I must confess that one of my most overlooked sins is the eighth commandment: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. In a previous article I mention how my thirst for knowledge leads to gossip and imprudent curiosity. This has been a flaw of mine I have been working on. But, another aspect of this sin of mine has been detractive and uncharitable comments on the internet, in particular, when I use an anonymous account.
Now, I am not turning this article into a commentary on internet anonymity. I actually support and believe it is good to be anonymous online, and the temptation is there for unaccountable commentary, but that does not justify mandatory identification, and, if anyone is paying attention, detracting and uncharitable comments are not the exclusive domain of the anonymous. Instead, this article will be about the overwhelming violations of the eight commandment that permeate the life of the Church.
Keeping to the internet for now, if you are someone who frequents social media, and finds themselves within the Catholic communities of these social media platforms (e.g. #CatholicTwitter) you will have no doubt witnessed all sorts of accusations, critiques, comments and otherwise being thrown around with careless abandon. Nobody acts more uncharitably to Catholics online than other Catholics. And it is this behavior in particular that spurred me to write something.
(NB: I do not care much about what non-Catholics say or do simply because we cannot hold them to our own standards. See: 1 Corinthians 5 : 12-13)
Social media’s primary function is to enslave users into spending as much time and money on their app. The secondary function of social media is to allow people to interact with one another. Within these interactions we find the reasoning for this article: pettiness, spitefulness, retraction, calumny, back-biting, and every other violation of the eighth commandment. I have no plan to post examples, because spending five minutes on social media will provide the evidence, but I do want to use a contemporary controversy that has led to another round of exuberant debate.
Recently, The Pillar released an article about an incident involving Fr. Carlos Martins. I have no comment on any of that, just the reaction to it, which was a spiritual bloodbath.
Immediately, people denounced The Pillar, either for reporting the news, or for how they worded it. People also immediately denounced Fr. Martins, assured of his guilt and assuming whatever he must have allegedly been guilty of is of the most grave matter, with no evidence other than their pre-formed bias against Fr. Martins, which seemed to be caused by his being a “celebrity priest” or a public exorcist. Lay people and priests participated in this foolish and deadly game of assumption and accusation. Charity was murdered and no one seemed to care. Certain priests made sure to get on their soap box and denounce Fr. Martins, lay people celebrated, and due process, patience, charity, and justice lay abandoned. Others defended Fr. Martins, claiming this was a lie, or a demonic attack, and in turn verbally attacked the other side with their own onslaught of uncharitable words. Nothing remained other than contempt.
This is just one example of many. Any debate, any question, any opinion will usually create such discourse on social media, and inevitably the Catholics will turn on their own. There is fraternal correction (good) and stabbing each other in the back (bad), and many people claim the former while reveling in the latter.
Social media has had these issues since their inception, and will no doubt continue to have such issues until their destruction (God willing any day now). But, this does not mean we accept it as self-evident, and maintain an indifference towards it. We should be terminating these temptations and work towards improving ourselves and our Church, online and off.
What comes to mind when these events and actions occur is Matthew 12: 36-37:
But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
In our attempt to get in the last word, or to prove our intelligence or competency, or to simply feel good by attacking another, we only condemn ourselves. St. John Chrysostom’s commentary on this passage makes a point that at our judgement God will not hold against us what others have spoken about us, or accused us of. He does not need their thoughts and opinions, He knows all. Instead, he will hold us accountable by our own words.
Take this to heart, let others speak as they wish against you and stand in humility, for they only condemn themselves, and remember that when you speak harshly towards or about others you do not condemn them, but yourself. This is a grave error of our time that needs rectification.
I had planned on also going into violations of the eighth commandment regarding parish life, where gossip runs more abundantly than anything else. But, that can be addressed later (if ever) by me in another article. Instead, I will keep the focus here on Catholics and the internet.
Before I finish I wanted to give some advice I have started to use for myself when on social media: interact with others as if they are right in front of you, face-to-face. You will see a change in your tone almost immediately. And, only use social media for up to one minute less than you pray a day (exceptions for those who use it for business/income).
In summation, I simply implore any and all Catholics on social media, really the internet at large, to meditate and pray with the passage quoted here, and on the eighth commandment. The Lord is telling us what we need to do and not do so as to be counted amongst the sheep. Our pride will be our undoing, and that is the root of all of this, vanity and ego.
Be patient, be charitable, be humble.
Go with God.
-R.
Beautifully written.