Break those chains!

NSO has just published a very informative study about the use of the Internet, chatting and e-mail by Maltese children and young people. As with other media, the good, the bad and the ugly mix together in the new media. We will not comment on the NSO study but on one use of e-mail which from time to time must have been a nuisance to many of our readers.

We refer to the chain letters we receive from time to time. Some seem innocuous, carrying along friendly messages and urging the recipients to forward the e-mail to five or six friends. That could be a day-brightener or a simple pain in the neck. Bur some chain letters carry religious overtones that clearly verge on superstition. They're the ones that include anecdotes about people who said the prayer and forwarded it to a number of fresh e-mail addresses and had their petitions answered in abundance. The same e-mails generally also include dire warnings about people who failed to follow directions and were summarily dealt out tragedies.

Some of these emails say that: "Say this prayer and pass it on and God will do X; don't follow the instructions and God will do terrible things". Such phrases are an attempt to turn God into an omnipotent vending machine or to portray him as the vengeful proctor of an elaborate test. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines such superstitious practices as sins against the First Commandment. We pray for lots of reasons, and God answers our prayers in many different ways, but we mustn't ever get the idea that we can manipulate God, or that if we just follow a certain magic formula God will be obliged to do what we want Him to do.

The problem with so many of these things is that they're not obviously evil or sinful - they're just a little bent, they've just taken a wrong turn. Long-standing devotional practices, fine in themselves, from private novenas to public thanksgiving, are turned on their heads. The incidentals - the number of times a prayer is said, or the intention to receive Holy Communion on nine consecutive first Fridays - become psychologically more important than the prayer itself, the one to whom the prayer is addressed, or even the Eucharist received.

Prayer is the lifting up of the mind and heart to God. That's what's at the core of every prayer, whether a rosary or a simple thanksgiving, a silent retreat or an elaborate liturgical celebration. Hedging a prayer around with promises and conditions or threats and warnings is an attempt to tame God, who is ultimately mysterious, all-loving and all-powerful and yet desires intimacy with us.

What we know about God we know because God has chosen to reveal Himself to us - in His creation, in the history of salvation, in Scripture, and most perfectly in the incarnation of Christ. When we start to think we can set up rules He has to follow, we're bound to get into trouble.

So if someone suggests you pass along the written which is a positive thought for the day or a comment that uplifts the spirit, there's no reason not to - and no reason to feel guilty if you'd rather not clutter your friends' mailboxes. But whenever anyone starts making promises about what God will absolutely do if you follow a formula, or threats about the evil that will befall you if you don't co-operate, beware of what's happening, fearlessly break that chain and get back to praising God.