Moment With Betty

So, what is it about Christian coherence?  It is about unity in the church, bringing Christians together in Christ in a more interesting way in our environment as a response to the call to stewardship. The mandate that 14124 was given to us by God at baptism when we received the Holy Spirit and the love of God, to go and spread the good news.  “The love of God has been poured out into our heart through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom: 5:5). The call to be stewards could be said to be a little challenging before now due to lack of adequate infrastructure that made Christian coherence not so much interesting in all environments.

With the advent of technology however, our lives have become ever more present.  We can now easily access and send out information from our comfort zones using our phones, computers and even the internet. We can also send images and videos within seconds to faraway places. But the question is, how well have we used this technology as instruments of unity in the church, in our family and our environment?

The prelate of Opus Dei Monsignor Ocariz, said in one of his homily that we should strive to be instruments of unity in the church, by being instruments of unity in our own family, in our own setting and in our ordinary life. He also stressed that we should make Christ present in our own setting. That each of us should make the Gospel and Christ present in our environment, in our family, our work and in our social relations.

We are all witnesses to the role that technology played during COVID 19 pandemic and is still playing. We never thought of celebrating the Holy Mass online before but with the lockdown that kept us in our homes for months as a result of the pandemic, we find us attending Mass online with the aid of technology. Offices and schools also joined and today, Masses are still going on online while some organization’s staff are still working from their homes and schools and some institutions now organize blended/ hybrid programs.

With technology, we have been able to overcome the anxiety and uncertainty which we experienced as a result of the lockdown. It is also expected that as Christians, we should close up that distance which has prevented us from doing apostolate or spreading the good news with technology.  Many of us, spend hours on our phones, checking the Facebook pages or the Instagram every day but how many of us use these same platforms in uniting our family members, friends, colleagues and our neighbours with Christ and the church. Remember that we are the faithfuls and the faithfuls as members of Christ, are instruments for performing in our environment and the world at large.

With technology, we can now reach out to all and sundry no matter where they are, we have no excuse not to do so anymore. The question therefore, is are we interestingly bringing people to the church and to Christ using technology? Those of us who have our children in school abroad and even in the boarding schools in Nigeria, who are having difficulty in getting to the church or finding someone to talk to them about God or who are not privileged to have a Spiritual Director. This is the opportunity we have to bring these our children up to speed with their catechism classes and also their spiritual commitment. We can do this right from our phones, we can share some bible passages with them on WhatsApp at weekends when they are not attending lectures. We can also record Sunday homilies and spiritual talks and send to our children, friends and co- workers who we feel are becoming lukewarm Christians.

Let us see the new culture of communication as a positive exercise that has given rise to many benefits to the church. We are also encouraged to use the web to influences others with spiritual messages, quotes and articles that will increase the knowledge of Christ in the minds of the faithfuls and making us to be Christ instruments of unity in the church.