs that place.

Our Lord desires true encounter and true relationship! He invites each of us to encounter him. Yes, it will challenge and change us … and it will give life.

Turn the screen off.

Take a walk outside.

Just have a face-to-face conversation with another human being.

Christian Community and Charlottesville

19 Saturday Aug 2017

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In light of the violent and tragic events that have occurred in Charlottesville, VA a dear friend asked me what can one person do “on a regular basis to fight racism and some of what’s going on in this country/world?” It is sad and frightening what is going on in our country and what we see happening in our world. We must reaffirm that there is no place for bigotry, prejudice and violence in our country, our world and in our hearts as Christians and, I think, we must do this as we also reaffirm and in many ways, rediscover, the value and unique power of Christian community.

In Matthew 18:15-20, we read that our Lord gives his disciples some instructions on the reality and role of Christian community. “If your brother sins against you,” our Lord says, then go and tell him the fault, if he fails to listen then take one or two others along with you and if he still refuses to listen then tell the Church and if he fails to listen even to the Church, “then treat him as you would a Gentile or tax collector.” It is worthy to note that Jesus often entered into relationship with the Gentile and tax collector throughout his ministry and that he sought their healing and salvation. Jesus then gives to the community the authority to bind and loose. “Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Our Lord then doubles down on the unique power and authority of the church community. “Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

The power of the Christian Church, the power of our Christian faith, is a weak power. We do not have the force of arms or military or police might, neither do we have economic or even (in our increasingly secular age) social might. What we do have is the presence of Christ in our midst and the gift of the Holy Spirit. This alone is that power that can bind and loose and that can open and call forth the grace of heaven through prayer.

Like many people, I have viewed the imaged coming out of Charlottesville including the video that recorded and interviewed a group of white supremacists during these sad and horrendous days. I was truly shocked by the vitriol, hatred and anger expressed by these people and I was also extremely saddened for them because I saw people locked in fear and hate. Theirs is a pseudo-community. Despite the bravado and the appeals to white unity there is no community there. They are people locked in a sad echo chamber stoked by the negative isolation of social media, resentment, fear and ignorance. They are imprisoned in their hate.

To this pseudo-community we are called to be community in Christ – the only community that can both bind and loose and here is found our unique and weak strength. Because Christ is with us and the Holy Spirit has been given us we can both bind and loose. Through the living of Christian community, we can work to truly bind those forces in society and in the human heart that seek to separate and isolate each one of us in resentment and fear. Through the living of Christian community, we can even help to loose those brothers and sisters who have become bound and imprisoned by resentment and fear. This has been my prayer and my hope since I have viewed those sad images coming out of Charlottesville. Pseudo-community only leads to a sad mockery and false caricature of true community as well as human dignity. All the pseudo-communities of our time must be met by the true community of the disciples gathered in prayer, truth and the mercy and the grace known in Christ.

In Christian community we are united by the presence of Christ and by the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are also united in the recognition that we are all sinners who stand in need of a savior. Scriptures tells us that “perfect love casts out all fear” (1 Jn. 4:18). This is the dynamic of true Christian community – not a community where everyone looks the same and thinks the same – but a community where we come to know the perfect love of Christ and where we are set free from those fears that bind us. Christian community is a community of sinners being set free by the perfect love of Christ!

There are many sad and broken things that lie at the root of the violence and hatred given expression in Charlottesville the past few days. One of these, I believe, is a crisis of true community in our society. People are isolated, people are lost, there is pain, uncertainty and fear and in such circumstances the false appeal of pseudo-community can be strong and alluring. This is all the more reason for us to strive in humility, love and grace to be Church – the community where Christ is present and where the Holy Spirit is given and the only true community that has the power to bind and to loose.

WWJP? What Would Jesus Post? The Feast of the Transfiguration as corrective to the reductionism of social media.

06 Sunday Aug 2017

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Transfiguration_of_Christ_Icon_Sinai_12th_centuryIn our social media driven world I sometimes find myself wondering “WWJP?” or “What would Jesus post?”  I do believe that the positives of social media outweigh the negatives but there are negatives and these negatives do have effects.  I recently heard a news story on how Facebook is having an impact on the number of people attending high school reunions – actually lessening the number.  One reason that some people are giving is that they no longer feel the need for a reunion in order to catch up on things because they have already seen it all on Facebook!  The more primary reason though (and this is more on the side of negative effects of social media, I think) is that via Facebook people have come to realize how much they actually disagree with old classmates on certain things and how they can’t seem to get beyond that.

Here is a danger of social media.  Because I am looking at a screen while on social media and not actually sitting across a table from a live person having a discussion, I can – all the more easily – fall into the temptation of reducing a person made in God’s image to just one issue.  Full relationship and interaction is lost in favor of a focus on whatever that one particular issue might be.  Social media is a paradox – it connects yet it also separates and isolates.  In the focus on that one issue presented on a flat, one-dimensional screen I forget the full humanity of the person on the other side – a human person who can never be reduced to a one dimensional, cut-out reality – a person who might be a parent or a spouse, someone who has had his or her own experiences in life, someone who might be selflessly serving his or her community in some particular way, maybe even a person who is just having a bad day.  These are but a few examples.  A human person can never be reduced to a one-dimensional reality yet this illusion can be given through social media. 

The Transfiguration is neither flat nor one dimensional.  Jesus invites Peter, James and John up the mountain and even within his encounter and relationship with the Father.  Time itself seems to bend as Jesus is seen conversing with Moses and Elijah.  Peter – as any of us would – wants so desperately to remain in this moment and space!  Yes, because the glory of the Son is revealed and the voice of the Father is heard but also because the depth of true relationship is experienced in the Transfiguration!  Jesus is fully human just as he is fully divine and now, through Christ, we are adopted sons and daughters of God.  The relationship revealed in the moment of Transfiguration is also a relationship we are meant for in Christ.  We are meant for full relationship with God and one another and are not meant to be reduced and constricted to a one dimensional reality.

In the vision of Daniel, the “one like a son of man” only receives dominion in and through his relationship with the “Ancient One” sitting on the throne.  He also receives it within a gathering of “the court”, within a community.  Peter, in his letter, remarks how “we” do not follow concocted myths because “we” have been eyewitnesses of the majesty of Christ and “we” possess the prophetic message that is true.  None of this is one-dimensional.  All of this is within true relationship and true community! 

So much in our world wants us to separate, to isolate and to reduce one another to one dimensional realities.  To this the voice of the Father says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”  Listen to the voice of Christ – a voice that always sought out, a voice that never reduced the other person.  Peter, who entered that moment of Transfiguration, writes, “Moreover, we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable.  You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”  Even as we live in a world that reduces, we hold on in hope for that day when we live in full relationship with God and one another and we set our lives by that hope.

The film “A Man Called Ove” and its pro-life/pro-community witness.

13 Saturday May 2017

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a-man-called-ove-us-posterOn the recommendation of a parishioner, I recently watched the Swedish movie, “A Man Called Ove” – based on the 2013 novel by the same name written by Fredrik Backman.  It is a very thoughtful and uplifting film and probably one of the most pro-life films I have ever seen.  

The film tells the story of the widower Ove who daily visits his beloved wife’s grave and who is lost in grief.  Ove has become the grouchy, old man of his neighborhood – barking at people and living an isolated existence.  Wanting to end it all and be with his wife again he comedically attempts suicide in different ways but keeps getting interrupted in the act.  The movie poster has the short quip, “Misery hates company” and this is at the heart of the story.  Uninvited, community keeps knocking at Ove’s door and community is what saves him and heals his pain ultimately.  Community comes in the form of a new and loud young family moving in next door, a young man who was a student of Ove’s late wife and his gay friend, a stray cat and a now-paralyzed old friend of Ove’s to whom he must make amends. 

As the movie unfolds we learn Ove’s story and learn that he is much more than just an angry, old man.  He was a beloved son who experienced great tragedy.  He was a young man who met and fell in love with a girl.  The young couple had the hope of a child which was tragically taken away in an accident leaving the wife in a wheelchair, yet they persevered.  Ove is a man with an amazing life and story.  Bit by bit, we learn his story and see him for who he really is – a good man with a big and courageous heart.  

A truth that I walked away with from this film is that to truly be pro-life means one must also be pro-community because it is in community where life is found and experienced in all its beauty.  The film is chock full of pro-life moments and they are all wrapped in community – the promise of new life found in pregnancy as well as the pain of that life being taken away, the dignity of the disabled person as well as the dignity of the immigrant, the elderly and the person who is different from us, the danger of social isolation which can be going on right in front of our eyes and we don’t even notice, the possibility of youth and the need to encourage the dreams of the young as well as the life-changing gift of the teacher.  Gratitude for the sheer gift of life.  All of these find expression in the story and they are all poignantly nuanced within community. 

The film “A Man Called Ove” is a story full of life and it is a story that challenges us (just as life does) to move out of self and isolation into community.  The story gets beyond all the pat phrases, slogans and often hollow clamor of the culture wars and takes the viewer into the real stuff of life and because of its willingness to “go there”, it rings authentic. 

Misery does hate company.  There is truth in this.  True community heals, even as it challenges and unsettles.  To be pro-life and be authentic about it means we also must be willing to risk being pro-community even in all of community’s sometimes messiness and imperfection. 

There is something very incarnational, very true and very Christian about the pro-community connection to being pro-life.