Original post of Father Samuel Medley, S.O.L.T:
Where are they? Where are the voices of those who speak for the Truth? Are they hiding underneath a rock? Are all the courageous people just stories of men and women long ago? Where are the heroes? Who has not allowed their mind to be mushed and suffocated by false teaching or compromises with what is comfortable? Where are the saints of our time?
JGB:
More and more I'm seeing videos from the media that cross the line of not only bad taste, but also hate toward life and the Church. On Facebook, in only the last 2 WEEKS, I've seen THREE terrible postings. One was a mean joke about the priest scandal. One about killing people who disagree with global warming. And today one about an interview with a woman preaching euthanasia of suffering children. EVERY time I've either responded to the post with a rebuke, OR I've reposted with a status stating my own point of view. I'm happy to say that with regard to the joke about priest scandal, one Lutheran joined me in saying what a low blow it was. I got one comment in agreement with me regarding the climate change/murder video, and so far no comments about the reposting of the interview with that sorry English woman who thinks she should put a pillow over the head of a hypothetical suffering child. Yes, dear Christians, Catholic and otherwise, we've got a lot of work to do to influence the world. I think it might take martyrdom.
When I was a kid, going to church out at the Joppa Community Church in central Texas, I used to hear the pastor tell us regularly that as Christians we might have to lay our lives down for another, because that's what Jesus did. I doubt any of us ever thought we'd ever really be asked to do that. But we should at least be prepared to defend the truth on Facebook for crying out loud. However, when someone doesn't like what you say, what do they do? All they have to do is "hide" your posts or defriend you. So how are we to speak the truth in a way that people will actually listen? I don't want to be like the emergent church types with the good hair and the rock music who try to make the gospel sound like something entertaining in order to get people to listen, either.
Fr. Sam's follow-up questions:
How? You speak it IN CHRIST. Let Christ be the one who speaks, Christ, who is himself the message and messenger, the one who is prudent but zealous, the one who knows you and your audience better than you. Be the voice of Jesus Christ. Be Christ to others that a few may hear him. Do not worry about your presentation as much as about being in Christ and letting him speak. There is much of us in us. We need to get emptied and need to do it quickly and consistently. If we just spout things off or fear to speak we will end of speaking when we ought to be silent and being silent when we ought to speak.
Give Jesus, the Truth, a voice on Facebook. Is Jesus Lord, even of the social media? Let your content, your message, your heart, your demeanor all speak of Christ. Is this a lot of work? Yes, but it is Christ's work.
JGB:
And on FB, I'm the voice of Christ to people who ALREADY agree with me. The ones who already agree with me are the only ones who'll read what I write. (Everyone else has me "hidden." I know this because I hide a few of my friends from time to time, too.) I'm not sure you even read to the end of my post, because I'm telling you, you are "preaching to the choir." I'm pretty much seen as the church lady everywhere I go. I might as well be wearing a habit. People just ignore me or write me off as "irrelevant" and go their own way. Which of course they certainly can. . . they have free will. My point is, words can only go so far in a culture where people can turn them off so easily. Just like dear St. Francis with the Sultan, we might have to get beat up a few times.
NOTE: Fr Samuel Medley is a Roman Catholic Priest of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT). He works with the modern media to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ in Mary's spirit of Magnificat.
10/05/10
