By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Evil idols spawned by the ubiquity of the Internet, among other enablers, abound today. They endanger not only faith and salvation but also purity, marriages, children’s safety, and more.
Take the “demonic rectangle,” for instance. You go everywhere with your Internet and texting portal that you sometimes use for actually talking to people. For some, it is used with discipline and without disruption to relationships, work, and worship. Some use their phones for prayer.
For others, however, particularly those in the grip of porn addiction, the mere sight of the phone can trigger receptors in the brain that immediately seek more impure images to feed the longing. It’s a vicious cycle of filth, rinse, and repeat that leaves its victims drained, discouraged, and even turned off to the spiritual answer found only in sacramental Confession, penance, and reparation.
There are some who are so deeply in the grip of porn that they should completely dispense with the smart phone for six months or more before they should trust themselves to use it responsibly and with purity once again.
No husband, flawed as he is in his imperfect humanity, will long remain married to his “real” wife while he is feeding himself daily with images of “perfect” women, who for that reason may not even be real. A real woman, any woman, each with flaws, can never compete with the perfect virtual images served up by the Internet. The man’s brain chemistry and sexual receptors, however, don’t know this. They respond according to command as instinctual faculties will. Freedom requires the dominion of the intellect and will, cooperating with grace, to reject the occasion of sin, already so familiar from the cycle of fall, confession, and repentance.
It is not only men who fall victim to porn addiction. Women also get caught up in its web. The person, in faith and reason, must use the Internet with caution at all times, realizing that nothing they see is guaranteed to be real and anything they encounter there may serve as a temptation. Custody of the eyes and emotions must be used at all times.
Speaking of emotions — there is also the matter of emotional chastity, which is connected to chastity in general. The danger of emotional dependency must be considered when it comes to social apps.
How do you feel when you send out something, whether text, photo, or comments via social messaging app, without receiving a response in return? Do you experience negative emotions? And when that happens do you respond by sending yet more messages in hope of an eventual reaction?
Certainly we enjoy the endorphins that come with a photo on Facebook or Instagram that garners hundreds of “Likes,” hearts, emojis, and comments. But what happens to us when our virtual “show and tell” falls flat? What emotions do we experience in that case? We might feel blue, or depressed, or unliked, or even question our worth in connection with our social acceptance.
And when we feel down, what do we do in response? Some personalities may turn to excessive or harmful drugs or alcohol attempting to medicate away or suppress feelings. The Internet, as we know, is also used to seek illicit sexual encounters. In weakness this may appear to be an answer to perceived loneliness. Some may be tempted to do worse.
Why do these amount to idol worship? Our love, and the emotions and good feelings from experiencing being loved, belong firstly and rightly to Almighty God. This is the freedom for which He has set us free from sin and death through His own death and Resurrection. This is the reason why the most important thing that we do on the first day of the week is to give all of our love, our lives, everything that we have and are, to the Lord. We do this through wholehearted participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
If we go into the church torn between the gods of lust, of materialism, or of emotional dependency, however enabled, we cannot experience with the joy the victory that is our faith. We cannot with honesty give ourselves in love, heart, mind, soul, and strength, as God commands. We cannot love and be loved as Love Himself defines the relationship.
This is the price of idol worship, of putting other loves before Love Himself in our hearts, intellect, and will. This is the sin of infidelity. Of idol worship that ends in eternal death. The Lord died and rose to free us from the false comfort which idols seem to promise as a form of control over reality.
But this is a lie.
Tell the parishioner with a diagnosis of cancer discovered in at least three places in her body thus far that she’s in control. She’ll laugh at you if she doesn’t throw you out first.
Put God in control. Smash the idols in your life. You don’t necessarily have to smash your cell phone. Responsible daily detachment and accountability may suffice. Newfound freedom may be frightening at first but there’s nothing more beautiful in the end.
“For freedom Christ has set us free.”
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
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