R. Thomas Richard's Blog, page 19

An Inert Laity – The Cure

In my last blog entry, I began with a troubling comment from Frank Duff, and followed it “downhill” to its tragic conclusion.  His comment was:

“An inert laity is only two generations removed from non-practice. Non-practice is only two generations away from non-belief.”

 This comment begs a crucially important question that I did not address!  The question is – the question that must be rightly answered by the Church of today is – what has brought us to this point, where we actually have to be concerned with an inert laity?  How have we come to such a problem?  How has it come to this?  And more importantly, how do we stop the slide downhill, and once more begin to ascend the mount of discipleship and the vocation to holiness?

The Cure for an Inert Laity

First, let us be clear about the cause, then we can address the cure.  An inert laity is a laity lacking the motive power of love for God.  To say it another way: an inert laity is inert in the things of God because it is motivated by love for the things of this world.  Or, to rephrase it further, a laity unmoved toward divine and eternal treasure is still pursuing the pleasures destined for corruption.  To make it simple and plain: there are members of the Church of Corinth still among us:

1 Cor 3:1  But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ.

1 Cor 3:2  I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready,

1 Cor 3:3  for you are still of the flesh.

 Saint Peter too needed to teach and guide such Christians.  He urged them on toward the true goal of salvation!  He urged them on to seek that which edifies, that which nourishes:

1 Pet 2:2  Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation;

1 Pet 2:3  for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

…………

2 Pet 1:18  we heard this voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

2 Pet 1:19  And we have the prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

 Saint James is particularly blunt about all this.  A laity inert toward the things of God are not only lacking in peace with God – they are lacking in peace with one another.  James wrote:

Jam 4:1  Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?

Jam 4:2  You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not possess because you do not ask.

Jam 4:3  You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Jam 4:4  Adulterers! Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

This is then the problem “in a nutshell”.  An inert laity is still in love with the world.  Their hearts are still occupied with the matters that they love and so are unoccupied with the matters of the one they ought to love: our Lord, our God.  They are not, as James says, lovers of God but of the world – and thus, even more horrible, “whoever wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  An inert laity either is – or is on the road to becoming – an active enemy of God.  In their inertness, they are passive concerning the work of God.  Lord forgive us the wrong we have done, and the good we have failed to do.

What is the cure?  James continues to write:

Jam 4:6 … “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Jam 4:7  So submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Jam 4:8  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you of two minds.

Jam 4:9  Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection.

Jam 4:10  Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

The passage above deserves to be read, and listened to, several times – until it is heard and believed.  Those of two minds – who want to be friends with both the world and God – who want to love both the treasures of this passing world and the eternal things of God – those who think that God has a middle ground between sin and sanctity reserved for them – had better listen carefully.  “Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.”

What is the cure for an inert member of the Body of Christ?  It is to become a disciple of Jesus the Master.  It is to listen to Him, to believe in Him, to obey Him.  To say it differently, the cure is to fall in love with Jesus.  It is to love His Gospel, and to be in love with Him, our God.  The cure begins by meeting Him – meeting Him in His Word, His Truth, His teachings, His doctrines and sacraments entrusted to His Church.  It calls for meeting Him in prayer – spending time with Him, listening to Him in HIs Word, receiving Him in His sacraments with fervor and with love.  It calls for a new mind, a new heart, a new life in Christ.  It calls for really, seriously, being a Christian.

Yes it is simple.  Yes it is hard. Yes it will change one’s life.  And yes it is possible because Jesus went to the Cross to make it possible – that is how much He loves each of us.  The question must be answered: how much do we each love Him?  We need to love Him.  If we love Him, we will follow Him.  If we love Him, the Church will be renewed, and the world will see the light of Christ.  If.

An “Inert Laity” – Crucial Misstep to Religious Irrelevance

Servant of God Frank Duff founded the Legion of Mary in Dublin in 1921.  He coined this phrase “Inert Laity” as early as 1948.  He wrote, “An inert laity is only two generations removed from non-practice. Non-practice is only two generations away from non-belief.”

The phrase “Inert Laity” is a troubling one, intentionally so.  “Inert” is a word I first heard in high school chemistry class, referring to molecules that are “chemically inactive” – they do not interact or react with other molecules.  One might say that the molecules are “fine as they are, thank you.”  One might say that the molecules have all they want or need in themselves, or maybe they (if they had a mind, that is) are afraid of opening themselves to or risking themselves with some sort of union with another.  Some dictionary synonyms are similarly troubling when applied to human persons.  Synonyms of “inert”: dead, dormant, idle, inactive, inoperative.

My second introduction to the word came the next year in physics class.  Physical objects have a property called “inertia” – they have a “resistance to motion.”  They don’t want to move.  They are fine where they are.  Can you see where this is going?  To speak of a church with spiritual inertia  is to speak of a contradiction, because Church exists to be a movement in the world – a movement for change, for repentance, for renewal, for rebirth and for new life in Christ open to all men and women.

Sadly, tragically, a church that has become spiritually inert is most probably also blind to the blaring contradiction of being an inert agent sent for the purpose of interaction, sent to be an agent of world-wide change.  One would expect the problematic inertia to be that of the world to which the Church was sent!  One would not expect the problem to be one of sterility, or impotence, within the Church herself.

Let’s look again at Frank Duff’s troubling observation: “An inert laity is only two generations removed from non-practice. Non-practice is only two generations away from non-belief.”  If I may try to fill in the missing steps of the sequence leading from inertness to unbelief, I will suggest the following as “Generational Steps to Complete Irrelevance” for the Church:

1. the reference generation: an inert laity

2. the next generation: a merely loyal laity

3. the next generation: a non-practicing laity

4. the next generation: an ungrounded, confused laity

5. the next generation: an unbelieving laity

1. The Inert Laity.  What a mess!  Here, the contradiction begins.  In this “reference generation,” the laity attends Mass but not with the “full, conscious and active participation” that Vatican II reminds us is our right, our privilege and our duty.  They attend; they do not participate.  They receive the sacraments, but not with right disposition and thus not in such a way for the sacraments to bear fruit in them.  They do not seek out adult catechesis because they do not need it, nor have interest in it.  They have no interest in growing in prayer.  They are inert, and thus the work of the Church as Church cannot pass through them to the world.  They are inert, and thus the light of Christ cannot shine through them to the dark world around them.

2. The Merely Loyal. The “children” (whether physical or spiritual) of the inert laity suffer the darkness passed on to them.  That next generation is still “Catholic” but only outwardly.  Their bond to the Church is merely one of convention, habit – a loyalty no deeper than convenience and family identity.  If asked, “What religion are you?”, they respond “Catholic” not really understanding what that means beyond a label like “American” or “Democrat” or “member of the Rotary” or “Red Sox fan.”  Their attendance at Mass is not seen as crucial, but nice when they can fit it in.  Their adherence to the teachings of the Church – those teachings that they know of or understand – also are determined by the convenience or inconvenience that would follow.

3. The Non-Practicing.  In the next generation to follow the merely loyal, even the occasional but irregular attendance at Mass on Sundays is seen as irrelevant to their lives.  If asked by a poll-taker or for hospital admissions, they would out of habit say “Catholic,” but would not themselves know what that might or ought to mean.  They are non-practicing both outwardly and inwardly; the name is without significance to them.

4. The Ungrounded and Confused. In the generation that follows the non-practicing, the light of Christ entrusted to their ancestors is extinguished in them.  There remains no moral compass to them, even that given them through the Natural Moral Law has been so weakened and abused by the surrounding and darkening culture, that now wrong may as well be right – it is all relative, all depends on the individual, all seems “natural” and possible.  The religious sense, the hunger for the transcendental, the supernatural, the divine is all but lost – mixed and dimmed in the moral and intellectual and spiritual confusion of their roots.

5. The Unbelieving.  In the next generation that follows the ungrounded and confused, all connection to the supernatural is rejected as myth or dreams.  The soul is now deeply dehumanized in its self-understanding and is desensitized to its meaning and vocation.  The world is governed by “might makes right.”  The Church is a holdover from the Middle Ages, God is an absurd fantasy, truth is current science, goodness is arbitrary, beauty is carnal attraction, human life is an accident, and time is running out.

What will it take for the Church to wake up?  When will the alarm be heard?  The crucial step that ought not be tolerated is that dark misstep to inertness.  Vatican II called us all to “full, conscious and active participation” – inertness has no place in such a vital vocation as disciple of Jesus Christ!

The saints tell us of a process of growing in discipleship – of maturing in dynamic relationship with the Lord Jesus.  God intends us to grow in Him!  He sends us saints as examples, Scripture as inspiration, sacraments for grace and theologians to make them all understandable to us, so that we might see that God’s call to us is not impossible.  Holiness is not an impossible fiction.  Righteousness is not an impossible fantasy.  Sanctity is not only our vocation, but our privilege, our honor, and our duty.  God deserves no less, and we cannot be happy with less.  It is time to begin.  As St. Francis reportedly said, near his death, “Brothers, now let us at last begin!”

Mission and Ministry: The World Outside the Parish

An article recently published in Homiletic and Pastoral Review is so good, so to the point, and so needed today, that I wanted to refer any readers of this blog to visit the HPR magazine and read Growing in Love of the Lay Life: Evangelizing Martyrs, by Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.  Included in his article is this powerful quote from Cardinal Francis E. George (The Difference God Makes, p. 180):

The greatest failure of the post-Vatican II church is the failure to call forth and to form a laity engaged in the world politically, economically, culturally and socially, on faith’s terms rather than on the world’s terms. If … we paid less attention to ministries … and more on mission … then we might recapture the sense of what should be genuinely new as a result of the Council.

I think it is fair to say that many parishes today would have a very hard time distinguishing between “mission” and “ministry.”  For many – many – the whole mission is to provide ministry.  They see the mission of the Church as local parishes providing ministries for the Catholics in the pews, with possible outreaches here and there of service to the poor in material things (food, clothing, shelter).  But as for the overriding mission that Jesus commanded to His Church, the mission that Paul VI identified as the very purpose of the Church, that mission to evangelize – to make disciples of all the nations – that mission often gets scant attention.

The destiny of the human souls outside of the local parish on a given Sunday – the souls driving by on the way to the beach, or the video store, or the soccer field, or wherever – are souls for whom Jesus went to the Cross.  These are the souls that deserve our hearts, our passion, our ministry – they are our mission.  The Church exists to evangelize, as Paul VI taught us.  The New Evangelization awaits as did the Old Evangelization, and the mission remains as Jesus commanded it: make disciples.  When will the mission commanded to the Church become the actual work of the parishes?  We’re getting off to a rather slow start.

Now available at Amazon.com – The Interior Liturgy of the Our Father – in paperback

My book The Interior Liturgy of the Our Father is now available in paperback (from Fidelis Presentations) on the Amazon.com website.  I had looked into offering this through Amazon a while ago, to make it easily available around the country, but it seemed too complicated at the time.  A few days ago, to my shock, I went to the Amazon page advertising The Interior Liturgy, and found the Kindle version available of course – but two used paperbacks were for sale by private parties, one for $89, and the other for $500!

I was of course troubled by these prices for these two (used) paperbacks, especially since I have boxes of them new at home and the list price is only $15.  I looked a second time into offering these on Amazon and lo and behold it is much simpler now than before!  Hence the headline: “Now appearing on Amazon – The Interior Liturgy of the Our Father – in paperback.”

The paperback version is the first edition of the book.  In rewriting a second edition for the Kindle and Nook ebooks, I wanted to shorten the first part a bit to allow the reader to more quickly get to the meat of the book: the actual petitions and meanings in the prayer.  I am not sure which I prefer, but the two are not exactly the same.  The paperback has a longer introductory development of the structure and theme of the prayer the Our Father.

Thank You Amazon -

I am really grateful to Amazon for opening the world of authoring, publishing and book-selling to the public, as they have!  This easier access for readers in America and even around the world is a great and wonderful opportunity for the Church, and for the work of the Gospel.  The work of an edifying Catholic novel, or a work of beautiful Christian devotion, or works of solid teaching that the Church needs to hear – all such works of ministry can find their way to hungry hearts many times more easily, more quickly, and less expensively, because of modern technology and companies like Amazon.  The Church urges us all to use the modern possibilities and technologies to spread the Gospel!  And so we should.

A Request -

Readers of any of my books – could you please write a “customer review” for it/them at the Amazon and/or Barnes and Noble website?  A customer review can help a potential new reader make a decision on an author and book he has never heard of before.  I’m not ashamed to ask you – because I really do believe that my books can be helpful for Catholics (and maybe even not-yet-Catholics).  I would not have written them otherwise.  I believe that they will bring forth fruit for the Lord and His Gospel, and so even a word from you could have a share in that fruitfulness.  Thank you…

Thomas Richard

Taking Time to Prayerfully Listen

From Pope Benedict XVI, in a General Audience 4/25/2012:

“Prayer, nourished by faith and enlightened by God’s word, enables us to see things in a new way and to respond to new situations with the wisdom and insight bestowed by the Holy Spirit. In our own daily lives and decisions, may we always draw fresh spiritual breath from the two lungs of prayer and the word of God; in this way, we will respond to every challenge and situation with wisdom, understanding and fidelity to God’s will.”

Looking Glass Falls in the Pisgah National Forest of North Carolina

A retreat is a time away from the usual busyness of life – a time to listen to God in quietness, in moments alone (and sometimes with others who are also listening and seeking for God). How we need such time in silence and peace to reach out, interiorly, for His wisdom and guidance! During such a retreat now many years ago I heard Christ calling me, and I knew in my heart that my life had to change. I knew that unless I became His disciple I would die to face His final judgment. I did resolve to become His disciple, and everything changed for me. A few years later during a different retreat I met Deborah, who first became my true friend in Jesus and later became my wife in Him: our marriage was a gift from His hand.

Clearly, Deborah and I have reason to believe in the importance and power of retreats! We can meet God in the quiet times, the times apart. We can hear Him, and He can change us; He can heal us. He can renew us. In the following years Deborah and I have participated in, and have led, a good number of retreats. We have always been blessed to do so. I am saddened, frankly, that many Catholics have never experienced such times apart! Many do catch a moment here and there of resting in Him, of listening for Him, of sensing His holy Presence! But then the world too soon recalls them, and they rush back to busyness and hurrying and noise – wondering, perhaps, why it must be this way in life.

A different kind of retreat

Deborah and I know the value of taking time apart – for prayer, for listening, for recollection in a place of beauty that offers solitude and quiet. We are thinking about possibly offering a somewhat different kind of retreat – and we wonder if we offered it, would any Catholics come. Suppose we selected some place of beauty, like a state or national park where camping is allowed, and we offered a retreat there! People would need to like to “camp” – whether in a camper, or RV, or (for those young enough!) a tent – but such a place would offer much natural beauty, opportunity for quiet walks alone or for walks with others having a focus on the things and truths of God. And in such a place we could gather at scheduled times in the day for Bible study, for prayer, for spiritual talks and discussions – with free time as well for just being in the beauty of God’s creation.

Please help us as we pray about offering such retreats! What are your thoughts about such a thing? Do you think any would come to such a retreat? Would you come? Leave a post – or email us at fidelis@renewthechurch.com.

Blessings, Thomas

The Mass in movements – Conversion Consecration Communion

The background is the beautiful Cathedral in Savannah GA.

I've written a new book in e-Book format, for the Nook and the Kindle, on the Holy Mass.  The title is the title of this Post: The Mass in movements – Conversion Consecration Communion.  Here's the "back story" -

I've been pondering and reflecting on the Holy Mass for a while – led in doing so most recently by a commitment to give presentations on the Mass to groups of Returning Catholics in our parish.  Our Returning Catholics program is a simple one – in six sessions – that we (the team) hope can be a helpful bridge to those who are considering coming home to the Church.  We have presently in the six sessions, two on the Mass.  The first of the two is on the "externals" of the Mass (the sacred vessels, the vestments and so on, with a "tour" of the church, the altar area and the sacristy).  This presentation is led by one of our deacons, and consistently is greatly appreciated by the returning Catholics.

The second of the two sessions on the Mass concerns the "internals" of the Mass: the spiritual meanings and intentions (and the interior participation from us that is being called for) that flow through the liturgy.  This has been my "assignment" – to present this aspect of the Mass to the returning Catholics, to help them enter interiorly into the Mass more fully.  After giving this presentation several times over the months, I found myself growing in understanding this most beautiful and supernatural work of God!  I found myself growing in appreciation of the "movements" in the Mass, seeing in them a consistent "directing" in our souls to Christ, deeper and more complete as the Mass progresses.

Thanks be to God, who shows and teaches one so that he can show and teach others!  After a little encouragement from the team, to offer the insights to a wider audience, I thought I would try to do so in e-Book form.  (I did not plan it this way, but it turned out that I finished the book during Holy Week – the first draft on Good Friday – and uploaded on Easter Sunday.)

Here's the "brief description" that I wrote for Amazon and Barnes and Noble:

The Mass brings Christ to us! This book can help the reader bring himself to Christ in the Mass, and therefore find Him there, and receive Him.

The Holy Mass is the liturgy at the very center of a Catholic Christian life. In the Mass we encounter Christ both in His Word, and in the Holy Eucharist – and in those two encounters, two liturgies, we find three distinct but related movements. In those three movements in the Mass we the Christian people are called first to Conversion, then to Consecration, and then to Communion. Each of the three is an encounter with Christ! All three are preparing us for the final Sending at the close of the Mass. We are a sent people: sent by Christ by His power, in His name, to finish the work that He began.

The Church teaches that the Eucharist is "the Source and Summit" of the Christian life! (Catechism 1324) To personally receive this Source fruitfully – to truly attain the Summit which is present to us – requires of us that we are actually personally present to the reality of the Mass.

This book takes the reader through the Mass, interiorly. In each of the major parts of the Mass, the reader is helped to understand and to enter the sacred liturgy with the "full, conscious and active participation" (Catechism 1141) that is necessary for the Mass to do its work in us.

If anyone decides to try the book, please let me know what you think.  I think that many Catholics don't see the full invitation into Christ that the Mass offers!  I think that many do not hear Him calling, waiting!  Thus the book.  I think there is a need.

Blessings, Thomas

Pope Benedict on Adult Faith Formation

Zenit reported recently some powerful words from the Pope to priests of Rome, concerning in particular the need for adult catechesis. Below is a portion of the report – it is brief, but so very encouraging to hear. Our current crisis in the West is seen and recognized by the Pope: "One great problem facing the Church today is the lack of knowledge of the faith, 'religious illiteracy,'"

FEB. 24, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI on Thursday met with priests of his diocese and led them in "lectio divina," offering a spontaneous Scripture reflection.

……..

Immature faith

Lack of humility destroys the unity of Christ's Body. Yet at the same time, unity cannot develop without knowledge. "One great problem facing the Church today is the lack of knowledge of the faith, 'religious illiteracy,'" the Pope said. "With such illiteracy we cannot grow. … Therefore we must reappropriate the contents of the faith, not as a packet of dogmas and commandments, but as a unique reality revealed in its all its profoundness and beauty.

We must do everything possible for catechetical renewal in order for the faith to be known, God to be known, Christ to be known, the truth to be known, and for unity in the truth to grow."

We cannot, Benedict XVI warned, live in "a childhood of faith." Many adults have never gone beyond the first catechesis, meaning that "they cannot — as adults, with competence and conviction — explain and elucidate the philosophy of the faith, its great wisdom and rationality" in order to illuminate the minds of others. To do this they need an "adult faith."

To turn this immense ship about, more intentionally toward "full, active and conscious participation" in our common vocation to evangelize, toward the obedience of faith and worship, will not be easy! There is so much inertia, and habits are hard to change. So many have so small a sense of our calling to be light in this world! To evangelize! To leave all and follow Him! To be a People worthy of His Holy Name!

Let us pray and work, work and pray. May God ignite fires of zeal where there is now sleepiness, courage where there is now timidity, magnanimity ("great-soul-ness") where now the opposite reigns. Grace is volatile, and our Source is abundant. Mary, please pray with us and for us.

Election Time: A Novena of Rosaries, in Prayer for this Country!

When a democratically controlled country is in danger of losing its freedom by actually voting to do so, you know something is dangerously wrong. These are dangerous times, and people are afraid. Such an outcome is possible. America could take a turn in this election to choose government-assured rights, privileges and benefits over the freedom of self-determination that has always been a defining mark of the American character.

The current crisis has been brought about by government-run health care setting aside freedom of religion in favor of what the (I groan to say it: "Catholic") bureaucrat in power at the moment, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, has declared and pronounced to be more important: free contraception – even to the point of post-conception avoidance of the child, namely abortion, called the "morning after pill". Even to the point of permanent sterilization: a travesty abhorrent to Catholic faith.

The Bishops of the USCCB released a press report last summer of their call to rescind this mandate that is impossible for faithful Catholics to obey:

The general counsel of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) called on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to rescind its mandate forcing private insurance plans to cover contraception — including abortifacients — and sterilization, calling the mandate "unprecedented in federal law and more radical than any state contraceptive mandate." The comments also criticize the narrow "religious employer" exception to the mandate, explaining that it provides "no protection at all for individuals or insurers with a moral or religious objection to contraceptives or sterilization," instead covering only "a very small subset of religious employers."

Yes, even the many Catholics – in high position – in this present administration seem deaf, dumb and blind to the moral travesty threatening us. (Where are their Pastors? Where did they learn the Faith? What if anything did they learn of the Faith?)

Brothers and sisters, we need to pray as if this country depended upon it: because at this point in our history, it seems to be literally the case. The Church has kept too low a profile on the crucial but politically incorrect doctrines of our faith! The Church has said and has preached too little and too softly to too few for too long. The time for being quiet and gentle leaven seems to have passed us; the time to be salt is almost lost to us. We need to be clear, unambiguous, and consistent. The issues are freedom, and life, and moral truth. Some Catholics seem to have willingly traded these in for the much cheaper trinkets of political power, social status, and a comfortable time on this earth. They have been scammed.

What can we do, before it is too late? Well, we can vote when the election gets here, and change the powers that be and try to repair the damage that has already been done. But our votes and voices at this moment may be too few – we need to cry out to heaven for help. We need to repent and confess our silence and inaction, and we need to acknowledge to God that without Him we can do nothing. As indeed, so far, we have done so very little.

A Novena of Rosaries for our Country

In our parish we are beginning, this month, a series of nine monthly assemblies in our Adoration Chapel to pray the Rosary together, in petition for divine help to reform and renew this country. We will seek the loving help of our loving Mother, a most holy advocate for her children born and preborn. We will seek the help of our Lord Jesus. We will seek the intercessions of all the saints. We will cry out to the heavens for help, as if the whole country depended upon it – and it does.

I, with others who will come together and pray, ask you to plan and organize and do this very same thing yourselves! Let there be a thousand congregations across the whole county, praying for the renewal and reform of this country! Imagine, if this happened! Such a thing would be evidence of one crucial need being answered already: the renewal and reform of this Catholic Church.

May the Lord assist us, with graces to empower us, with mercy to enable us to begin again. It is not too late.

Thomas

Re-Evangelization, Part II

Re-Evangelization, Part II

We need to develop in the Church an attitude – an atmosphere – of evangelization. Paul VI said that the Church exists to evangelize! If that is true (and of course it is true and it ought to be obviously true), then the mission of evangelization ought to be explicit and clear in every parish function and activity.

The mission to evangelize was given to the Church by Jesus personally and specifically. He said to the gathered Apostles, just before He ascended:

Mt 28:18 … "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Mt 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Mt 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."

This commission reveals the necessary part of teaching in evangelization. To "make disciples" is to teach – and it is to teach "all that I have commanded you." Therefore, yes we need to establish an atmosphere of evangelization and outreach in every parish, manifested in every parish function and activity – but before that we need to attend to making disciples of the Catholics already in the parish so that they can be evangelizers themselves. In other words:

We need to establish an atmosphere, an attitude, of continuing education and formation in the Catholic Faith for every Catholic adult and child in the parish. Life-long growth in the Faith, in understanding and in practice, toward to goals of true holiness in Christ and fruitfulness in His Gospel – these ought to be the normative personal goals in the hearts of Catholics. "We are all called to holiness, and to the perfection of charity." 1

Working from a solid foundation of Catholic parishioners growing and zealous in the Faith, we can begin to reach out from the parish to those scattered outside: first to the fallen-away or inactive Catholics, and second to all persons whom our Lord wants to gather into His house and household.

Is such a plan possible? Certainly it is possible, but difficult. It calls for a pervasive change in attitude, in the staff of the church and among the daily communicants, in the parish volunteers and the School teachers and staff, even reaching to the Christmas-Easter Catholics and everyone else as well. We have a mission. We are sent by Jesus Christ. We have work to do.

Every meeting, every activity, every parish function and committee, every fundraiser and every dinner and every youth group activity and meeting ought to exist and be necessary in order to advance the Gospel and the mission of the Church. At every gathering, we all ought to know why we are there, why this group exists and what we are directed toward: the Gospel and the mission to evangelize.

The Church is not a business. It is not a social club. It is not a social-service agency. It is not the auditorium for the weekly performance of a ceremony to help us feel religious. The Church has a mission that is explained by the Cross. Only there, under the Cross, can a Catholic find his or her part in His work – and until that vocation is heard and accepted, no one can enter the vineyard and begin the labors.

Thus, we need to find Jesus. We need to encounter Him, personally, interiorly, in His transforming way in the depths of our soul, to know that we must, each one of us, be His disciple of else our entire life is a waste and for nothing. Jesus is everything, or else we are left empty and barren. So again, what must we do:

We must find Jesus. We must meet Him, and really hear Him, and be made new in Him. We must find ourselves – our own personal vocation – in Jesus. We must, each one of us, be evangelized.

Then, as disciples of Jesus, we must become catechized in ways befitting our gifts and call from Him. We must be educated and formed in the Catholic Faith as all Catholic adults should be. Then, strengthened and empowered in His Truth and with His Spirit, we can begin to live the mission: we can evangelize. We can make disciples. We can be fruitful in His name.

Jn 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

Jn 15:2 Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Jn 15:3 You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you.

Jn 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

Jn 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Jn 15:6 If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.

Jn 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

Jn 15:8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.

Let me close with some bulleted points from now-Cardinal Dolan of New York (address 2/20/12 on the vigil of the Consistory, Zenit)

* … the Church has a deep need for the interior conversion that is at the marrow of the call to evangelization. 

* …God does not satisfy the thirst of the human heart with a proposition, but with a Person, whose name is Jesus. The invitation implicit in the Missio ad gentes and the New Evangelization is not to a doctrine but to know, love, and serve — not a something, but a Someone. When you began your ministry as successor of St. Peter, Holy Father, you invited us to friendship with Jesus, which is the way you defined sanctity. There it is . . . love of a Person, a relationship at the root of out faith. 

* Yes, and here's my fourth point, but this Person, Jesus, tells us He is the truth. So, our mission has a substance, a content, and this twentieth anniversary of the Catechism, the approaching fiftieth anniversary of the Council, and the upcoming Year of Faith charge us to combat catechetical illiteracy.

* … the New Evangelization is urgent because secularism has often choked the seed of faith; but that choking was sadly made easy because so many believers really had no adequate knowledge or grasp of the wisdom, beauty, and coherence of the Truth.

* Cardinal George Pell has observed that "it's not so much that our people have lost their faith, but that they barely had it to begin with; and, if they did, it was so vapid that it was easily taken away." So did Cardinal Avery Dulles call for neo-apologetics, rooted not in dull polemics but in the Truth that has a name, Jesus.

*…. Thus, our mission, the New Evangelization, has essential catechetical and ecclesial dimensions. This impels us to think about Church in a fresh way: to think of the Church as a mission. As John Paul II taught in Redemptoris Missio, the Church does not "have a mission," as if "mission" were one of many things the Church does. No, the Church is a mission, and each of us who names Jesus as Lord and Savior should measure ourselves by our mission-effectiveness.

It’s Time to Wake Up! – Re-evangelization, Part I

Jesus sent His Church to “make disciples” (Mt 28:19). Pope Paul VI wrote that the Church exists to evangelize:

Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection.(1)

Is the Church evangelizing? Is she making disciples? Is she gathering new believers into the living Body of Christ, as Jesus sent us to do? Membership in the Catholic Church in America is growing, but not because of the evangelization and conversion of new members. The only reason that the Catholic Church in America is not in decline in membership, is because of the Catholic immigrants pouring in. Without them, our Church would be shrinking. In America, out of those adult Catholics born and raised in the Church (“cradle Catholics”), only 68% remain. Of the 32% who left the Church, 18% converted to some other religion and 14% abandoned “church” altogether.(2) This is dismal and shameful!

Many non-Catholic denominations and even non-Christian religions have the Catholic Church to thank for some of their new membership. About one in ten Protestants were raised Catholic. Over one in four (27%) who have no religious affiliation at all today were raised Catholic. Over one in four (26%) Jehovah Witnesses were raised Catholic. Or did you already know that from the many “former Catholics” now knocking on doors evangelizing you to join them in the Jehovah Witnesses? Even the Buddhists! Almost one in four (22%) Buddhists were raised Catholic.

To me, the most staggering statistic of all is this one: about one in ten (10.1%) of all American adults are former Catholics! Imagine looking out upon some large crowd of typical Americans at a ball game, or watching a parade, or shopping in a mall – about one out of every ten that you are looking at is a former Catholic! These 10% of all the adults in this country saw fit, somehow, to leave the Faith that Jesus died to give us, the faith held dear through centuries of martyrs who bled to remain faithful even unto death themselves. Something is very, very wrong.

Here’s my solution. I have a plan. Evangelize! Be Church! Let us wake up and do what God gave us grace and mercy to do: make disciples.

First step: before making new disciples, let us regather those who are lost. Let us knock on doors and ring bells and find the lost sheep, the ones scattered and astray, and shepherd them home again. If we could find and regather just those who left and have no connection with any church at all, the Catholic Church would grow by 14%! If we could help those who became Protestants to see the great blessings and treasure awaiting them in their return home as a Catholic, and they returned, we would grow by 18%! The harvest is plentiful – do we have any laborers?

We need to take the apostolate of seeking the sheep who are scattered, the “inactive Catholics,” more seriously. Didn’t Jesus teach about leaving the ninety-nine in the wilderness to go out in search of the one that was lost? We have 32% of our flock wandering out there – almost a third – and they deserve to know that they are missed, and needed, and wanted and loved by the Lord and by their brothers and sisters waiting for them at home, in the Church.

In the next installment of this post, I’ll try to focus on some specifics, and posibilities.

(1) Evangelii Nuntiandi #14

(2) See the PEW FORUM ON RELIGION & PUBLIC LIFE, especially HERE