**TMI**

**TMI**

Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky

As we approach the completion of the liturgical year, Jesus reminds us that the end is near, perhaps nearer than we’d prefer. Periodically it is necessary for us to wake up to that fact, especially if we’re cruising along in life oblivious to God and what He expects of us, or simply putting off a good Confession.

But why isn’t Jesus more precise as to the day and the hour of the end of the world or, for that matter, our individual reckonings?

Thanks to advances in medical technology, we tend to live longer. Beyond the obvious misuse of technology, however, the truly wonderful medical advances may paradoxically be disconcerting in many respects. Too much information, TMI, can be a serious problem.

We have an obligation to take reasonable means to maintain our health and to reject excessive curiosity in matters of maintaining health and avoiding various forms of hypochondria. The idea is to reasonably preserve the gift of life and to delay death by virtuous living – including reasonable periodic medical checkups.

Years ago curiosity got the best of a friend of mine. After examining an X-ray of his kidney, he asked the radiologist about certain blips on the image. The doctor explained they were kidney stones that had not yet descended. He added, without disturbance, the tiny stones may never drop. Ever since, the thought of another kidney stone event became a minor preoccupation -- so he gave up exercise as a precaution. (At least that’s his story and he’s sticking with it.) TMI, I know.

New technology also brings with it a so-called “virtual physical.” I heard this advertised on the radio. The diagnostic imagery will identify nearly every physical defect in one’s body – from polyps and cysts to plaque in the arteries. As a diagnostic medical technology, the procedure is undoubtedly useful but may give rise to worry. After all, a chunk of plaque identified in the inaccessible inner reaches of a man’s cranium could be as distracting as those hanging chad kidney stones.

Whether an otherwise healthy individual should submit to such a body scan is not so much a question of morality, but a question of peace of mind. It seems we’re considered sick until proven healthy. If little can be done to reverse or correct or treat certain physical pathologies, do we really want to know the details? When does information become too much information, TMI?

On the one hand, we can become like ostriches with heads in the sand, satisfied with no (or very little) medical information. It’s common to develop an anti-technology do-nothing bias, sometimes based on fear of what a doctor would discover. On the other hand, we can cultivate a TMI mentality, sparing no expense (as long as insurance pays) until we undergo every medical test known to the profession.

The do-nothing extreme can easily lead to a sinful neglect of one’s body, the Temple of the Holy Spirit. The refusal of ordinary means to good health may even be presumptuous of God’s providence. God indeed provides, but above all, He provides intelligence and free will calling for the exercise of prudence with respect to our health care.

The TMI spare-no-expense extreme can be sinful. Not only can repeated diagnostics be expensive and unneeded, the results easily become obsessive. And TMI obsession not only prevents peace of mind, but the fixation also displaces God and His loving providence from one’s life, a violation of the First Commandment.

It takes clear thinking, effort, and God’s grace to avoid falling into the traps of these two extremes.

It is probable that advances in medical and supercomputer technologies will make it possible to predict with some statistical certainty the lifespan of every baby at birth. Such a prospect could be a source of great excitement (and profit) for the medical profession and ratchet up patient demand for more detailed information. But what will be the consequences beyond threatening the jobs of many fortune-telling crystal gazers?

In the Gospel, Jesus forewarns us as to the end of the world and the end of our lives. But Jesus concludes with words that should help control our inclinations for TMI: “But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come." (Mark 13:32-34) God alone is the author of life and, as Job reminds us, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. (Cf. Job 1:21)

God did not create us for extinction and He did not create us to simply mark time in this life. As members of the Mystical Body of Christ, we have His work to accomplish with highly personalized and indispensable vocations. We have at our disposal in the Sacraments all that is necessary to remain in – or return to -- the state of grace for eternal salvation.

An unreasonable demand for certainty as to future maladies and even the time of our death could easily serve to feed unhealthy and self-absorbed obsessions, distracting us from our calling. Certainty as to when the world will end would have a similar effect. We would be paralyzed, fixated on the passage of time -- like the clock-watching in the Gary Cooper movie classic “High Noon -- as we approach the day of our demise. Such are the consequences of TMI.

In short, the worship of God would be replaced by a kind of worship of the passage of time, watching that clock, marking time, year by year, day by day, until the hour of our expected demise.

But God did not create us to serve time as a prisoner in this life. He created us to use the time allotted us for His greater glory, to trust in His providence, to remain in His grace with peace of soul.

In His wisdom and mercy, God does not reveal to us the time or the hour because it would be, plain and simple, TMI. So be attentive because time is indeed short. And don’t forget Confession