Monday, August 17, 2009

"when the virtual occupies the whole place of reality"

Writing today in Il Sussidiario Albert Conti tackles the question of technology as it pertains to human relationships, especially for young people, who often lack personal relationships: FACEBOOK / The enemy of young people is loneliness, not technology , It is very insightful, especially to those of us who use these means daily. At the end of the day, as useful and good as Facebook, blogging, and text messaging can be, they are not substitutes for getting to know people, doing things with others, and dealing with the ups and downs of relationships, growing, through often painful experience and regrettable episodes, etc
Image by freeparking, used under
the Creative Commons license

Of course, the backbone of CL is School of Community. SofC has to happen in person. It is an event that happens once a week for about an hour. We gather, sing a song, pray, and talk about experiences in light of our encounter with Christ, exploring what it means, how it applies, where it is difficult, support one another in striving for Christian maturity in light of the teachings of Msgr. Giussani, learning to trust Christ and each other, becoming companions on the way.

I like the way Conti ends his piece: "Father Giussani used to repeat that education is a matter of mimesis and experience. The virtual society is the epitome of mimesis, an uncritical imitation, and, without the principle of experience, it collapses every possible scaffolding on which to build human relations of whatever kind.

"If this is what we want, we are simply desiring the end of the world."


Is it, to quote REM, "the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine"? This brings me, yet again, to the quote in my blog heading: "the Eucharist is the only place of resistance to annihilation of the human subject." This insight grows deeper with each passing day.

4 comments:

  1. What an important and telling message...one I'll consider myself and share broadly with friends and family.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is commnicated by how we live, not what we say.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Does what we say about how we live not matter then?

    Or rather is the manifestation of "abide in me" actions (the how we live") that at once fulfills the individual but also inspires others?

    You can see, inspiring others to seek a life in Jesus is a re-occurring theme with me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. As Christians, we have criterion with which to judge. It is important to talk about, think about, and experience what this means. In other words, it is okay and even necessary to talk about how we live, but we must be honest about two things:

    1) What our desire is= happiness, how we want to live

    2) How we actually live.

    Beyond that we must recognize that it is not a matter of closing the gap between 1 and 2. To think of it that way is to devalue experience. As my dear friend Sharon wrote the other day: "we have known the strange and unexpected correspondence in acquiescing to the baffling invitation offered in circumstance."

    This gets to the issue of differentiating between being an example, which is to adhere to values and reduce Christianity to moralism, that is, to doing and witness. I do not live self-consciously as an example. I do seek to live as a witness, which is to live as a disciple, one who follows. Sometimes my following is abiding, which is hanging around even when I am struggling.

    ReplyDelete

Triduum- Good Friday

The Crucifixion , by Giotto (b. 1267 or 1277 - d. 1337 CE). Part of a cycle of frescoes showing the life of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Chris...