Christmas challenges us to slow up
“Rapidified” is a new word to me. My computer does not even recognize it. Pope Francis uses it in Laudato Si and warns against falling prey to it. It seems to describe how fast and sometimes out of control our culture is getting. We live in a world that does not want us to stand still, but to move and move even faster. We are called to consume more and consume faster. But can our world sustain that process? For instance, my iPh-one is a 6S, the cutting edge when I bought it four years ago. Now it seems like a tin can with a string at-tached. (I am old enough to remember party lines and rotary phones that lasted forever. I even know what it means to “hang up” the phone.)
Perhaps I’m rapidified into trying to get more material possessions. Perhaps I’m rapidified to get the next cool thing or something bigger and badder. Perhaps I’m rapidified by obsessing about or worrying about possessions I have that I may not even need. How often have you bought something that you did not use or wear?
But it is more than that. It is about slowing down in our hearts. Perhaps when I can find moments to stand still — or, better, sit — maybe the issue is I am not using any of that time reflecting on how I might better help a threatened natural order and neglected peoples. Then I could put those reflections into action, with others, and resist being rapidified.
Christmas, the ultimate consumer holiday, seems like a great time to reflect upon all these issues. Do we really need more stuff? And if we do, can we learn sustainability? But most of all, do we have the courage and the foresight to slow down and find the depths of life, of our relationships, with one another, with our-selves, and with our God?
Slow down and come to Christmas Mass 5pm and 10 pm on Christmas Eve, 8 am and 10 am on Christmas morning.
Father Kevin