Section 44 of Pope St. John Paul the
Great’s exhortation turns its, and our, attention to the necessity of
evangelizing the culture. Our Holy
Father points out that the laity are in a particular position to affect culture
to the betterment of humanity.
It is important, of course, to understand
what culture is. The definition
given by the Holy Father is rather long, but I think the following phrase from
that definition summarizes the whole of it nicely: “to express through its
works the great spiritual experiences ad aspirations of all peoples throughout
the ages”. In other words, culture is
that which reveals and brings out the best in us.
Thus, we can see that those who create and
support the various modes of cultural expression all bear a particular
responsibility for ensuring that these express that which is most noble, that
which brings out our best selves, and that which causes us to aspire to
something greater.
In this document our Holy Father points
out the particular responsibility born by those who create, produce, and make
available the various means of cultural expression: i.e. artists, musicians,
producers, and media executives.
However, for our purposes, maybe we could think about our responsibility
as consumers of the means of cultural expression. After all, in a capitalist system such as
ours, what sells it what will be produced.
Think about it; and here are some questions to assist us…
1. How
discerning am I regarding the media and other means of cultural expression I
consume?
2. Do
I consider the real value of what I am consuming, or do I just follow the crowd?
3. Do
I seek to watch, listen to, read material that raises me up, makes me aspire to
be better, to understand better my humanity?
Challenge: Take to heart what you watch, listen to, or
read this week. Take note of the real
“value” of what you are consuming, then keep a simple log (“+” or “-“ for
example) of what you have consumed. What
does it look like at the end of the week?
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