Our reluctance to trust new experiences and discoveries with our Lord, but the joy that follows when we do.
New Creation
The breakthrough in the use of technology came at the start of Singapore’s Circuit Breaker (CB) on 7 Apr 20 when we were all forced to find new ways. It was not possible to tell at that time how long the CB would last in this global pandemic of Coronavirus and we really wanted to receive our Lord spiritually. Of the many new things to come in the Catholic Church to explore new pastures, was that our parish CSM, was one of the first few parishes to conduct ECs on Zoom in Singapore. We were all feeling awkward for various reasons.
Reluctance
In the initial first few online ECs, our parish priest would encourage all of us to switch on our cameras. Admittedly, I felt embarrassed with no make up or hair done, I kept my camera switched off. I had also never met so many new sisters and brothers in Christ and taking our relationships beyond saying more than hello; what more of sharing my reflection on the Gospel and how it relates to my week? What if I was not eloquent enough? But trusting what the Holy Spirit has in store for our parish community, I pushed through my superficial appearance reluctance and switched on my microphone, then in the next week, my camera – I was really curious to see how I could be transformed; how our parish could move to encounter moments with God.
After 3 months of participating in ECs online and being assigned to multiple breakout sessions, I am beginning to see a glimmer of that parish community I had prayed for in 2017. At that time, I only knew what a community of young people were like in a location like OYP. But now,
I am beginning to experience what a parish community is and how it helps us to:
- Build relationships
- Peer to peer witnessing
- Strengthen my relationship with God
- Open our eyes to other people’s experiences of God’s miracles and reflect on our own experiences with God
As I encounter God in moments where I meet many of my sisters and brothers whom I know through serving in ministry, and also many others in our parish whom I am now privileged to get to know and witness their testimonies through Zoom breakout sessions, I ask God to help me to understand whatever he has revealed through the sisters and brothers in our parish community.
Peer to peer witnessing is important for discipleship
The call to discipleship can be intimidating, and it’s easy to want to stay in our comfort zones. Do we allow others to witness the good news in our lives enough? The Lord tells us to leave everything behind and follow him, but how do we know it’ll be worth it? How do we know we’ll be safe? How do we know we won’t be miserable after letting all this go? Will life be too complex on the other side? Pope Benedict XVI said, “Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way?
Let us go forth and BREAK-OUT from our norms and ZOOM into the future of using technology to benefit the Kingdom of God
Julianne Danielle Lim