Do the Work - New Evangelizers

In this modern, hyper-connected world, we are constantly barraged with information about the world: about products, about peoples’ opinions, about news, about politics, about war and rumors of war. It can be easy to fall into a mode of constant reaction, with one’s attention focused on the thing of the moment. But are we stopping to consider whether or not our attention is focused on the right things? Or are we borne away by the current of clever attention-grabbing posts, like flotsam floating passively downstream on a swift-flowing river?

What, then, are the right things to focus on? The right things are the things that matter, the truths that we want to live our lives by. For Christians, this is the reality of Jesus Christ, his incarnation, his life, his teaching, his death on the cross and his resurrection. The Church reminds us of these things in different ways, particularly through the liturgy. We are asked to attend mass at least weekly; some of us have the blessing of daily mass. And also, our daily practices of the faith will help: prayers, rosary, bible and devotional reading. These are all reminders of the most important things, the things about Jesus that we need to remember in order to live our life in the way that we know is right. But if we are not careful, the reminders of the Church will be crowded out by the constant flow of interruptions from our modern on-line life, interruptions that are carefully crafted to grab our attention. It is all too easy to allow them to take over, and to forget about the reminders that the Church gives us, reminders that seem far less slick and interesting than our on-line data stream, reminders that seem maybe a bit old-fashioned, that don’t seem to use the latest techniques for attention-getting and so can be more challenging to focus on for any length of time.

So what is it going to be? Are we going to allow ourselves to be carried by the stream to where it wants us to go? We should know that it is not taking us somewhere that is for our benefit. Or are we going to make a deliberate choice, a decision to fight the current of distractions and to turn towards what we know is more important: Jesus Christ.

Put this way, it sounds almost easy. Just choose Jesus. But it’s not easy. While Jesus is clearly more important than whatever the attention-grabbing thing of the day on one’s social media feed, the social media feed is a lot easier to go with. It’s designed to be easy, addictive, and repetitive. In comparison, focusing on Jesus can often feel like work. So what to do?

The answer is straightforward. We have to do the work.

Think about it for a moment. While it would be wonderful if doing the right thing was always easy, we live in a world where that is often not the case. So we have to choose. Are we going to live an easy life that takes us right down the drain? Is that really the best way to live? Or are we going to trying to live a life worth living? Jesus warns that the “gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction”, and the “gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life”. [Matthew 7:13-14]  There’s no way to avoid doing the work to get to where we need to be. Flotsam doesn’t go where it wants, it has no destination of its own, it just floats downstream. Don’t float downstream. We are not flotsam. Make time to put down the smartphone and pick up something meaningful, be it a missal, bible, or rosary. Start doing what brings us closer to Jesus, asking constantly for his help. He will give it, and with practice, we will get better at doing what we need to do. Get out of the house and go to church. Connect with others to support each other in doing what is right. If we fail, which will sometimes happen, Jesus forgives and heals: go to him, repent, resolve to do better, and get back to it. To keep ourselves from becoming flotsam again, we should try to avoid the circumstances where we get caught up in the incessant flow of social media reaction. If necessary, we need to cut ourselves off from the stream, even put away the smartphone altogether for a while. Do we really need to be on-line all the time? The world will continue without us. But will we be fine if we are perpetually caught in the world’s smothering embrace? Do we want social media algorithms to decide who we are? We need to break free regularly, to be able to be who we are meant to be. Yes, it is hard. But Jesus is worth the effort, and he will help. Commit and do the work.

Agapios Theophilus

Agapios Theophilus is the "nom de plume" of a catholic layman who has loved Jesus from when, as a young boy in the 1970s, he first learned about him. His First Communion, at the age of seven, was the happiest day of his life, and he celebrates its anniversary each year. He lives in a large city with his beloved wife and children. He has no formal qualifications whatsoever to write about Jesus: he writes only because he has been given the great gift of knowing and loving him, and he would like others to come to know and love him too. See Agapios' posts at https://sites.google.com/view/agapios-theophilus and follow Agapios on X (twitter) at http://www.x.com/a9apios