Friday of the 6th Week of Easter
Acts 18:9-18 | Psalm 46:2-7 | John 16:20-23
One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid to speak out, nor allow yourself to be silenced: I am with you. I have so many people on my side in this city that no one will even attempt to hurt you.’ (Acts 18:9-10)
It’s been over a month since I started reflecting on each day’s readings, and though I’ve received almost no reaction during this time, it’s actually been a pleasure spending hours each day thinking about what to write. I’ve surprised myself at the number of things I’ve pushed aside to make room for this daily activity. Things that I don’t miss any more. Things that I barely recall now after doing without for so long.
Things like Facebook.
Those of you coming to this post from my daily Facebook snippet probably noticed that I actually “quit” a long (Internet) time ago. I was spending far too much time consuming food porn, vacation selfies…and torrents of re-shared links and pithy quotes in pretty illustrations with hundreds of likes but barely any reflections on what they meant to their respective posters. Lots of “here’s a cool article about Pope Francis’ latest pastoral visit, bye!” and not much “I think the author made some great points, but I don’t entirely agree because XYZ”. The overall design of Facebook, and indeed most social media, doesn’t encourage long-form and long-term sharing and reflection; indeed, recent research bears out my suspicion that many reshare without actually reading. You can probably see why I drifted away.
I don’t condemn your spontaneous sharing of your daily life, dear reader, but I’m more interested in forging a deeper relationship, with you and with our Creator. What would you like me to share with everyone about our common faith? What issues do you have with from the thousands of words I’ve written so far? How about starting your own blog about your feelings and struggles with living the faith in a faithless world? Or do it on Facebook if it’s easier? Did you even read this far? ?
The Lord commands us to speak without fear about his Love for everyone. Today is as good a day as any to begin.
Lord, give us the courage to speak out about You and how much You love all creation, to not silence ourselves in fear of our own unworthiness to share our faith with others. Send the Holy Spirit upon us, to enflame our hearts and rule our minds with the words You bid us believe and bequeath to our fellow men: “Love one another as I have loved you.” Amen.