The Australian government made world headlines this week, with its legislation to ban children, people under the age of 16, from using social media. At the seminary where I teach we staff have discussed whether or not we should require our first year students to give up their smartphones, cutting down on their access to social media. When I go on my annual spiritual retreat, I love going to a place where there is no wifi coverage, so I can’t be tempted to spend time on social media. I asked one of my students this year how he used social media and he introduced me to the term ‘doomscrolling’. I immediately recognised that’s what I sometimes do, just going on Facebook and, frankly, wasting time with pointless trivia.
In today’s gospel our Lord warns us against being distracted by debauchery, drunkenness and the cares of life. As he says, these things can coarsen our hearts. I would put doomscrolling in that category as a distraction, something that can coarsen our hearts. Among the other dangers of social media, particularly for the young, is that it can make vicious bullying very easy, tearing young people down rather than giving them confidence and support. Social media, I believe, is similar to alcohol in that it can be a good servant when properly used, but it can become a terrifying master if it’s abused and becomes an addiction.
Any addiction coarsens our hearts, and makes it more difficult to recognise the presence of Christ in each other. St Paul reminds us that we are called to love one another, indeed to love the whole human race, and that is what Jesus calls us to. Jesus points out that the world may well be a confused and violent place, but that we should stay awake, stay alert, because our liberation is near.
Here we are, at the start of Advent. As we approach Christmas we should be reminded that our liberation is close at hand. Christmas is the great feast of liberation, of the incarnation. God becoming human, God entering into the mess, the confusion, the chaos of the world and bringing hope. Hope that the love we have for each other, the love that, so St Paul tells us, we are called to show to the whole human race, is the deep reality of all life. Hope that as the creation of the cosmos was one great act of love, so has God loved the world so much that he sends his Son, Jesus, as the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one, to enter into the mess and chaos, bringing love and hope.
This hope liberates us from fear, the fear that life is pointless, the fear that the only alternative to the chaos and confusion is to enter into addictions - whether it be drunkenness and debauchery, or doomscrolling and trivia. Fear can weigh down our hearts, turning us in on ourselves, away from those we love, and blinding us to the presence of Jesus in those we love. We are invited to be alert and awake to the presence of the love of God, made visible in Christ Jesus, in the world. We can show this love by our practical generosity to the poor, and by encouraging reconciliation and forgiveness in our communities, our workplaces, and maybe even our families. Free from fear, we can hold our heads high, and stand with confidence before Jesus, the Son of Man, and be bearers of his love to the world.
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