Which Light?

“When the light in most people’s faces comes from the glow of the laptop, the smartphone, or the television screen, we are living in a Dark Age…They are missing that fundamental light meant to shine forth in a human person through social interaction…love can only come from that. Without real contact with other human persons, there is no love. We’ve never seen a Dark Age like this one.” Father Martin, Benedictine Monk. Quoted by Ron Dreher in, The Benedict Option.

Do we reflect the light of relationship or the blue light of technology? If we convince ourselves that we are machines, which we seem to be doing, we will choke all hope of love from our lives. What is wrong with one machine constantly interfacing with another machine? Nothing. What is wrong with humanity convincing itself that it is a machine and living in 24/7 interaction with machines? Everything.

If we are machines then when we do have interaction with other human machines we come to primarily view others as machines, as things, to be used and consumed and then discarded. Our worth is purely functional and when we can no longer function then we are taken to the landfill – after all, it is just business. We don’t want others to interfere with the functionality of our lives, and we are brainwashed to the point where we don’t want to interfere in the functionality of the lives of others. When we have nothing practical to give then it is time to give up on life. Euthanasia becomes the practical thing to do, we save on space, we save on money, we save others time – isn’t that what we do with machines? Why we are even biodegradable!

When we are reduced to masses of biochemical matter reflecting the blue light of technology we not only shut ourselves off from each other, we deny our Creator and functionally shut ourselves off from Him and His Divine light in Jesus Christ.

Satan need not worry too much about convincing us that there is no God, if he can convince us that we are machines. The irony is that machines do not create themselves. What fools we are not to recognize that and to attack those who do.

Father Martin’s observation reminds us that we all have something to give others – love, care, and the gift of relationship. Let’s do what we can, let’s focus on what we can do and not on what we can’t do; let’s focus on the lives we can touch.

The other day I was crossing a parking lot and spoke to a passing man, it was a comment about how cold it was getting (the temperature was around 98 degrees), what had been a vacant look smiled and replied to me. That man has been in my mind the past few days. I speak to passing people often, which is amazing because I’m an introvert of introverts; but more and more I see it as giving a drink of cool water to parched lips, more and more I see it as an imperative.

We have been taught that to look at the sun directly will blind us. We have not been taught that blue light will also blind us to who we are, to who others are – virtual reality is not reality.

We are dying from the artificial blue light of technology, we need to give each other the light of relationship, and we all need the light of Jesus Christ. We need to help one another find our way out of this enveloping darkness. Grab someone’s hand today and try to find the way out…maybe if enough of us hold hands we can find our way back to who we are…children of God. The hands of Jesus are always outstretched, if He has hold of your hand, then take someone else’s hand and gently guide it into the hand of Jesus…He can hold us all.