Subtle ways many Christians reject God and you’re probably guilty.
We all know the dangers of sin – mortal and venial. Mortal sin is a decisive step away from God’s grace, a breaking away from communion with him and his Body – the Church. A mortal sin is the worst thing that can befall a man since this predisposes the soul to eternal damnation. Venial sin, a lot less weighty but equally to be feared, weakens the soul and predisposes it to more dangerous and graver sins. So, we know sin is terrible and that’s definitely the easiest way to reject God. However, there are also many ways we reject God without even knowing it that don’t always seem sinful.
Where is your god?
Many who prioritize wrongly end up unhappy since they place too much importance in very unimportant things. Many people get carried away by the little things in life – gadgets, social media etc. Some people cannot even spend up two hours at mass without checking their phones which begs the question: who and where is your God? Is your god a little device in your pocket or some other device or thing somewhere? Is your god yourself? Worshipped by the insatiable thirst to see yourself in everything even in other people’s most personal issues – to make everything about yourself and not bothering to be there for any other person. Is your god money? Giving you justification to do about anything to please it – to seek and possess it? Is your god self-gratification and pleasure? Or is your God the Lord of the Living who himself is the source and Author of all existence. Who himself gives money it’s worth, sex
The call
Like I already said, many of us make our phones into our gods; we run after it whenever it calls to the point that we can ignore everything else even our own religious duties. We cannot resist its calls or its allure, we want to touch it, to view this and that, to take selfies, listen to voice notes, reply to chats etc even when in the middle of Mass. This form of wrong prioritization that justifies the leisurely use of gadgets during Liturgy is horribly dangerous and belittles the importance of God in our lives. So, who do you choose? Who are your ears
What to do
My bishop in one of his exhortations counselled people to leave their phones behind while coming to Mass. He believes, as long as you’re not a health worker or have some job connected directly with people’s safety and lives, nothing can possibly go wrong in the two hours one would attend Mass attentively.
When we refuse to dedicate our hearts wholly to God in the two hours we should attend Mass, we show God how low he is in our order of priorities. So, leave your phones behind, forget yourself sometimes, pay attention to the people in your life, know when it is about another person and be there for them, apologize, give thanks, appreciate everything as gifts and your life would be more pleasing to God and more peaceful.
To be more peaceful and strong, it is important for me to cast all of my care on the Lord and be anxious for nothing (see 1Peter 5:5-7 and Philippians 4:5-7). I can take this with me to mass and everywhere else.
To be more peaceful and strong, it is important for me to cast all of my care on the Lord and be anxious for nothing (see 1Peter 5:5-7 and Philippians 4:5-7). I can take this with me to mass and everywhere else.