"Father, in case you didn't get the memo, we recently finished the 12th century and entered the 21st century." This comment, made somewhat tongue in cheek, was said after I had pointed out that I do not send or receive text messages on my phone. I did not take any offense at it for it was said in a spirit of fun. I suppose it might be said that I have something of a nervousness around new things, especially technology. Yet, I do have various technological devices that I use. I own a computer (windows 7, XP theme), cell phone (a flip phone, no camera), mp3 player (15 years old, black and white LCD screen), and a t.v. with dvd player (no cable, no broadcast and no streaming).
For me, technology is something to be used, not something to be used by. Just as much as I have a distaste for many modern things in general, so also the majority of the world today has something of the opposite perspective. My presumption with the "new" things in the world is hesitation and distrust. On the other hand, the modern world has the presumption of attraction and acceptance. The modern world has a fascination with modern things. This might sound obvious, but it is not the only fascination possible. The modern world could just as easily have a fascination with antiques (that would be interesting). Maybe "fascination" is the wrong word. Actually, the word "preoccupation" might be better. No, "obsession" would be more accurate.
This obsession has created a whole new world view. It is how the majority of the world is currently structured to think; "new" is always good, and "old" is always bad. There are so many things that lead us down this path that I cannot count them. You can hear the comments every day: "get with the times", "don't be outdated", and "we need to be more contemporary". In a world infected with modernism (a genuine heresy condemned by the Catholic Church) we expect this to be the common opinion of many, but it should not be so for those in the Church. When members of the Church (who are supposed to stand fast in the truth) begin to follow the lead of the world, it will always lead to horrible confusion.
This is not to say that anything that is new is automatically wrong or sinful. Absolutely not; there are a number of different things in the Church that could be considered "new" and are in complete accord with Church tradition. For example, the Divine Worship Mass is, in essence, a new form of the Mass, but it flows directly from the Old Sarum Missal (used in England long before the Protestant revolt) and in that sense is not much more "new" than is the 1962 version of the Latin Mass (!). Modernism, on the other hand, would reject anything that either is old, or even just feels old because there is a belief that it is bad and that it will harm us.
Yet, in this attraction to everything "new and improved" we have developed a desire to make things more "relevant" to the world around us (which is yet to be proven as a good thing). As a result, many members of the Church have shifted their thinking to be more like that of the world and less like what our Catholic Tradition has given us. Let me ask this question: do you want the Church to be "relevant"? That is a hard question to answer. If by "relevant" we mean, similar to the world and following the patterns of the world, then you had better be saying a loud "No". If, however, by "relevant" you mean, able to communicate the truth of Christ to a sinful world, then you had better be saying a loud "Yes". There is an enormous difference between these two things.
We have somehow been convinced that "relevance" and "contemporary" are always good things, and that is not necessarily the case. The presumption of these ideas, however, can be even more dangerous than the practice of them, because it makes us critical of many things that are actually in full accord with the truth of Christ, and also makes us accepting of many things that are contradictory to the truth of Christ. To make things worse, this frame of mind is usually advanced "in the name of Christ" (which in some cases is a sinful use of Christ's name).
Wherever the Church gives in to the world's obsession with "newness", she always seeks to accommodate herself to the world. Rather than the Church telling the world what is good and right, and warning her of what is wrong (what we usually call evangelism and catechesis), the Church instead listens to the world's ideas and then tries to fit in with it and be "cool". This is something like what happened in the garden of Eden; Satan speaks, Adam and Eve listen, the rest is history (yes, history; not myth!).
Is this really the path we want to follow? As Catholics, Tradition is much of our heart and soul. That does not mean that all "traditions" (small "t", local practices) are good, but it does mean that there is a lot of "old stuff" that we must retain in order to remain Catholic. Yet, this retention of the old is not merely up to a personal decision on what we like, or what we are entertained by. It is much more grounded in eternal truth than that. Having become obsessed with "newness" in itself we have forgotten that generations ago "newness" was looked upon with caution since it was associated with "immaturity", and "oldness" was associated with "maturity" (remember those concepts?).
It is the fascination with the "new" that must be rejected, and not the "new" in itself. As long as we keep wanting the newest tech device, the newest fashions, and the newest cars (etc.), we will be drawn to want the same things in the Church and in theology. We must seek to learn what it means to be content (a forgotten virtue!) and find the wisdom that is properly critical of the world, and always trusting of Christ and His truth. We can do this, but not as long as we are thinking like the world.
