Jesus preached a loving God, not a punishing God. Jesus interpreted the law of Moses new and brought salvation and happiness to the people instead of considering the weak, sick, poor and those who are in problems as people abandoned by God.
Jesus proclaimed a self-emptying God, than a powerful God. This self-emptying God is personalised in Jesus Christ, as St Paul writes in his letter to the Philippines: “And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philipper 2, 8).
The disciples of Christ have proclaimed this message of Jesus worldwide and won many people to Christ. The new movement of Jesus became the Roman state religion and a large religious community.
But God of the Old Testament remained the same. There was no change in God. The change took place in the hearts of the people who believed in God; in their thinking and in their interpretation of the Old Testament Law.
Just as Jesus did at that time we must also perhaps interpret the message of Jesus new for the modern man. In book titled “The Digital Theology” (Digitale Theologie) of Johan Haberer which I read some around 8 years ago, the author describes the Ten Commandments for the digital world.
The author gives the Ten Commandments as follows:
1.You must not allow yourself to be taken over.
2.You shouldn’t spread falsehoods.
3.You can sanctify the network-free day.
4.You have to make a data will.
5.Thou shalt not kill.
6.You don’t need to get into weak relationships.
7.You shouldn’t download illegally.
8.You are not allowed to engage in digital character assassination.
9.You are responsible for the personal information of others.
10.You shape society when you move online.
This interpretation of the 10 commandments for the digital world or this new or parallel 10 commandments of the Old Testament or these additional Ten Commandments seem for today’s world of media helpful and needed. Unfortunately many do not take many of such issues serious.
These serious issues which people usually ignore include among other things, digital character assassination, illegal downloading, uncritical handling of other people’s data, spreading untruths through digital media, causing discrepancies and bad moods through circular emails in work and private life.
If we believe that Jesus died in order to save us, we could also believe that Jesus died because of the above said sins of the people and to deliver us from such sins. Jesus is crucified today when people commit such modern sins.
Just as the Jung man in today’s gospel went away from Jesus very sad, today many will go away from Jesus, if Jesus is suggesting these or similar new 10 commandments. I think today some people will not become so nervous by failing electricity or water as they become nervous by failing internet. At the same time companies and banks are today unable to function without internet. When Facebook and WhatsApp went down for four hours some time ago, there was a financial loss of several million euros.
I do not want to compare or replace our 10 Commandments of the Bible and Christianity with the Ten Commandments of Johanna Haberer. But I would like to point out that in addition to the 10 commandments of the Bible, we need some commandments for the digital world. At least we have to re-understand and re-interpret our biblical 10 commandments in today’s digital age.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says that in order to follow him, live connected to him and enter the kingdom of heaven, people should renounce everything and forsake everything. At first glance, this commandment seems harsh and impractical to us. But when someone dies, we experience that sometimes people unexpectedly suddenly have to give up and leave everything. It means that nothing should be allowed to hold us back from our values and Christian and human approach to life.
Unfortunately, we experience that in the modern digital world many human and Christian values and commandments are neglected and even refuted. We should handle the many digital possibilities responsibly.
That’s why, in addition to the 10 commandments of the Bible, the commandments for the digital world are also necessary in order to keep us current, contemporary and reoriented.
Fr. Joseph Pandiappallil MCBS