Driven but sober

WITH all the technological advances we now have, we cannot deny the fact that we are always tempted to try them, spending precious time and exploring the plethora of possibilities with them. The urge to “carpe diem” gets ever stronger, often milking us dry of our creative juices, etc.

This is a good development, of course, but only if we are prepared for it, adequately equipped and clear as to their ultimate purpose. Otherwise, we would just be blown and swept away by the storm of novelties and curiosities they offer.

Thus, while they help us to be more driven in life, they also ask us, nay, require us to be properly grounded. A certain kind of sobriety is needed, since our tendency to be intoxicated is now always teased and provoked.

The other day, someone told me how concerned he was since his high school daughter already has more than a thousand friends on Facebook, most of them male admirers, and they come not only from the city and the province, but also from the rest of the country and even outside.

That’s a new problem that is asking for new ways of how to be prompt and effective in dispensing parental guidance, while observing the requirements of prudence and understanding for the young one involved. New house rules have to be made to adapt to the new situation.

I told him to regulate the time his daughter spends on the Internet, and to see to it that she studies and prays and that family gatherings, like eating together, having after-meal get-togethers, going to Mass together, etc. should be fostered.

Besides, frequent direct personal chats should be encouraged between parents and children so that criteria, suggestions and corrections can be made punctually.

I myself have to be careful not to spend too much time on the Internet. Now that I have more than 600 friends on Facebook and growing, I have to see to it that I have a clear idea what to do and how much time I can spend every time I open my account.

My friends are all sorts, from high and low, but mostly young male students from the school where I work, with their expected load of pranks and mischiefs that I have to learn to bear with a grain of salt. But the apostolic possibilities far outweigh the negative elements.

Still, there is always a need to be careful and sober, since the pull of distractions can be both strong and subtle. It’s a daily struggle that has to be contextualized in one’s interior life itself. It could not be anything less.

It’s this interior or spiritual life that enables one to see things from the point of view of God, and not just from any human point of view, cultural, social or economic. Sadly, this reality is often ignored by many people. There’s a need to restore its crucial role it plays in our lives.

So I always recommend that one submits himself to a clear plan of life that includes practices of piety distributed all throughout the day that would help him keep a lively spiritual life and a working supernatural outlook.

This lifestyle obviously requires sobriety, that effective self-control that involves knowing how to deal with our impulses and urges that need to be rationalized and later infused by faith and charity.

To achieve this, a certain detachment from persons and things is needed. It allows us to see things more objectively and calmly. It lets us make proper judgments of persons, things and events.

This does not mean that we develop a kind of serious and dour image. Sobriety is lived in naturalness, and therefore it can have its cheerful and tender moments that should be more dominant than its dry side.

Sobriety involves the skill of waiting and preparing. The best example of this is God himself. In his plan of redemption, he had to wait for years and had to send all sorts of patriarchs and prophets to prepare the people for salvation.

When Christ the Redeemer finally came, he also had to wait and pray a lot. In all the big events of his earthly life, he would always precede them with long periods of prayer and fasting. He did not immediately jump into action.

We need to understand the wisdom of this lifestyle. Thus, in our driven world, we need to be firmly moored in our effective love for God and others. Otherwise, we become easy prey to the tricks of the flesh and the world.