If you have a cell phone with you, I would like you to take it out right now. Go ahead and use it if you want. Take a picture of me or record this homily. [I pose for some pictures.] Ok, now set the phone aside.
As you know, I was gone recently for a 10-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It was a great trip . . . prayerful, insightful, and safe. We had a great group of people. Let me give you some history about what we saw. The city of Jerusalem is a large modern city. It has about 1 million people. In the middle of the city is what is called “the old city.” Jesus would have known this city. It is less than a square mile is a completed protected by a huge brick wall. There are only a handful of gates to get in (or out) of the city. One of those gates was called the “eye if the needle gate.” It was built with a low entrance so that a camel could not go through and actually anyone going through would have to stoop down. Supposedly a camel could go through IF its bags were removed and it crawled on its knees. Doable, but tough.
In the gospel, Jesus is very clear about how to get to heaven . . . i.e. sell everything and follow me. Jesus uses the imagery of a camel going through the eye of a needle to compare how hard it is for anyone who is NOT poor to get to heaven. Doable, but tough.
Here is what the message might mean today . . . Jesus would say, “If you want to get to heaven, you need to throw your phones away.” Now we all could do it. For example, I didn’t have my phone at all when in the Holy Land. I didn’t have my laptop. It is tough but doable.
Most of us would have a hard time with giving up technology because of FOMO [show the letters.] FOMO is an acronym for Fear Of Missing Out. Psychologists are studying the dependency that many of us have on our phones or computers . . . i.e. we fear that we might be missing out on something or someone more important, more interesting, more exciting than whatever we are doing right now, or who we are with. It might be better (or can even be worse) but we just won’t know until we “check it out.”
Since I started this homily, how many of you have looked at your phone? Uh ah. Think how often you check your phone for messages or how often you check your Face Book page or your LinkedIn site. Why? So that we are not “out of the loop.” Some of you would “die” rather than give up your phone.
That is exactly the point of what Jesus is talking about. He says, “I want to be the most important connection in your life. I want to have your most valued time. Not left over time. Not connection only when there is a problem. But your best self.”
And how do we give that? Well, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle gate then for you to put down your phone, or turn it off. Now honestly probably none of us are going to throw our phones away. I am not going to give mine up. But for any of us to get to heaven, we have to ask ourselves if God is the most important “thing” in our lives. For example, how much time do you spend on Facebook . . . and how much time do you spend with God? When there is a crisis, where do you go first . . . to God or to Google?
It’s not that God doesn’t want us to communicate or be informed . . . but God wants to be our priority. Here’s a challenge for this week . . . how can you improve your connection with God?