But – this guy says it turned out to be a great thing! Every day, those kids would get challenged about
their Catholic Faith – and every evening, the whole family would spend time
looking up the answers in the Catechism and Bible – then they’d make these
flash cards which reminded them how to respond to each challenge against the
faith – along with scripture references.
They would study these cards during their 30 minute drive to school. In the end, these kids could stand-up to
Adults and defend the Catholic Faith. They
knew their faith, because they had to.
Next this guy starts going on and on about he HATES the
Catholic Church here in southern Indiana.
From his view, everybody here sleeps through Mass – and few, if any,
KNOW much about their Faith. Something
as simple as ‘why are we wearing purple today?’…. People can’t answer.
On one hand, I thought his comments were a bit harsh – but
on the other hand – he’s got a point. The church out there was the minority and was
constantly under attack from all sides – so people HAD to know their
faith. People HAD to join together each
Sunday to build each other up and get back into the battle.
Here… we have no enemy really. That’s quite a blessing… but it is also a
curse. Because we have no common enemy,
we have grown very complacent in the practice of our Faith. Since most of us have never been challenged
like his kids were, then we’ve never been forced to learn our Faith. That is a bigger problem than you may think.
Because we don’t know our Faith, it is very easy for people
to leave the Church. First – because
they don’t know their faith, they probably think that one church is as good as
another. They never understood that Jesus
started the Catholic Church – and gave us his Body and Blood on the altar. No other church has that…. But most of us
don’t know that…or we’re not really convinced of it. Second – because we don’t know our Faith,
folks from other churches can raise a couple of common objectives to the
Catholic Faith – presenting some seemingly logical arguments from the Bible –
and WE just throw in the towel. It’s
impossible to defend something you know little about… especially against people
who have their eyes and minds set on “saving” us Catholics. Third, most people today are motivated by
‘fun’, ‘entertainment’, and ‘feeling good’. We have a consumer-based mentality about our
Faith… “what’s in it for me?” If our parishioners go to one of these ‘feel
good mega-churches’, it would be hard to convince themselves that coming to our
church and sleeping through Mass can possibly be better than the enjoyable
music and heart-touching sermon at the other place. The other church doesn’t even have to TRY to
pull us out of the church – we’re leaving on our own. Our young people – and even our older people
– are getting picked off one by one.
Can we do anything about it?
Absolutely! That’s what’s cool
about being a Christian… God gives us all the Grace we need to make things
happen. He’ll hoe around us and
fertilize us… if we cooperate with Him. First
– as with anything – we must Pray. Pray
for guidance from the Holy Spirit – and that the Spirit will guide our Church
Leaders…and US!. Second – we must
study! Join a Scripture study. Read spiritual books and listen to Catholic
CD’s. Study Apologetics, which is the
study of ‘how to defend the Faith’. Do
you know your Bible? Do you know who
Esau is? Sampson? Ruth?
Elijah? We might recognize that
they are all names out of the Bible – but do we know their stories? Many of us – especially our youth - don’t
know even the most basic stories of the Bible.
Maybe consider watching the new Bible miniseries on the History Channel
the next 5 Sunday nights. I’ve not seen
it, but it is directed by a Catholic – Roma Downey, so I suspect it will be some solid teaching…and
entertaining as well. Whatever you do…
study! If we’re not growing, we’re
dying. Study is the fertilizer that
helps us to grow. Third – celebrate the
Liturgy… not just watch…CELEBRATE. I know that’s hard to do. Our liturgy lulls us into a state of
complacency… I know how hard it is to stay engaged all through the Mass… but we
have to try. The most obvious thing we
can do is to PRAY ALONG and SING ALONG. I know – that’s really radical… but we HAVE to
do it. I remember the first time I went
to a Promise Keepers convention in Indy.
Imagine 60,000 men all singing HOLY, HOLY, HOLY in the big dome up
their… that is a moving experience. You
can FEEL the spirit in a crowd that is actively participating. I got the same experience at Mass last weekend
at Mass with 50 men at the Cursillo. It’s
not the size of the crowd – it’s the fact that everyone participates. We CAN have the same thing here – but it’s
gonna take each of us to come out of our comfort zone and PARTICIPATE… pray
along – SING along. Don’t underestimate how important that
is. Imagine going to a movie and falling
sleep in your seat… , leaving the theater we’d be saying… “that was
boring”…”that was a waste of time”… “I didn’t get anything out of it”. If you don’t put something into it, you’ll
get nothing out of it. Same goes for
Mass… if we don’t stay engaged, not only do WE not get anything out of it… but
everyone around us is also lulled into the same state of complacency…
Think about the impact:
if I don’t sing or pray – then nobody around me will. And if few people sing and pray, then our
Liturgy feels …well… lifeless. If we
fail to change this, then our parishioners will never experience the FEEL of the
Spirit! – and our people will continue to
get picked off one by one.
The farmer in the Gospel wanted to cut down the tree – no
sense letting it use up all the nutrients in the soil if it’s not going to bear
fruit. That could apply so many
ways. First – it applied to the Jews…
since they hadn’t borne fruit in their relationship with God, God may have been
tempted to cut them down…. But Jesus convinced the Father to give them another
chance.
Second – it applies to our selves…. Each of us individually
is a tree planted by God to bear fruit.
What is that fruit? To spread the
Good news. To Love God and
neighbor. To build the Kingdom of
God. To introduce others to Jesus. If we’re not doing any of that… why shouldn’t
the farmer cut us down?
Finally – it applies to our Parish. Does our parish bear fruit? How many of our young people have we sent to
the seminary in the last 5 years? How
many people have we invited to join the Catholic Faith? How many people are leaving us because our
liturgies, instead of being life-giving, may seem life-draining?
I know this is hard to hear – but I think it’s time we took
an honest look at ourselves before it’s too late. You know – we are NOT being shut down by the
Strategic Planning committee – but you gotta know the question will be raised
sooner or later– as we get fewer and fewer priests – sooner or later, the
Bishop is going to be looking around for dead trees to cut down. I love this parish, and I’ll do whatever I can to keep it bearing fruit. But – Fr. Eugene and I cannot do it
alone. He and I need to feel the Spirit
here too…we need your help.
Fr.
Kaiser put it this way: it’s in giving
the Sacraments that the priest gets fed.
You hear that? It is in
celebrating the Eucharist and Confession and Baptisms that the PRIEST gets
fed. A consumer-mentality would say that
all of US are fed by the Priest… true… but that’s not the whole story. When folks don’t come or don’t participate,
it’s easy to get discouraged and disheartened…It’s easy for the PRIEST to feel
like HE is the tree not bearing fruit.
Our
challenge is to participate and stay engaged at Mass… a tough challenge…but
when we do that, we can create a new feeling of Spirit in our worship which
feeds us all. God will hoe around
us and fertilize us – giving us every possible chance to bear fruit.
No comments:
Post a Comment