Finding Our Way: Faith and Action in the Digital Age

Think Thomas Merton and Joesph Cardinal Cardijn

Finding Our Way: Faith and Action in the Digital Age

It’s Monday in the US. We have snow in the Midwest. Our first significant snowfall of the year.

I want to talk with you today about two remarkable men of faith who never met, but whose wisdom speaks directly to the questions many of us are wrestling with right now—especially as we watch the world change so quickly around us.

Two Teachers for Our Time

For those unfamiliar with the two men, let me introduce you to Thomas Merton and Joseph Cardijn. You might know Merton—he was that Trappist monk who wrote so beautifully about prayer and contemplation. But what you might not know is that he was also deeply troubled by the same issues that keep us awake at night: injustice, inequality, and what happens to our humanity when we let technology take over our lives.

Cardijn was a Belgian priest who worked with young factory workers. He saw firsthand how the industrial revolution was wearing people down, treating them like cogs in a machine. Sound familiar? He created something simple but powerful: a three-step approach called “See, Judge, Act.”

What They Saw Coming

Here’s what stands out most about Merton. Back in the 1960s, he wrote something that could have been written yesterday in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.

“Making great progress is pointless if we don’t learn to live with it... our technology becomes just a costly, complex path to cultural breakdown.”

Think about this for a moment. He saw it coming—this world where we have smartphones that can do everything except help us genuinely connect with each other.

And Cardijn also understood something important. Speaking about the industrial revolution of his time, he said:

“When we remember that humans have existed for 10,000 years, the modern working class appears relatively new. This revolution is crucial from social, religious, and human perspectives.”

He was talking about factories then. We’re talking about artificial intelligence now. But the question remains the same: What happens to human dignity when everything becomes automated?

Faith That Gets Its Hands Dirty

Both these men taught something that might surprise you: real faith isn’t about retreating from the world’s problems. It’s about rolling up your sleeves and getting involved.

Merton spent hours in silent prayer, but that prayer inspired him to speak out against racism, poverty, and war. He believed that if your spirituality doesn’t make you care about your neighbor’s suffering, something’s missing.

Cardijn presented it as a practical method we can all follow.

See - Open your eyes to what’s really happening around you
Judge - Think it through with your values and faith as a guide
Act - Do something about it, even if it’s small

Making Sense of Our Digital World

Now, let’s bring this to where we live today.

Many of us feel overwhelmed by technology. Our grandchildren are glued to their phones. Jobs are disappearing due to automation. We’re told to interact with computers instead of people. Everything’s moving online, and sometimes it feels like we’re being left behind—or worse, that we’re losing something valuable.

Merton would advise us to trust that feeling. He warned specifically about this: a “mechanistic worldview” where everything focuses on efficiency and productivity, and we forget the things that make us truly human—reflection, connection, meaning, soul.

He wasn’t opposed to technology. He just understood that when we allow machines to decide what matters, we lose our sense of ourselves.

What We Can Do

This is where Cardijn’s method becomes our friend. Let me show you how it works in real life:

See: Observe your surroundings. Notice how your grandchildren behave differently from how your children did, and how all the children of all ages behave when they are together with devices. Watch how self-service machines are replacing checkout clerks. Pay attention to how it feels when you have to talk to a recording instead of a person.

Judge: Reflect on and discuss with others what this means. Does this technology bring us closer together or drive us apart? Does it uphold human dignity or turn people into numbers? What might Jesus say about a world where profit is valued more than people? I think we know that answer.

Act: Here’s the great part—you don’t need to fix everything. Maybe you make a point of calling your children, grandchildren, adult children, or co-workers and neighbors instead of just texting. Maybe you choose the human checkout line when you can, say something nice, and make the cashier feel good. Remember, “warm fuzzes are much better than cold pricklies.” Maybe you speak up at a town meeting about keeping human services available. Maybe you simply share your wisdom with younger people who’ve never known a world without screens.

As Cardijn said:

“No progress can serve to deceive, degrade, enslave individuals... all perfection in and through work must serve to enlighten, to raise and to free them.”

In other words, technology should serve us, not the other way around.

Your Wisdom Matters Now More Than Ever

For many on this blog, you are “boomers.” Here’s what I want you to remember today: You are not out of date. You are not insignificant. You hold something that the digital age desperately needs—the memory of a more human way of life.

You remember when neighbors talked over fences, when people gathered on porches, and when community truly meant being together, not just connected through screens. When work had dignity because you knew the person you were working with and for.

That’s not nostalgia—that’s wisdom. And we truly need it.

Merton and Cardijn would tell you that your spiritual life and your concern for the world are meant to go hand in hand. Prayer and action. Contemplation and involvement. Faith and justice.

They also remind you that doubt is healthy. Merton wrote:

“The fruitfulness of our lives largely depends on our ability to doubt our own words and question the value of our work.”

In other words, stay humble. Keep asking questions. Don’t let anyone—not politicians, not corporations, not even religious leaders—tell you that you have to accept things the way they are.

Moving Forward Together

So, what does this mean in practical terms?

It means that when you feel uncomfortable about how technology is evolving, trust that feeling. Discuss it. Share your worries with family and friends.

It means your voice matters in discussions about artificial intelligence, automation, and the future of our communities.

It means small acts of resistance to dehumanization matter: a phone call instead of a text, a handwritten note instead of an email, a face-to-face conversation instead of a Zoom meeting. Zoom is meant for gathering people across geopolitical and geographical boundaries, not for next-door gatherings.

And it means staying spiritually grounded—through prayer, community, or whatever connects you to something larger than yourself—so you have the strength to keep caring and acting.

A Final Thought

Merton and Cardijn experienced revolutions—industrial, technological, and social. They witnessed the world change dramatically. And they never stopped believing that faith calls us to ensure those changes serve human dignity rather than undermine it.

You’re experiencing a revolution, too. We call it the Autonomous Revolution. And you share the same calling they did: to see clearly, to judge wisely, and to act courageously—in whatever ways you can, big or small.

The future needs what you carry: memory, wisdom, and a stubborn insistence that people matter more than progress, that community matters more than convenience, and that the spiritual dimension of life is not optional.

Now let’s talk—because that’s what humans do best.