stop slipping

Homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
27 September 2009
Year for Priests

We're hemorrhaging as a Church. We have leaks. Lots of them. Not unlike the KU defense yesterday versus Southern Mississippi. As a Church, we still make plays when we need to make them. There are many signs of optimism and hope in the Church. Many signs that we are winning some games and some battles, and that we are a force to be contended with. I work in vocations, and although progress is very, painfully slow, there are good signs. We have 10 new men in the seminary in the last year. Five guys from the St. Lawrence Center entered the seminary and religious life last year. There are victories. There are many things to celebrate, including a particularly good start to this year of ministry at the St. Lawrence Center. But we all know as well that we are hehmorraging as a Church. Like the KU defense, we are giving up a lot of ground. In the culture, we have seen a fast increase in the number of people who no longer consider themselves Christian, a jump from 8 to 13 percent in the number of people who do not affiliate with any particular religion at all. These can include both agnostics and atheists. In the age group that the St. Lawrence Center serves, Fr. Steve was telling me the other day that over 20 percent of 18-29 year olds now consider themselves areligious. Which means if this trend continues, there will be a day soon that in a group of new people, you will be just as likely to meet an agnostics as you would to meet a Catholic. And among those leaving religion, the largest and fastest group leaving their faith are Catholic men. We have leaks in the Church. We know it. If you don't believe me, take a look at my email or listen to my voicemail, and it becomes apparent that it hurts badly to see a young Catholic leave the faith. Parents are hurt. Grandparents are hurt. It is hard to see such a treasure that is the Catholic faith discarded. As a Church, we are hemorrhaging. And it hurts.

We know as well that there is not going to be a quick solution to the problem. As we move to a less Christian culture, at least overtly, especially among our young people, the Christian imagination, and the Catholic imagination are easily lost in the minds and hearts of our young people. And once it is lost, it is a hard thing to replace. What do I mean by the Catholic imagination? I mean the view of the world that we are all the children of God, chosen and redeemed by Christ, and in and through him we are brothers and sisters to each other. That Catholic imagination that gives us all additional reasons for doing good, and that gives us a sense of purpose in trying to redeem the world with Christ by making his love more present by our words and actions. By the Catholic imagination, I mean the personal sense of peace, joy, purpose and happiness that comes from knowing that through a personal encounter with Christ, the mystery of the human person is unraveled, and through a deep, prayerful conversation and friendship with him, a person can move forward toward answering a vocation that will bring lasting fruitfulness and happiness to him and to the world. This Catholic imagination, a way of seeing things through faith, and the joy of belonging to a community that is truly the bride of Christ, united with Him through the Eucharist, and guided by the Holy Spirit, is a powerful instrument of His grace and love, this is an imagination that is quickly eroding from the hearts and minds of young people. Heck, it is disappearing from the hearts and minds of all of us, as Catholicism is continually shifted toward the margins of the culture.

In the near future, until this Catholic imagination is recovered, and hearts and minds are reclaimed in a beautiful way for the Church, the situation of the Gospel will become even more real for us. As the number of agnostics and atheists rise near 1/4 of the population, given today's trends, it will be more and more a reality that people will be doing great humanitarian things, acting on natural human goodness, even though they are not overtly Christian. Many of these people will be ex-Catholics. Jesus' words that whoever is not against us is for us reminds us that we in the Church are stewards of God's salvific grace, but we do not control it. The reality is that we will work side by side with many people in the future who do not share our Catholic faith or imagination, and we will continue to be challenged that you don't have to be a Christian to be a good person. We will need the help of these people to serve the common good, even if they do not look like us or pray like us.

That being said, I think Jesus' words of the Gospel challenge us to stop the hemorrhaging within the Church, the dulling of consciences and the loss of the Catholic imagination which is a most beautiful way of viewing the world and living fruitfully and happily within it, not to mention the surest path to eternal life. Jesus challenges any of us who are living a lukewarm, surface Catholicism to rediscover the great difference the Catholic faith makes, and how different is a person who simply seeks to be a good person from a person who has been called and graced by Christ to love and serve in a way that makes the redeeming love of God more visible and real in the world. We must all take Jesus' words to heart, and get rid of those things that cause us to relativize the great value of our Catholic faith, and those things that cause us to lead other people into sin. We must get rid of those things if we are to rediscover the Catholic imagination, the Catholic adventure that is within each of us, the call not to be a nice guy to be great! +m