“Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
Father is not in him” (I John 2:13)
The love of the world in kindest terms is humanism. More accurate would be agnosticism, since that means those who either don’t think through a faith in God, or just don’t care. Because it’s everywhere in our society, it’s not so simple to define, like asking a fish what water looks like. Perhaps it’s like the judge struggling to give a legal definition of pornography who said, “You know it when you see it.” This mindset or attitude to life is in the media and especially on television.
Beneath the comedians’ jokes and the release of inhibitions that cause the audiences to laugh at morals held by believers is a cynicism that mocks all values. It’s easy to fall into the skeptical attitude to religion, faith in God and the commitment that true belief demands. The altar is the talk show host’s desk. He is the celebrant who appoints the guests. Their task is to entertain, and in a culture with very few taboo subjects they are free to mock, shock, ridicule, and scandalize the audience and viewers, who are programmed to laugh even when the anecdotes are tattered with retelling, and little is left of dignity and respectability to deflate and humiliate in this society.
When the Church encourages us to break away from the ways of our society from time to time, setting aside several periods of lent through the church year, what we are doing is stepping back for a wide-screen look at ourselves outside of our lives as we know them. In a way we play monks and nuns, even for a little while. We make spaces in our souls and minds for the Kingdom of God to enter. “The world is too much with us, and too soon,” as the poet Wordsworth reminds us.
So many elderly persons frustrate themselves by what they watch on television or read in the newspapers. Is it too much to ask to pull the plug on the set and stop reading the papers for at least a week? They always talk about the good old days when they were young. Why not pretend then is now? Read the Bible. Go for a walk. Consider your life after this lifetime is ended. Get in touch with your angel.
Young persons are filled with intense emotions. They invest their feelings in a cause, a person, or a group. Ask yourselves what or who you really love. Are they worth your emotions? Will they enhance your life or will they exploit your affection?
We live in a wonderful, yet dangerous time. It’s not easy to resist the tendency to get caught up in whatever is presented as new and exciting, even if it will in the long run waste your time or worse, commit you to an involvement in what you would be better off without.
Of everything that God created, you are the most precious of all. It’s why Jesus wants us to call Him “Father.” Christ’s Father is now your Father, but you must act in all ways like a true and worthy child of His. He allows the world to go on existing without paying attention to Him. Some even blame Him for the way things are turning out, without realizing that it’s because He loves the world so much that He lets it continue on its way, even to its destruction. But He loves you and expects more from you. You are so much more than a victim or mindless follower of whatever in our society is not worthy of Him. You live in the world, but you are not of the world. You must sort out what is of God in your life from what is beneath you. And then act like God’s own child. This is the meaning of the simple words from the letter of John above.