My latest column: “The Holy Eucharist, The Power Of His Body”

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK

As a young Army officer, I learned that military readiness meant ultimate availability. A constant capacity to respond when the mission demanded an ability to pack up and move out at any time was a given. One of the easiest ways to fall short in military life was failing to respond when summoned, wherever or whenever.

There was a lot of “togetherness” back then. Nothing like the military to throw you in together with 500 of your “best friends.” There was plenty of time for shooting the breeze. “Smoking and joking” as we called it. We never thought of fearing lack of human contact. We longed rather more often for solo time at home to rest and recuperate after tank gunnery or deployments. Phone calls often came only to transmit the bare essentials of communication.

I was trained to always answer the phone in those days of home landlines. I never got over the strange impression upon later witnessing people automatically and routinely letting a call go to voicemail. Obnoxious sales calls were only just beginning to prove a nuisance.

Later came voice mail, checked for new messages upon returning each day from work. Later in the Navy there were pagers and more pressure to be on call everywhere. These were just a foretaste of ultimate availability on the go at all times provided by mobile devices. And they came with the benefit and burden of the Internet.
Communication became then something bordering at times on oppression. Expectations of a response loomed every time you hit the “send” button. We had to get used to assuming a text or email was received and read in the absence of a response of any kind.

Information and affirmation are always interconnected, but increasing substitution of technology which can’t replace the full effect provided by human presence threatens to overwhelm the other aspects of relationships.

When there is nothing else of context to provide countering information one is tempted to wonder: “Does silence mean it’s all over?” Because sometimes it does. The young people call this phenomenon “ghosting.” This from the social set that uses texting for any and all communication, shunning voice communications as too risky. But risk of failure and vulnerability are part of all relationships. Avoiding phone calls will not eliminate such.

Self-image, and ultimately relationships and love, are affected for good or ill by the ways in which ever-present technology is used and by the ways in which gestures enabled by it are interpreted.
Texting and social media, counting likes and views, are a poor substitute for relationships “in real life.” Compare the satisfaction of one single friendship to thousands of faceless finger-taps on a screen button. No contest.

Technology gives control to choose where and when to establish spaces in relationships. This is understandable and necessary in all healthy connections. For others, perhaps, the occasional perception of an unacknowledged gesture brings perhaps a sense of dissatisfaction in its train.

All of these forms of communication, affirmation, human loves and friendships will ultimately pass away, however. Important as they may be now in various ways, we cannot ultimately rely on them. Blessings they are, but the kind that come and go.

These finally are only road marks along a path to eternity guided by the hand extended by One in whom all the other gifts and graces, forms of affirmation and companionship, are granted only for a time.

Read the rest: https://thewandererpress.com/catholic/news/our-catholic-faith/the-holy-eucharist-the-power-of-his-body/