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February 12, 2021I was recently at a friend’s house when they chose to play games about pop culture. I was lost in a haze of wonderment as they seemed to know every single party question about top celebrities, whose dating who, and what seemed like endless personal information about famous people that definitely didn’t concern me. What did concern me? They could name off celebrities in seconds, but information about the Saints, Mary, the Lord Jesus Himself, I’m not sure. It led me to start thinking, what am I consumed by?
Jesus calls us to live in, but also outside of this world. While there is nothing wrong with knowing random information, it should never be more important than God Himself. For example, I can tell you more than 200 different kinds of Pokemon, my brother in law seems to know everything possible about cars, and my other brother probably knows every single Taylor Swift song title. These worldly things aren’t bad in and of themself. In fact, using our brains and challenging ourselves to learn more can be quite good for our overall health. Even knowing information about our world can help us relate to others and even influence our evangelization of leading people to Christ. Don’t judge me, but Baby Yoda is definitely up there for me on favorite secular followings. But does it consume me? I hope not!
If I were to ask you right now what your top three passions are, what are your areas of interest or favorite TV shows, would God rank in at all? I love Pokemon and the Mandalorian, but they will never take the place of my faith. If I could tell you more about Star Wars than our Catholic Faith that would show a serious problem in my faith life. If I could name more celebrities or know more about them than Saints, then what world do I truly belong to? This world? Or Heaven?
Bishop Robert Barron has a Catholic Lighthouse talk where he shares a story about his niece. He saw her textbooks on the table and was amazed at her intelligence in Latin texts, reading Shakespeare, and yet, there at the bottom, was a small little religion book. All her other courses were forming and challenging her to develop her intellectual abilities, but no one was helping her learn this same level of information in Catholicism.
What do you know more about, this world, or the next? Our choices and passions in this life should always be leading us closer to God. When we are involved in the secular, it should always be selective and only, shows for example, that don’t offend God. Yes this is hard, but Jesus never said being a Christian was easy. In fact, he said the road to Heaven is difficult, while the road to hell is broad and easy. If you aren’t challenged by your faith or challenging yourself to do more, you’re probably doing it wrong. So today, I invite you to reflect upon the priorities and interests in your life. Who do they serve, yourself or God? We are made into saints not by easy roads, but by uphill climbs that bring us to more fully value God. In every action we chose, may we always remember that our ultimate home is Heaven.