Electronic and Spirituality

Today we speak about the modern world as a global village and from one continent we reach another in a few hours. The electronic media has made available to us news about whatever happens in any corner of the world within seconds; one could watch the Olympic Games in Japan sitting in his room in any part of the globe sipping a cup of tea. With the use of electronic medium we have formed many social groupings in goggle groups, orkut, facebook, twinkler etc; we take pride in it indeed that binds us together, brings us together in many ways. But we have not realized that we form one human family with equal rights and opportunities for all.

Even though we are connected electronically in so many groups, we still live in a world divided on the basis of race, religion, language, geography and wealth. Little differences have blinded us and we are myopic/narrow-minded to the basic unity we have as humans. Cultural, race and gender discriminations are still strong in the world we inhabit. It becomes all the more painful to me that it has been carried out in my India in the name of God, caste and religion. In such situations the prophetic voices of religion is a must to be heard all over the modern world.

Both religious and consecrated were the persons of faith who worked out their ideals and actions, their humanism sprang from their Christian faith, which sees the face of Jesus in every human person, especially, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned and the neglected (Mt 25:34-39) and the sinners. Unlike many others, these holy men did not and will not use the electronic medium for their own pleasure, but they are proactive to use all the electronic mediums and they worked for the downtrodden and marginalized seeing them as their brothers and sisters. They were men of conviction and action who worked to change the situation around them drastically. They are challenge to our world perceptions of being human and modern world.

The role of religious person stands here. They correctly understand the paradox of our modern world. The paradox of our wired world is that as we become more connected electronically, we become less connected emotionally. People spend hours each night reading blogs, downloading podcasts and surfing the internet. But they’ve forgotten the importance of old-fashioned conversation. They’ve neglected the power of breaking bread with family and friends. And they’ve lost sight of the importance of human touch. Electronic things neither have potency nor power within. Without electric power they are simply an object. If the electric power is passed through the human body one will be put to death.

But we human beings have the power and potency within ourselves. We human beings have the soul; we are the subject of the world. We should understand that we humans are not electronic beings. We are the creations made out of flesh and blood. The flesh and blood needs the emotional touch and not an electronic touch. Do what you like. I’m not a judge. I’d rather work to build the bounds of humanity with those already around me by being loving to my neighbors and other family, kind to my friends and supportive of my province, teammates and congregation. Just doing that would give me all the cuddles I needed.

The world doesn’t need a better clone. We don’t need the robots that do a job with the help of a copy chip. The world needs more human beings and relationships that make us say wow. The world needs more giant human relationships that which enrich our family, congregation and improve our communities and elevate the planet.

 Until the religious person have no breath to breathe, religious person will continue to do this because I think religious person was chosen for this, not for money, not for the modern electronic things but to make the quality of life of my fellow human beings better.

The mission in religious life is pretty straightforward: they want to help human beings become extraordinary. They have such a passion to realize that dream and to do their part they use electronic devices to make this world a better place.