By Fr. Benedict Kiely.

Among the defining features of much of contemporary society are both distraction and lack of attention, which are not necessarily the same thing. We are most certainly distracted by the multiplicity of social media, the inability to concentrate, and the sheer omnipresence of noise and visual distraction. This then leads to lack of attention, an unwillingness, almost certainly not entirely willed, to be able to focus on any one thing for any length of time. And particularly with the lack of silence, our attention can veer away from God, towards the mundane and the insignificant.

I was reading a book recently about the ancient wisdom of some of the cultures still in existence in parts of Bulgaria, Greece. and Macedonia. The author made the clear connection between the lack of silence in Western society and illness - mental illness, obviously, but also physical illness. She writes of a place where the natural world is still dominant, the sky at night is still illuminated only by the stars, food is natural and healthful, and, when artificial noise enters in, it is jarring. There is, as the great Patrick Leigh Fermor wrote, a "time to keep silence."

Giving something, or someone, attention is a sign of respect. The more mundane, in the true sense of the word, the celebration of Mass becomes, with all that involves, especially music and art, the less worshippers are able to give what demands attention, the attention that is needed, but also the respect that the worship of the divine demands.

St. James, in his short but powerful letter, addresses this in a few verses, and something even deeper. He reminds us to be "doers of the word, and not hearers only." If we just hear, he says, we are deceiving ourselves. Many years ago, while visiting a friend in Frankfurt, Germany, I attended Sunday Mass. My German, then and now, is at the schoolboy stage, but I realised the Gospel was that of the Transfiguration. At one point during the homily, the priest used two English words, "listen and hear." Afterwards, I asked him if he was making the point that, in the English language, there is a great difference between hearing and listening. In his, of course, perfect English, he responded that I was correct.

To hear and to do require concentration and attention. And to be obedient is really to listen correctly and then to act, the very command of the Father to those who were on the holy mountain when the Lord was transfigured in glory. The word St. James speaks of, is both the Word of God, the Lord Jesus, and His word, encompassing both Scripture and the teaching of the Church.

St. James uses the marvellous image of the man who just hears the word, and does not act upon it, as a man who looks at his face in the mirror, and forgets what he looks like. What a description of contemporary man, and particularly post-Christian contemporary man.

What is the solution? Fixing our attention. St. James says, "look steadily at the perfect law of freedom," another translation says, "look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere."

The perfect law of freedom, the law of liberty, is not politics, personality, or populism; it is the Gospel, the saving message of Christ. It is the encounter with the Person of Jesus, the steady gaze at His face in prayer and meditation, the attentive listening to His word, without which we cannot progress.

As we look steadily, we become aware that the Lord is looking at us, which is perhaps the very definition of prayer. We are probably familiar with the story of St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, asking the old farmer, whom he used to see daily seated before the tabernacle, what he was doing: "I look at Him and He looks at me." The man was a mystic.

The penetrating gaze of Christ, even unseen from the altar, marked by the burning red candle, is a captivating gaze; it is the inoculation against the virus of distraction and inattention. The pandemic of superficiality, and life lived upon the su...