Electronic age is anti-sacramental

I'm going to have to think about this one!

Sacraments communicate the presence of an intangible person – God – through tangible things. In the same way, our body makes presence an intangible reality greater than our body, namely our full personhood. The encounter of persons seeking not only communication but true communion – that deeper friendship rooted in a shared identity and mission – requires at some level an encounter of bodies, whether it is a smile, a handshake, a conversation or an embrace.

But our bodies are limited, and to overcome the distance that separates us we move to other forms of communication, each less corporeal than its predecessor – books, letters, phone calls, emails.

"When you are on the phone or on the air, you have no body," McLuhan said, speaking about modern communications creating "discarnate bodies."

The electronic age is thus fundamentally anti-sacramental. It does not make the intangible present through tangible matter, but rather takes tangible bodies and discarnates them, converting a person to a series of digital impulses that are present everywhere and nowhere all at once.

Related link: Marshall McLuhan and the divine message ~ Catholic Education Resource Centre