In every age, discipleship has always been about adopting and living out a lifestyle that imitated Jesus and went against the cultural currents of the society, writes Fr Anthony Le Duc SVD.

While disciples are not removed from the social and cultural elements that make up the fabric of the society in which they live and work, they are expected to exhibit in words and deeds characteristics that can identify them as serving God’s kingdom – proclaiming the good news, calling people to repentance, working to promote values of harmony and justice, and making an option for the poor. These are the constants in the life of the disciples of Jesus and serve to determine their mission and vocation.

As faith communities raced to adopt technology more than ever to provide pastoral outreach during the coronavirus pandemic, Fr Anthony Le Duc SVD was exploring the underpinnings of such activity in an international roundtable on religion and social communication in Thailand.

The 11^th International Roundtable of the Asian Research Centre for Religion and Social Communication (ARC) was held last month at St Louis College in Bangkok.

As society becomes more technologically advanced, one of the things that we notice is that our contact with one another becomes increasingly mediated by digital means—chat applications, social networks, mobile texting, and so on. 

My own life and ministry have become so much richer because of relationships that would have otherwise been impossible without Facebook, Line, and other Internet applications. My connection with my family who live on the other side of the globe has also been reinforced by technology. I cannot be more grateful that I am a missionary in an age where communication has been able to bring so many people to me and me to so many people.