Recently, the story of a pair of friends in Vietnam went viral on Vietnamese social media because it was as extraordinary as it was profoundly touching. For the past 10 years, Hieu has been carrying his friend Minh on his back to school every day without fail.

It began in the second grade when Hieu volunteered to take Minh on his back to school because Minh was born with a disability in both his legs and one of his arms. Seeing himself and others able to go to school, Hieu could not bear to see Minh unable to get an education because of his disability.

If the coronavirus and the enforced social isolation that has come with it has taught us anything, it is that we are social creatures who crave connection.

When we were asked to stay at home it wasn’t shopping or consumption that we missed the most, rather it was visiting our family, hugging our parents, attending our niece’s first birthday party, hanging out with our workmates or enjoying a dinner with friends at a restaurant.

Today we celebrate the mystery of the Holy Trinity.  It is a mystery that is part of our Catholic DNA, but we seldom reflect on it.

Modern Internet technology has created for us an entity known as cyberspace. We hear this word often but do not always understand exactly what cyberspace is. Cyberspace is the notional environment in which communication over computer networks takes place. It is a metaphorical space that exists in our minds, especially when we are chatting with friends on social networks and feel as if we are meeting them in a particular space.

While cyberspace is not physical, it is not necessarily virtual (or unreal). As Pope Benedict XVI asserted, “The digital environment is not a parallel or purely virtual world, but is part of the daily experience of many people, especially the young.”

Today the Church celebrates the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, one of the most basic tenets of our Christian belief and underlying principle of our faith. As Catholics we utter the name of the Holy Trinity many times. 

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.