Waking up to ministry in a “Zooming World”
This is definitely not the post I started out writing for today. It is a post triggered by a wonderful column in Maria Shriver’s weekly reflection.
She begins commenting on how she can’t believe how much has changed in just a few short months. Just four months ago who could have imagined how much our world and lifestyles would be changed in such a short period of time. Her new favorite phrase is “I didn’t see that coming”.
I for one, did not see the pandemic coming. But I was often been struck by Michael Crichton’s novel of 50 years ago, The Andromeda Strain. It not only became a movie but most recently a TV series.
In the midst of the devastation of COVID 19 “Zoom” has become a frequently used word with many people even recognizing a new illness – “Zoom fatigue”. Zoom is just the most accepted form of technology that is changing the way we communicate, learn, the place where we work, and how we relax and interact. (Oh, to have had stock in Zoom last year!)
Foreshadowings from 20 years ago.
But there were many who did see the impact of new technologies, even if they did not see Zoom coming. And I suspect you may be surprised by the foreshadowings hidden in plain sight these last 20 years.
Church documents
In 2002 the Pontifical Council for Communication released two major documents. I remember thinking these were the two most radical pieces of Church teaching I had ever seen.
“…the Internet, which is helping bring about revolutionary changes in commerce, education, politics, journalism, the relationship of nation to nation and culture to culture—changes not just in how people communicate but in how they understand their lives.” 2002 The Church and the Internet.
“Change in how we understand our lives.” A separate but complementary document released the same year, Ethics and the Internet, raised so many of the issues we are concerned with today.
Congregation of the Mission documents
The Final Document of the 1998 General Assembly states:
“We are entering into an era of information technology which brings with it unrecognized, and therefore even more insidious forms of poverty. If the poor remain without access to information technology, they will be further marginalized and locked into a cycle of poverty.”
It was on the occasion of the General Assembly Fr. Robert Maloney, Superior General, began to nudge the Congregation to adapt to “modern means of communication”. He laid out a vision of technology in the service of the mission. He convened a group with a threefold mandate to develop famvin.org initially as a newsletter, then as a tool of formation, and a tool of collaboration. This mandate has been unfolding through the network of sites under the umbrella of famvin.org.
Waking up to new possibilities rather than returning to the past
Now to the part of Maria Shriver’s reflection that spoke to me
“Instead, I’ve taken to dreaming my life forward. This shift in perspective takes me from a mindset of “Holy moly, I can’t believe what’s happening” to one that says, “I can’t wait for what’s going to happen.”
But she is realistic about this as she says
“there is an awakening, but it is partial – not just some people and not others, but some parts of ourselves and not other parts. We’re at war within and without – between the new and the old. But I have total faith that we’re moving in the right direction… And yes, the awakening needs us. But it doesn’t need the part of us that says ‘the awakening needs us.’ It needs the humble part that longs to learn, not the arrogant part that wants to teach.”
Waking up in a digital world
- How aware am I that we face changes not just in how people communicate but in how they now understand their lives.
- How aware am I that in order to bring the good news of the Gospel to the whole world I need to learn the language and customs of a “Zooming World”?
- Can I hear God saying to me “Wake up new ways of serving”?
Zoom has been a blessing and a curse. Recently, on a Zoom Meeting that has been a weekly replacement to an after Mass Coffee hour, one person said, I have been going to coffee hours for years, but in these last few months, I have learned more about the people I have been with than I ever knew. I am grateful for the internet keeping us closer together, especially Zoom during this pandemic, but I can’t wait to see people in person again. Zoom is helping us to get to know the person sitting next to us on a deeper level and will help us minister to each other better.
First, I like this quote: “It needs the humble part that longs to learn, not the arrogant part that wants to teach.”
I associate it with Fr Maloney saying in The Way of Vincent de Paul, p 150: “Learn, then, to be a good listener. Allow yourself to be evangelized by others—by your brothers in community, by those you work with, and especially by the poor.”
Secondly, while I admit I’ve yet to “Zoom,” I’m learning (‘by experience’ as opposed to ‘by the unheeded frequent advice from those who know better’) that sharing on Facebook a 500-word reflection on immigrants is not as effective as sharing a short Scripture passage, say, Ex 12, 49: “The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.”
And this reminds of St. Vincent telling the Daughters (SV.EN IX:268): “A good word coming from the heart and spoken in the right spirit will suffice to lead them to God.”
I think I’m heeding you, John, albeit slowly. Thank you for the opportunity to listen.