Maybe a reason to stay online...
Even in the context of social communications, the Church is required to bring warmth, to warm hearts...
Dear friends, the concern and the presence of the Church in the world of social communications is important in order to dialogue with the men and women of today and bring them to meet Christ, but the encounter with Christ is personal. It cannot be manipulated. In these times we see a great temptation within the Church, which is spiritual harassment: the manipulation of conscience; a theological brainwashing which in the end leads to an encounter with Christ which is purely nominal, not with the Live Person of Christ. In a person’s encounter with Christ, both Christ and the person need to be involved! Not what’s wanted by the “spiritual engineer”, who wants to manipulate people. This is the challenge. To bring about the encounter with Christ in the full knowledge, though, that we ourselves are means of communication, and that the fundamental problem is not the acquisition of the latest technologies, although these are necessary to a valid, contemporary presence. It is necessary to be absolutely clear that the God in whom we believe, who loves all men and women intensely, wants to reveal himself through the means at our disposal, however poor they are, because it is he who is at work, he who transforms, and he who saves us. - The Vatican Today
Do we do that with our blogs? Do we do that with our tweets? Our comments? In our personal contact with others, our conversations?
Toxic blogs.
I came across a post on another blog, tearing down what the Holy Father had to say in the America interview, making fun of him, making him out to be a simpleton and a fool. I checked to see what people in the site's com box had to say. One reader cheered the author and expressed relief the blogger had finally come out and expressed an opinion. The blogger apologized for the delay in making a statement but promised to continue studying what the pope said and counseled the reader that more commentary defending Catholic teaching will be forthcoming.
The blogger imagines that people wait for the blogger's opinion ...
What's going to happen when the blogger's opinion is mocked? You know it'll happen at some point.
ReplyDeleteIt has many times - things just get worse when it happens.
ReplyDeleteAmen to your post, Terry. Amen.
ReplyDeleteToo many people are anxious go jump all over Pope Francis. It's sad, really.
On one side (I'll skip labels) you have those who want to cherry-pick his words and exploit them (even distorting those words) for an agenda that is not in harmony with the Gospel.
On the other side (skipping labels again), you have those who nit-pick his words, and exploit them (even distorting those words) for the purpose of making the Church and her members into the Borg.
There, I said it.
Thanks Diane - you said it and I think it is right on!
ReplyDeleteLOL - You really have to understand "The Borg" to get that last one.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so now you know, I'm a closet Trekkie.
+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteI skipped the entire post except the last ten words and they were still a great punch in the gut. Blogging brings out the inner narcissist, doesn't it?
Enbrethiliel - Whaddya mean - you don't read my posts word for word and hang on every one of them? LOL!
ReplyDelete