F.U.N.: Logos vs. Techlogos

“What did Philip say?”
“I just texted him, Master! Unfortunately, there’s no signal in this area!”
“Why don’t you find a where there’s a stronger signal.”
“Okay …!” Jude surveyed the place for a more prominent place.
“How many people do you think are there?” the man asked.
“Perhaps, about four… maybe five-thousand…, and that’s only the men,” James said.
“Why don’t you call the others so they can bring some provisions?”
“I would like to, but I’m out of load.”
“Where is Judas at such a time of need,” the man looks around.
“Here he comes now,” John replied.
“Judas, could you give James and John some load so they can call for more provisions?”
“Bad news, Master, I’ve used it all up!”
“ALL OF IT?” the man said in disbelief.
“Yes…!”
“What did you use it up all for? We’re not even through half of the month?”
“He used it up in FaceBook yesterday?” someone confessed.
“[SIGH!!!] What shall I do with this generation… Simon!” Jesus called out.
“Yes, Lord,” Simon promptly responded.
“Go and find out what food you can find among the people so we can feed them.”
Later on, Jesus performed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.

* * *

I’ve often wondered how differently things would have been for Jesus and His disciples if they had the same technological means we now use to communicate and work. From what I have just presented above, I believe that things wouldn’t be so different after all.

Perhaps, the only difference –despite the limitations of hi-tech devices to either complicate our lives by malfunctioning or increasing the levels required to convey our simplest ideas–, would be that Jesus could still manage to save the day without them. Moreover, Jesus got His message [the Gospel] across clearly and it continues to be heard up to this very day.

At the rate that technological development is going, man is more and more dependent on what it offers us (i.e. communication and work, comfort and leisure, and casual socialization). The problem isn’t so much what technology is and is becoming, but what man is becoming as he considers technology to be no longer a means to an end, but as an end in itself for his insatiable earthly needs. But this isn’t the only danger of being attached to technological tools and gadgets.

In his recent Encyclical, Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis observes: “In contemporary culture, we often tend to consider the only real truth to be that of technology: truth is what we succeed in building and measuring by our scientific know-how, truth is what works and makes life easier and more comfortable. Nowadays this appears as the only truth that is certain, the only truth that can be shared, the only truth that can serve as a basis for discussion or for common undertakings. (no. 25)”

The Pope doesn’t mean that technology is bad for man. He is warning us that such a material dependency may weaken and distort our capacity to open ourselves to and grow more in spiritual realities like prayer, sacrifice, and in virtues.

Furthermore, this has another danger aside from trapping man within the prison of his hi-tech virtual Babel. Pope Francis adds: “Yet at the other end of the scale we are willing to allow for subjective truths of the individual, which consist in fidelity to his or her deepest convictions, yet these are truths valid only for that individual and not capable of being proposed to others in an effort to serve the common good.” (Ibid.)

These reflections of the Holy Father invite us to strive not only to be content in the moderate use of such noble material means in our social and professional dealings. We must be willing to even take a ‘heroic step in material detachment’ by not being content with the mere moderate use of earthly goods, since even a little can already distract us from and disrupt our delving into the ‘things of above’ which God in His love wishes to gift us with.

We can achieve this in many ways, but here are some possible and useful suggestions:

1. Unplug ourselves more often from electronic gadgets and appliances during family gatherings and avoid the illness of ‘gadget-swapping’ when newer ones come out;
2. Disconnect from virtual social networks and connect with and serve those within our spheres of relaxation, work and study;
3. Feel and savour the real pages of the Bible or some spiritual book we frequently bring to prayer;
4. Let your body do the praying by going on a pilgrimage to some nearby Marian shrine, do the Way of the Cross, refine your spiritual body language in Church (i.e. sign of the Cross, genuflections, responses, etc.);
5. Set a constant background theme with the spiritual and corporal works of mercy;
6. Sacramentalize (not digitalize) your life more by frequenting the Holy Mass and Reconciliation;
7. Post your original contribution to the ‘divine hub’ that is the Communion of Saints by increasing the signals of your daily prayer and sacrifices.