The Catholic 6-7
By Andre Audette
In John’s Gospel, John the Baptist sees Jesus walking by and exclaims, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Two of John’s followers take off after Jesus. Jesus turns and asks them: “What are you looking for?”
“What are you looking for?” In the new calendar year, it is a question perhaps many of us are pondering. Looking back at 2025, what has our collective culture been looking for?
Dictionary.com tried to capture the year’s zeitgeist by proclaiming the “word of the year” to be none other than the widespread cultural phenomenon of “6-7.” If you are not yet familiar, ask almost any person under the age of 18 if those digits have any particular way they should be said and you will get a drawn-out pronunciation, sometimes accompanied by a hand motion. As a parent and middle school religion teacher, I’ve heard the number and seen the motion a good 67 (or 6007) times.
The number-as-meme is essentially meaningless, coming from the latest version of online memes referred to as brainrot. Over the decades, viral online culture has evolved from pictures with humorous text to more absurd images without text to the ironic phrases or images devoid of almost any meaning. The memes are designed as a social commentary on Americans’ lack of attention spans and need to exist in a chaotic, overwhelming society. Brainrot exists alongside other categories of often meaningless online content, such as other dictionaries’ words of the year: rage bait and slop (low-quality AI content). Maybe you’ve even found yourself doomscrolling through piles of slop, rage bait, and brainrot.
The names of this content can sound repulsive or even dangerous (and it can be both!), but it comes from a very human and existential recognition that we cannot control the world around us and need an outlet for our grief, anxiety, and pain. If the world is to provide an answer, we can turn to brainrot to soothe us.
The opposite of brainrot, however, is something that the Catholic Church offers us in abundance: transcendence, solemnity, and sacredness. These, too, offer a compelling antidote to the anxieties of our age.
The Mass, Eucharistic adoration, quiet prayer, and other elements of the Catholic life are profoundly counter-cultural, offering a respite from the weariness of the world around us. Enter the liturgy with an open heart and mind and you will find texts and rituals with real meaning. In the Mass, heaven itself breaks open so our Eucharistic celebration may join with the heavenly banquet. We worship a God who is Truth Incarnate, who loves us and cares for us, who can give us meaning and purpose. With any of our senses, we can find something to draw our attention upward to sacred reality. Or we can “waste time” with Jesus in our adoration chapel, putting aside our to-do list to sit in silent contemplation. We might even put away our favorite prayer apps for a moment to just listen to the voice of God.
“What are you looking for?” We can find temporary release with “6-7” or other cultural fads that distract us from the realities of our time. Fortunately, we Catholics can also follow our Savior to a different way of living. As Jesus told those first disciples, “come, and you will see.”