In Search of a Theology and Spirituality of the Pentecost Mission on the Internet
Putting out into the deep of the Net
Internet experience
A Catholic who has learned the basics of surfing and working around the
Internet will soon seek and desire a way of multiplying contacts with other
Catholics. This desire of his, will spur him to go out further into the
deep of the Internet and find means and ways of sharing his Catholic faith
with others. He will surely and certainly find other Catholics but he cannot
not avoid encountering non-Catholic and non-Christian entities and individuals
in the Internet. When he does encounter these people, his concept of God will
be brought to the fore in his encounter with them and this would make more
emphatic that image not only to himself, but to the other people who espouse
a different faith tradition. This is very basic to our faith encounters with
others: our concept of who God is to us. Each religion and each type of faith
have different ways of seeing the divine - whether it be a personal or an
impersonal divinity. We know that our God is a personal God. He is a God who
saves us through His triune being.
When a Catholic who feels the call and sees within himself a sense of mission
for propagating the faith, encounters such people, he will discover that many
are very antagonistic to the Catholic faith especially when you mention the
Pope or anything that has to do with the authoritative teaching of the
hierarchy. A notable few are very vehement in their opposition to Catholic
teaching even when a Catholic only posts an article or a news item about the
Vatican and its activities. Experiences like these seem to tell us that the
hierarchical power structure of the Catholic Church threatens many religions
- especially those who feel and conceive oour Catholic structure as too authoritarian.
So when a Catholic who surfs the Internet encounters people who are vehemently
anti-Catholic, he must first train himself to have self-restraint and not take
their attacks and offenses personally. Fighting back will only start a spiral
of violence - in the form of abusive messages or name-calling that attacks one's
dignity. It is not a matter of the Catholic
himself alone, but rather it also involves the other person, his church, our church, and the relationship
between our church and his church. We need not analyze this situation to
understand that it is really and truly a complicated matter to deal with. It
is a matter for those specializing in the realm of the interfaith and
interreligious arena - especially those who have experience of doing so
at the interpersonal level.
What was mentioned above is only when a Catholic does some "missionary"
work over the Internet and gets into Internet forums where non-Catholics and
non-Christians gather. However, when a Catholic encounters a fellow Catholic
on the Internet, there is almost no problem at all in terms of relating with
each other. Conflicts that may arise will only be a result of personality
differences or because each one sees the Catholic faith differently - each
one differs in their opinions, their viewpoints, their spirituality, and
their theology. In general though, everything usually goes smooth-sailing in
terms of communication and interaction. It is really very inspiring to see
Catholics giving and receiving spiritual support from each other in the
Internet. And this last point is what we will explore more further in our
exploration and a search for a theology and spirituality of the Pentecost
mission on the Net.
Scripture
When we take our reference of Christian living in Scriptures, there are two
classic references from the Acts of the Apostles which we can base our
ideals and models from. These are Acts 2:42-47 and Acts 4:32-35. Let us
quote these passages here so that we can rightly see how we can explore
further how we can arrive at a good Pentecost theology of mission from the actual texts.
These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood,
to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. The many miracles and signs
worked through the apostles made a deep impression on everyone. The faithful
all lived together and owned everything in common; they sold their goods
and possessions and shared out the proceeds among themselves according to
what each one needed. They went as a body to the Temple every day but met
in their houses for the breaking of bread; they shared their food gladly
and generously; they praised God and were looked up to by everyone. Day
by day the Lord added to their community those destined to be saved.
(Acts 2:42-47)
The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed
for his own use anything that he had, as everything they owned was held in
common. The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus with great power, and they were all given great respect. None of
their members was ever in want, as all those who owned land or houses would
sell them, and bring the money from them, to present it to the apostles; it
was then distributed to any members who might be in need. (Acts 4:32-35)
The text quoted above were taken from the Jerusalem Bible translation.
Examining these texts tells us that there are certain terms repeated in both
passages; terms like apostles, in common, owned, everything, owned
everything/everything they owned, sold their goods/sell them, and Lord.
Words were repeated also within the passages. Like for instance: the
breaking of bread, members, shared, and great power/respect.
The very fact that these words were repeated and quoted again means that
they are important realities to the Pentecost commmunity who experienced
the Pentecost event - the event when the Holy Spirit descended upon the group
of apostles and disciples, with the Blessed Mother included, and by it,
has given them the gifts necessary to preach the Good News to all peoples
of all nations. But before they were to go out to the world to preach
the Gospel, they were sharing a common life in prayer and work that reminded
them of how they should live the teachings that Christ had given them before He
ascended into heaven. That is why in the words that were repeated often in the
two passages, just putting together "in common", "owned", "everything", "sold their goods",
"members", "shared", "apostles", "the breaking of bread" and "great power/respect", gives
us a really good impression of what the original Eucharistic celebration must
have been before it was institutionalized as the sacrament it came to be formalized
as we have it now.
Catholic Church teaching
The Catholic Church has taught the faithful much about Christ and His teachings
through papal messages and formal documents like encyclicals. With regard to
the teaching in the use of the Internet as a social communications medium for
Church purposes, there are three major documents which have been the basis
for everything that is available for the reader in the website. These documents
are the 36th World Communications Day Message, the Church and Internet, and
Ethics in Internet. What these three documents tell us is that the Internet has both
potential for good and bad and that the interplay between the Gospel and its
entry into Internet culture can give us both the promise of great breakthroughs
and also expose us to some dangers which must be avoided. A very essential
truth that must never be forgotten is that Catholics who use the Internet must
always be reminded that their forays into cyberspace are all electronically-mediated.
Thus, interaction is also electronically-mediated. The Internet can never take
the place of the true, living, liturgical and sacramental life of the Eucharistic
celebration and the celebration of the other sacraments. It is only a first
contact, so to speak, with the Gospel and all of Catholic culture - represented
in various styles of text and graphics, static or dynamic, and pictures that
represent our human selves through such tools as the webcam.
To learn more in detail about the papal message that became the guideline
for the production of all works in this Catholic website, just visit
Vatican
Document on the Internet. This papal
message is the briefest and most concise of all Church teaching on the
Internet that has been produced by the Vatican. It is by far the most
missionary in tone and by far the most encouraging in the giving of a
special mandate and blessing from a top Vatican official we all know and
respect. It is vital to read this teaching because it not only tells Catholics
how he should use the Internet for his own purposes but it instructs the
Catholics how they can be apostolic and missionary in their Internet
activities.
Exploring a Pentecost theology of mission at work
After observing all the Internet experiences that can be made possible in engaging oneself
on the Internet; after looking at Scriptures as to the meaning of the Pentecost
mission experience; and after examining all that the Church teaches as regards
Catholic use of the Internet; we can now take these pieces altogether to
formulate a Pentecost theology and spirituality of mission on the Net.
If we were to select a word that would summarize a Pentecost theology of mission,
what word would that be? It would be good if that word came from the language
of the Internet because this is the reason why we are exploring a Pentecost
theology of mission for. That word must also be a gateway for the Catholic culture
to embed and undergird itself as regards its Pentecost-based teaching
on the Eucharist, community, prayer, and mission. Many words can be used
for this purpose, but the one this website thinks truly inculturates the
Gospel message of Christian community is - "link". Link, linking,
linkaging, working links, broken links, active links...these are the terms
we always find in many websites that teach about site building and search
engine optimization techniques. But just the simple word "link"
tells us a lot about what the Christian message is when inculturated in that
word. A Pentecost theology of mission is thus a "link theology" - a theology
of community in forums, of relationships with each other through electronic communication, and
a sense of God's word mediated through the text of the web site. People are interconnected
and linked to one another despite global distances. And it is through this
system of linked computers that people can give the best of themselves and
the best of their service for the good of the Internet public and for the
building of the Catholic community and the Catholic ecumenical and interfaith mission
on the Net.
1. Through linkaging, people are able to make multiplying contacts a reality;
2. through linkaging, people can give and receive moral support for their
difficulties and problems through prayers and encouraging words;
3. through linkaging, the papal message is made available to all so that
all Catholics may know their personal vocation to be missionaries in this
unique way;
4. through linkaging, people can share and give the best of their time,
knowledge, skills, energy, and their very selves for the Gospel to be
proclaimed in as many Internet forums, web sites and web logs, as can be made possible - making
Christ the central and foremost figure in all these Internet activity.
This is truly a Pentecost theology and spirituality of mission at work.
It is a continued search for what will "connect", "link" and "gather" Catholics
on the Net to work at evangelizing the world, in all its physical, interpersonal and
electronic-mediated elements. The mission is the same: to make it the Net also a space
where Christ is the center of all peoples' lives. This Pentecost theology and spirituality
of mission will not work if people do not share themselves in terms of knowledge, time
and various resources. Only the Spirit of God can also move people to share of themselves
over a "linked network" so that they would be transformed like that early
Christian community that experienced the Pentecost event - receiving the same mission
to be of one mind and heart under the teaching and guidance of the Church.
The Holy Spirit's presence among those who bond together on the Net will make
it possible to continue the same mission of the Church to proclaim the Gospel
of Jesus to the world - and this time having a greater and more global outreach.