In 2013 a new word was added to the Oxford English Dictionary: FOMO. It is an acronym for the Fear of Missing Out. It is the term for a psychological syndrome which is defined ‘as a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent.’ The social media which allow people to follow or somehow rather participate in the life of other people contribute to FOMO. Some people, especially young people, get caught in the constant checking of what their friends or colleagues are doing as they fear that they are missing out on those experiences that they miss out on living their own life.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! As we listen to the Gospel about the wedding at Cana we get a sense that Jesus was comfortable there, don’t we? He enjoyed the time of the joyful celebration. When you flick back one page of the Scriptures you will find Jesus in a different environment. Before he came to Cana he was with John the Baptist in the desert. From other Gospels we also learn that after being baptized by John Jesus spent forty days in the desert on his own where he was tempted by the devil. He embraced that too. Jesus shows us the life which is the life of communion with God. Such a communion led him to embracing the situations he was in with full attention and commitment. Jesus was not seeking new and exciting experiences because his relationship with his Father and the Holy Spirit was an ever new and exciting reality he was living.
Some people apply FOMO to the Christianity. They fear that by embracing faith, that by following Jesus, they will miss out all the excitements of life. What they face is the choice they are compelled to make. As Jesus himself said: ‘No one can serve two masters.’ It was the choice which St Paul revealed in his Letter to the Philippians: ‘Because of the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord; I count everything else as loss.’
The wedding setting of today’s Gospel is an example of such a choice. To enter the marriage covenant one needs to choose to leave behind lots of other experiences. This choice however opens to something truly fulfilling and life-giving.
A married man who was working in the office where all the other employees were single started feeling sorry for himself that after work his colleagues were going to pub while he had to go to his wife and children. He began thinking how much he was missing out. Then one day his coworker said to him: ‘I wish that soon I can be in your situation. That I can have a home, that I can have a wife and children I can go to after work.’ This conversation realized the married man that what he had at home was far more precious than what he thought he was missing out.
In our Second Reading taken from the First Letter to the Corinthians St Paul wrote: ‘There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit.’ May this same Spirit of God lead us to see our Christian faith, our following of Jesus as something exceeding all other experiences we might have.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! As we listen to the Gospel about the wedding at Cana we get a sense that Jesus was comfortable there, don’t we? He enjoyed the time of the joyful celebration. When you flick back one page of the Scriptures you will find Jesus in a different environment. Before he came to Cana he was with John the Baptist in the desert. From other Gospels we also learn that after being baptized by John Jesus spent forty days in the desert on his own where he was tempted by the devil. He embraced that too. Jesus shows us the life which is the life of communion with God. Such a communion led him to embracing the situations he was in with full attention and commitment. Jesus was not seeking new and exciting experiences because his relationship with his Father and the Holy Spirit was an ever new and exciting reality he was living.
Some people apply FOMO to the Christianity. They fear that by embracing faith, that by following Jesus, they will miss out all the excitements of life. What they face is the choice they are compelled to make. As Jesus himself said: ‘No one can serve two masters.’ It was the choice which St Paul revealed in his Letter to the Philippians: ‘Because of the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord; I count everything else as loss.’
The wedding setting of today’s Gospel is an example of such a choice. To enter the marriage covenant one needs to choose to leave behind lots of other experiences. This choice however opens to something truly fulfilling and life-giving.
A married man who was working in the office where all the other employees were single started feeling sorry for himself that after work his colleagues were going to pub while he had to go to his wife and children. He began thinking how much he was missing out. Then one day his coworker said to him: ‘I wish that soon I can be in your situation. That I can have a home, that I can have a wife and children I can go to after work.’ This conversation realized the married man that what he had at home was far more precious than what he thought he was missing out.
In our Second Reading taken from the First Letter to the Corinthians St Paul wrote: ‘There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit.’ May this same Spirit of God lead us to see our Christian faith, our following of Jesus as something exceeding all other experiences we might have.
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