Today, the world
is connected more than ever. With technology at hand, one can easily
communicate and transact with people from different points of the globe.
Through various social media of communication, one can establish
"friendship" and "follow" other people. Some would even
have five thousand "friends," or millions of "followers."
But how much do you know these friends and followers? As we connect to more and
more people, the quality of our friendship is watered down. It is reduced to
the number of likes, and hearts. In our desire for quantity of friendship, the
quality is sacrificed. How many of us know, for real, the people we meet in the
digital continent, beyond their post, through the message and in between the
photos they share? How many of us established genuine friendship? We may have
been connected by technology today, but an emerging reality is that we have
become more and more isolated from reality and have been satisfied with
incomplete friendships which we might as well call fake connections.
In the Gospel (Lk
8: 19-21), redefines the relationship he has with persons whom he calls His
family. Blood relations often define family. In an accommodated and extended
way, friends can also be called families. Jesus, however, presents another way
of defining familial relation: "My mother and my brothers are those who
hear the word of God and act on it." Family is not anymore a matter of
consanguinity and familiarity, but a matter of obedience to the Father: of
heeding God's call for repentance, holiness, etc.; of following the instructions
of His Son through whom He had spoken to us. It is this obedience to God that
would unite us into establishing an authentic friendship. It makes us a family.
As we act upon the Word of God and fulfill His will, real joy emanates from us
for it brings to fulfillment our very purpose as children of God, obedient to
their Father.
The Jews and the
Persians (Ezra 6:7-8 12B 14-20) though may differ from their ethnicity and
religion, but were united as one in building the house of God. The completion
of such a common project brought joy to them. And probably, they celebrated not
only when the house of God was completed, but also as they build it; as they
pass one brick to one another; as their unity brought their two communities
into one and was able to build the house of God where He truly dwelled among
them.
Today, how can we
build the House of God? How can we establish God's presence in our midst even
in the digital continent? How can we establish genuine friendships and
families? We are already connected. We might have missed to include one Person
in our family: God.
