Why We Love Distractions

we have to deal with the great abiding Central questions about God about meaning about where my life is going about death the fact of death the fact that I'm confronted with eternity you know there's this life I'm leading and then it's surrounded as it were by by eternity but those questions are so hard and they're so challenging and they're just they're too immense and so what I do is I distract myself endlessly from them [Music] welcome back to the word on fire show I'm Brandon Vaught the host and the senior publishing director at word on fire we love being distracted why is it so hard to sit still quietly and contemplate reality and how can a 17th century philosopher help us escape this quandary that's what we're discussing today with Bishop Robert Barron who joins us as he usually does from our studio in Rochester Bishop welcome hey Brandon good morning good to see you as always you have had an extraordinarily busy last couple months but probably the big event was your international travel to World youth day which was in Lisbon Portugal tell us how that went it was great I loved it I've been to four World youth days now um I was in Madrid Krakow Panama I know Elizabeth and loved it you know you get a million or whatever kids showing up and we wandered around the city and he was able to talk to all these different groups I gave five separate talks my favorite really was the the evening with the English speakers mostly American kids like 15 000 in this big Park and we had Blessed Sacrament adoration great sacred silence you know and that the moment I gave a little like 20-minute sermon loved it loved the opportunity to reach out to the kids and to evangelize well I want to talk to you about one of our mutual Heroes Blaze Pascal he was a 17th century French mathematician physicist Catholic philosopher you know I studied engineering and physics in college and those who have taken math or science courses will recognize that his name is what's used for the unit of pressure you know that there's five pascals of pressure ten pascals of pressure but he wrote a great philosophical work called the ponce's where he famously observed this he said quote the sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room he also says in the ponce's that quote our nature consists in movement absolute rest is death but what's Pascal getting at here oh he's such an important figure you're right a fascinating figure dies young he's only in his what late 30s I think when he died but made this as you say massive contribution to the sciences and to um computer technology Pascal was behind much of that too um and then he makes this extraordinary contribution to to philosophy and theology um the posse are are I mean really one of the great literary works of that time and they come down to us as such a high literary quality but also um of tremendous spiritual of power I think he's an under uh valued person when I was coming of age we didn't read much of Pascal I kind of discovered him later in life and I think he maybe you have to be a bit later in life to appreciate him because you might read him and just find him kind of mordant and and um pessimistic but he's not that he's um he's a real Mystic and he combines his mysticism with high intelligence there he's like um John of a cross right the greatest spiritual Master but has a tomistic sort of disciplined mind Pascal is similar but the Paul say are such a a jam set of that they they were literally written on pieces of paper and he strung them around his apartment in Paris and they were collected after he died and um they think they were like Preparatory notes for a great work of apologetics he was thinking about but they've come down to us as little aphorisms theory is a bit like Nietzsche you know Nietzsche's writing is an aphoristic form and Pascal is like that but they're just terms and you can chew on each one you know and draw a nourishment from them um anyway I forgot the original question you asked because I was going on about Pascal's life it was what's he getting at with the um sitting quietly in a room right I think what he's getting at is we have to deal with the great abiding Central questions about God about meaning about where my life is going about death the fact of death the fact that I'm confronted with eternity you know there's this life I'm leading and then it's surrounded as it were by by eternity but those questions are so hard and they're so challenging and they're just they're too immense and so what I do is I distract myself endlessly from them and I can't sit quietly around why because those questions will invade me those questions will come at me think of it as you know that one of the more unpleasant experiences life when you wake up in the middle of the night and you're lying in bed and there's something about that time where your brain just starts sending anxious signals to you and if you sit long enough you know questions of when am I going to die and what happens after I die and and where am I going it is my life mean anything and those will come to you too and so we we want to avoid that take a pill so I get back to sleep and not think about those things or let me get out of bed so get to work and I don't have to think about those things to sit quietly in a room by oneself not distracted by a book or anything or now you look at us we're masters of distraction with all our machines without those things you can confront those questions for the first time maybe um that's what he's driving it there I think one thing that is interesting about Pascal is almost as a master psychologist he highlights the Paradox that these diversions introduce he says and I'm quoting him the only thing that consoles us for our miseries is diversion and yet it is the greatest of our miseries why did he consider diversions to be so problematic first of all but if they're so problematic why do we still love to be diverted to be distracted yeah because the questions are too much right the questions are too much but that's the only way I'm Really Gonna live is by conferring those questions which is why the diversions themselves become a source of misery right because I'm going to live in a superficial way if I'm diverting myself all the time necessarily I'm living in a superficial way so that produces its own misery you know its own sense of absurdity so that's why I'm kind of caught in a way he was a you know long before the psychologist of the 20th century he was so good at naming these these kind of dilemmas we get ourselves into this uporias the philosophers call them like these these it's sort of impossible situations and that's a good example is that I I can't distract myself I must distract myself and that's where I live in that space the saint you might say is someone who's able to set aside the diversions and engage those questions in a sufficiently serious and life-enhancing way right that's a saint or a real contemplative is able to do that I think Brad like the times in my life when I've gone on a retreat and I go to a monastery let's say and I say all right all right I'm this time I'm gonna do it this time I'm really going to you know confront the questions and I'm not saying I never I do I do but even in those settings I I find myself getting restless or bored or seeking some sort of distraction you know um whether that might even be like in a good book but still the good book is distracting me from the question I should be dealing with um we can't sit quietly by ourselves if we could we might go crazy or we might become a saint you know I first got into Pascal through the work of Peter crafed I think a lot of younger a lot of people yeah first came that route uh krieft has this great book called Christianity for modern pagans which is an annotated version of Pascal's ponce's and here's crave's illustration of what Pascal is getting at he says quote if you are typically modern your life is like a mansion with a terrifying hole right in the middle of the living room floor so you paper over the hole with a very busy wallpaper pattern to distract yourself or he says you find a rhinoceros in the middle of your house the rhinoceros is wretchedness and death how in the world can you hide a rhinoceros easy cover it with a million mice multiple diversions but I think we're craved is most useful is he he notes affirming what Pascal says that the distractions don't trouble us we chase after them we want to be busy we want to be distracted because if we had true Leisure then we'd be forced to look at ourselves to listen to our hearts and see that great gaping hole that's right in the middle yeah and what's if you talk to most people how you doing um oh really busy I'm really busy and that's that's usually seen as kind of a positive thing I think in my world of you know priests um how's it going oh man I'm so busy I am so busy or like my own life oh yeah I'm doing this I'm doing that and all right I'm you know I'm serving the kingdom you know I'll tell myself and it's probably true to a degree but am I also just caught in a pascalion uh game here you know of like I'm just I'm just distracted by all these activities and trips and you know so it's a good way to examine your conscience you know how how am I using all this stuff in my life do you remember there's a scene in uh one of Woody Allen's early movies where he's he's an obsessive over uh the Kennedy assassination and so he's with his girlfriend and suddenly he just breaks into more obsessiveness about the grassy knoll and the gunman then and then she says you know I think you're using the JFK assess Nation to distract yourself from the trouble in our relationship and then Woody you know turns the camera goes she's right well that's a very pop scallion moment because I think a lot of us do that whatever we're into and then someone said I think you're just distracting yourself from the question of life and death and meaning you know I think you're right so that's the covering the rhinoces with the million mice you know uh so what's the way out I I don't know Brandon it it does take an extraordinary spiritual discipline to confront those questions honestly and and with faith um you know we that we do this no one doubts it that's clear but how do we solve the problem Pascal probably learned to sit quietly in a room and uh you know we might translate into the language of contemplation uh set aside your obsessive activity and learn to be a contemplative more I think you're right I think for Pascal contemplation would be the antidote for distractions I think too of Joseph Pieper who wrote a lot on the theory of leisure and the need for True Leisure how do we distinguish between distractions diversions and true Leisure from Leisure from distractions and can Leisure ever turn into distractions you gave the example of reading a book A book I think would sometimes be leisure activity sometimes distractions how do we navigate that yeah I suppose you have to look at the big picture don't you uh am I as a general rule of avoiding the great questions um life and death and and meaning and purpose in God am I am I purposely getting away from all that or are the things I'm doing from reading a book to watching a baseball game to having a good you know a conversation are they in service of these ultimate goods and are they in relation to what I've determined about those great questions because you know it's not a not a stark either or I mean I think if if you have come to grips with those questions that I mean you can live your life in a in a Joyful Way and and you can give yourself to certain things and they're not functioning to distract you um so I think that's it's not an either or uh Pascal can sometimes give that impression of being a servant either or thinker um but you know prayer for us I think under fultonsheen's influence you know when I started doing a holy hour every morning did it this morning in season it out no matter what well okay that's trying to overcome the pascalian problem is I'm going to say you know purposely I never bring my phone into the chapel it's on purpose never bring it in uh so at least for that hour I'm in dialogue with God the Psalms are leading me through a meditation on deep and important things uh I I'll set even that book of of The Bravery down and just spend some time you know gazing at the Tabernacle so that in itself is a very pascalian kind of discipline isn't it the the holy hour that at least for that hour I'm guaranteed I'm gonna be confronting the great questions I think up and down the centuries one way that Christians have escaped diversions is by quite literally physically fleeing them by going to the desert yeah the Bible and church history are filled with people who flee distractions by going into these isolated places why why is the desert in particular so Central to Christianity no that for just that reason and because this distractions Fall Away there there's nothing to to divert your attention from the the great issues and that's why so many as you say the biblical authors now the Bible comes out of a desert culture if you go around the world it might be into the forest or into the tundra or something but the idea is the same that you have to get away from the distractions something we've done you know as a church in the new program of Priestly formation we have a propadutic year we call it a preparatory year before a guy enters the formal Seminary process and one of the features of it that I really like is there's a detox from social media so we require the students to surrender their phones and so for a year and I think they can check them for emergencies and all that but for a year basically they fast from the internet and from Facebook and everything else and almost to a person they will say that was the most important part of the probiotic year was that I detoxed from the phone um that's that's a way we can do it that's that's a very practical thing we can do that's like a desert for a lot of us heck I look I'm looking at my right now because I've set it aside during this conversation but the minute we end I'll probably check it now part of that is emergencies and I'm the bishop of a diocese I got to be attentive to that but you know even if it's the end of the day there are no emerges I probably checked the darn thing anyway so that that's that's a that's a negative spiritually in our culture now curious if you could maybe share personally how you escape diversions you gave the example of your holy hour you intentionally leave the phone behind but right you sense yourself becoming overly attached to diverting activities how how do you escape that in your life yeah well that that's the number one thing I say is prayer is the the and to concretize that with the holy hour and give oneself to the works of Love or the work of service in some basic way um return to the gospel fundamentals I would say prayer and service and study and so on um but I tell you it is whenever I read Pascal I feel judged in a good way I know he's naming something that's very real my whole life and there's a there's a how would I describe it there's a texture to the feeling that comes from spending too much time with with distractions you know what I mean for Pascal himself by the way it was gambling because you know he was so good the mathematician that he was good with cards and all that and so he would frit her away enormous amounts of time gambling and you think like here's one of the great Geniuses of the western world and he knew I I wasted so much time and I I'll find Brandon at times during the day and I it's this symbol now we all have the thumb of we're going through the Facebook or scrolling through whatever and after a while it's like you it's a sickness you feel like you feel sticky or unwell you know like why am I looking at these silly pictures and and Facebook whatever they are like why am I looking at this but his answer is it's not just oh because they're mildly entertaining there's something distracting that your soul doesn't want the Deep stuff and so it's it's attracted weirdly to the superficiality but maybe let that feeling sink in and say boy I need the desert right now I need some desert time it reminds me of something we've discussed before when we've talked about social media in that famous Netflix documentary the social dilemma they point to the invention of the infinite scroll as one of the worst features of social media because there's no end to the distraction it just keeps going and going and going is that right is that weird thing in our psychology that you're looking at this silly you know set of whatever they are but but another one's coming this could be something really interesting and you'll end to be fair sometimes sure I do come across interesting articles or you know oh yeah I want to see what's going on there so as you're going through and that's stupid I don't want to waste of time that's ridiculous but there's one more coming and that could be the one that's gonna get my attention and you just have to I don't know those things are are very um they're dangerous spiritually and I don't just mean like you know pornography and these really explicit things but I mean just that Dynamic is dangerous spiritually and uh Pascal should be the patron saint maybe of our time for that reason uh the very fact that he's behind computers in a way his theorizing is behind computer technology and he's the great prophet of of distraction you know so um that's interesting I think krieve said he's the first great post-medieval apologist and he was born 300 years before his time that as you said he could be the patron saint of our digital age he's he's buried in the um in Paris I used to go buy it all the time and it in those days when I lived in Paris I didn't I knew the name Pascal but I never really read him at all but I used to walk by his tomb all the time when I was in Paris foreign [Music] now for our question from one of our listeners if you have one for Bishop Baron you can send it in to us at the website askbishop barron.com today we have one from Jack in Louisville Kentucky he's asking about the laity in the church here's Jack's question hi Bishop Aaron this is Jack from Louisville Kentucky what are some things we as late people can do to build unity in the church yeah good stop being cruel to each other um we're talking about the internet a lot today I mean the amount of Cruelty that's expressed on the internet and you know what's I suppose there was some clerics on the internet but it's 99 lay people um stop being cruel to each other um stop using people as a means to an end uh you know when you're dealing with someone let's say on the internet uh can you really say when I send this response or this comment I'm doing it out of love I'm willing the good of the other if you could say that hit the button off you go can't don't do it stop being cruel on the positive side I would say do the works of faith hope and love that's what you're called to do the laity are meant to go into the world into the secular space and bring Grace there you bring faith hope and love and that will by its very nature bring about Unity because those are the theological virtues um so stop being cruel Start Spreading faith hope and love well as we wrap up here today I'd like to share with you the first book by word on Fire's new spark imprint for young kids spark being a little flame so this is our imprint of books for children and other young readers the first book we're releasing is called saintly creatures and they're holy companions just debuted inside this book you will discover exciting Tales of God's creatures and the holy men and women they encountered you'll read about an enormous dog who protected a French priest from an ambush a tiger who shared his cave with persecuted Korean Christians a dangerous wolf who was tamed by an Italian Friar and a boar who was rescued from Hunters by a wise Irish Abyss each of these 14 stories shows the heroic virtue of the Saints and inspires young readers to Faithfully follow Jesus if you're a parent grandparent and Uncle sponsor this is a great book to get for your kids and introduce them to the Saints again it's called saintly creatures and their holy companions first book for Word on Fire spark and I'll be sure to include a link in the show notes well thanks everyone for watching and listening and we'll see you next time on the word on fire show [Music]

Channel: Bishop Robert Barron

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Keywords: bishop barron, word on fire show, word on fire, bishop barron on distractions, blaise pascal, distractions, distraction, happiness, catholicism, catholic, catholic podcast, christianity, how to avoid distractions, bishop robert barron, bishop barron podcast, word on fire podcast, word on fire catholic ministries

Id: yPth9LFrtO0

Length: 22min 48sec (1368 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 25 2023