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Distraction, constant rush, excess work, fast, irregular lifestyle, almost instant development of modern technologies are becoming more and more inseparable elements of our lives. The constant “chase”, the unsurpassed desire to satisfy numerous desires often obscure the proper goal of life. Today, the words of Festina Lente, written by Suetonius, advising peace and making thoughtful decisions, especially among the younger generation, may seem like an ancient figure. The enormous amount of information that we are flooded with by the media makes it difficult to prudently consider a given issue. It is especially noticeable among adolescents, which does not have a positive effect on the proper implementation of certain goals. At the same time, man has the impression that time is inexorably running out, and it even happens that we think that time is speeding up. It might seem that we have just started work, meanwhile the week is coming to an end, even though not all planned activities have been implemented. I can observe such situations many times in my life. In the first half of April, I started gathering information for the text I was going to put here. The comment was supposed to refer to current (at that time) events. When I was halfway into the subject, it turned out that this topic has become completely outdated …
Many tensions in our proper daily functioning also result in the constant pursuit of our own desires, often contrary to the good of those around us. Man is constantly chasing something, and it is not so much the will to possess that counts as the need to constantly satisfy desires. We make efforts to obtain a given item, and soon abandon it and try to get a better model. There is no doubt that the community is making a significant impact here. We begin to become hostages of our own desires, which are sometimes difficult to control if we cannot relate to something more important. Man then begins to lose relations with others, then also with himself, because “This knot is impossible to untangle – so tangled, so tangled” – points out St. Augustine in his Confessions. Jesus himself taught that one should not get attached to things here on earth (Matthew 6: 19-21), and Pope Gregory the Great included greed in the catalog of cardinal sins. This striving to have more and more can make a person unable to discover a beautiful and disinterested relationship not only with another person, but also with himself.
I see it in my work when I meet different people. Each meeting allows me to learn something new and formulate conclusions. Unfortunately, I observe that people use the so-called too often. “virtual” conversations in the network. I have already encountered many cases when people, instead of talking to each other face to face, get along very well via the Internet, and the next day “in the real world” they pass by like strangers. After all, it is difficult to perceive something more through such relations, to build a real and lasting bond.
Are reason, calm, self-control and the search for a higher Goal not in conflict with the modern world?
