Let's Communicate!

Him: "Your eyes are beautiful. I saw them on Facebook."
Her: "I love your smile. Caught it on Instagram."

At a recent conference for catechetical leaders, a speaker spoke passionately about the importance of using technology as a tool in forwarding the New Evangelization. The speaker demonstrated an impressive knowledge of the many forms of social media and exchange, and enthusiastically contended that we must be with the times and utilize technology with great acumen in order to win souls for Christ.

During discussion time following the presentation, a young adult at my table--- maybe in her early twenties--- spoke up. She began somewhat timidly, as if afraid to offend, but her words gained momentum and her own passion for the subject broke through.

My young colleague argued with tremendous conviction that we must be careful not to make technology the be-all of evangelization. She said, "My generation is losing the ability to relate with another human being, face to face. I think we have to be careful not to feed that by making technology the main means of evangelization."

She was saying that technology can be a means for disseminating information about what's going on in the Church, for education and ongoing formation, and for telling our stories, but it cannot and must not replace authentic, person to person, human exchange.

I was impressed with her wisdom and grateful she shared it, because if I had said it, it would just be more rhetoric from another older dude who doesn't "get it."

Technology is a gift. I am using it right now to share this, so don't expect a diatribe about the evils of technology and its child, social media.

But I think the young woman was on to something very important. She insisted that evangelization is most effective as a person to person affair, and lamented that her peers often don't know how to put down the cell phone and have a genuine, intimate conversation. This, to her mind, is a problem because in reality it is most often in actual human exchange that one is first exposed to the truth, goodness, and beauty of Jesus Christ. Her generation, she complained, is increasingly disconnected in spite of all the means of technologically-facilitated connection through social media, texting, and such.

I would argue that this disconnection from real human sharing is true for my generation, as well. Anyone who possesses a tablet, PC, or cell phone is subject to being sucked into the black hole of "virtual" relationship-building.

In a nutshell, I think what she was saying is that we mustn't get so excited about the gift-wrap (technology) that we forget the gift inside (the Gospel).

Again, I am not advocating for shutting down technology. How else would I be sharing these very thoughts? In fact, Father Robert Barron, who founded Word on Fire Ministries and has demonstrated pure genius in his use of technology in the sharing of the Gospel, commented on one of his video blogs on the new evangelization that today there is an unprecedented opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world through, for instance, the use of blogs.

Technology has afforded us the ability to reach people for Christ as never before. And the opportunities for faith formation are seemingly limitless. I am constantly (and probably annoyingly) sending links to blogs and videos to the catechist-evangelizers in our faith formation department, in order to facilitate ongoing formation and conversion in them so that they may be more effective witnesses to the Gospel in their work for the Church.

But I believe we must be wary of the superficiality that exists in our day, and avoid the temptation to reduce the Gospel to just another catchy slogan, video-bite, or Jesus "meme" and then think we have just completed a work of evangelization. More importantly, we mustn't let our use of technology become our all-consuming means of ministry, neglecting the more important work of authentic human interchange. These tools--- even this blog, hopefully, and the many better ones out there--- are more often than not simply a means for tapping shoulders and giving people something to think about.

Mostly, these technological tools offer the opportunity to say, "Hey, look over here. I have something a little different from what you're hearing everywhere else about the meaning of life and love." The tools are just a means of catching the eye, and maybe inviting one to ponder an idea, if but for a moment or two.

But the real meat of evangelization happens person to person, sharing the Good News that has transformed one's life: a couple of people huddled together on a bus seat, sitting eye to eye in the coffee shop, riding bikes together on a summer day, or catching up at lunch after too many years apart, or a parent reading a children's Bible to a four year old. This intimate communication potentially leads to the deeper encounter: time spent in the adoration chapel before the Blessed Sacrament, time spent with one's nose in the Scriptures, the catechism, and the writings of the saints, the experience of forgiveness and reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance, and, hopefully, leading ultimately to the Real Encounter of Communion at Holy Mass. Communication invites communion.

So, as we are sharing that great story about Pope Francis on Facebook, posting a beautiful prayer by Saint Therese of Lisieux on Instagram, or posting a clever little blog, let's not forget to put the phone and the tablet down from time to time, and get out there to share our faith within the messy reality of day-to-day human exchange.

Let's communicate. For real.