Being Authentically Catholic

As I work on our evangelization ministry, a recurring question is how do we get people to listen and engage with what our faith teaches.  This is true for people who do attend Mass.  It is even more true for those who do not come to church.   

How do we meet them where they are at?  As Pope St. Paul VI wrote, “Evangelization loses much of its force and effectiveness if it does not take into consideration the actual people to whom it is addresses, if it does not use their language, their signs and symbols, if it does not answer the questions they ask, and if it does not have an impact on their concrete life. But on the other hand, evangelization risks losing its power and disappearing altogether if one empties or adulterates its content under the context of translating it” (63.  Pope St. Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi. December 8, 1975.  emphasis added). 

Earlier this week I was having a text conversation with a couple of friends.  The common question of church attendance came up.  Is church attendance at church decreasing, staying flat, or increasing?  In the post-COVID world, the answer depends on the parish.  Prior to the COVID pandemic, most churches were seeing steady decreases in attendance.  When churches reopened when the shutdown ended, attendance was way down.  I think most churches saw increasing attendance for the next one to two years as people began to resume their past practices like going to church when they felt comfortable.  Since then, each church has been different. 

In my conversation with friends, they next asked how I saw the Catholic Church in the future.  It’s a great question.  Unfortunately, it is a question that I do not have an answer to. 

I know we need to do some re-envisioning of what it means to be a church in the institutional church and how we are to function as parishes.  This must focus on the salvation of souls.  We have been focused on maintenance for far too long when we need to focus on mission.  To be focused on maintenance is to focus on simply doing what we have always down and what we need to do to keep our parishes open. 

What we need to be doing is to focus on mission.  It is our mission to save souls.  Jesus gives us this mission when He says, “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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).  Pope St. Paul VI recognizes this as our mission when he writes of the Church, “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.” (Evangelii Nuntiandi., 14). 

My friends spoke of those who see the Church of the future being a smaller church.  This is not a new concept.  We can read in the Bible of how only a remnant of God’s people remained at various points in history (for more on “remnant”, see my recent article, “The Need for Evangelization”) 

If we do not focus on mission and find a way, led by the Holy Spirit, to bring people to a personal relationship with Jesus, we will be a smaller church. 

Unfortunately, there are those who think the way to have more people in church is to give ourselves over to modern day thinking.  These people let go of the teachings from our Lord in favor of what is popular in the world.  I think some people do this without even meaning to. 

If we want our Church to thrive, we must be authentic to what our Lord has taught from the beginning.  Psalm 127:1 is clear on this, “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build.”   

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray “thy kingdom come”, referring to God’s Kingdom, not ours.  When we pray “thy will be done”, we are speaking of God’s Will, not our own.  We call it “our church” but at the core it is Jesus’ Church.  As Jesus says, “upon this rock, I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18).  Jesus sets the way. 

The Church belongs to our Lord.  If we want it to thrive, we need to follow Jesus. 

If we focus on the salvation of souls, the people will come and the dollars to pay the bills will follow.  We need to focus on the souls, not the money. 

We need to heed the words of Psalm 118:8-9, “Better to take refuge in the Lord than to put one’s trust in mortals.  Better to take refuge in the Lord than to put one’s trust in princes.”  Our true hope lies in God, not in human beings. 

We need to be authentic to our faith.  We must not give into what the world demands.  Does this come with risk?  Yes.  We may be ridiculed, persecuted, or even martyred but we must not give in.    How many times do we hear in the Bible our Lord telling us do not be afraid?  We heed Jesus’ words, “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28). 

We do not need to change the message of the gospel.  We must not change the message.  The message is true and it is from God.  We cannot improve the message.  We do need to find new methods to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   

We need to be authentic.   

The world looks for happiness from the things of this world.  The things and ways of this earthly world may bring a feeling of pleasure but it is short-lived.  The pleasure of earthly happiness lasts only as long as the earthly activity giving the pleasure lasts. 

What God offers us when we strive to be authentic to his ways is joy (a fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23).  The joy God offers lasts for eternity. 

Which do you prefer, earthly happiness that is temporary, or God’s joy that lasts forever? 

God desires for everyone to know His Eternal Joy.  That’s why in passages like the one from Ezekeil that we will hear in the first reading this coming Sunday He calls us to point out sin.  We do it without malice and force.  Malice and force are the ways of the devil.  The way of the Lord is love for “love is the fulfillment of the law.”   

God wants us to put out sin but not with cruel honesty.  He wants us to do it with love, the same love He showed to the woman caught in adultery when He said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, [and] from now on do not sin any more” (John 8:11). 

The world speaks of tolerance but it does not know what “tolerance” is.  To be tolerant does not require saying the behavior is acceptable.  Tolerance allows us to speak our own beliefs in a way that is loving and caring (see my article, “Tolerance, Hate Speech, and Dialogue”).   

The ways of the Lord are not easy.  Suffering in this can be required in this world as Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow him (Matthew 16:24) so that we might know eternal joy with the Lord. 

Peace, 

Fr. Jeff 

P.S. I will be offering a presentation/webinar in November on our Catholic theology of suffering with a focus on how it applies to assisted suicide.  Details to follow.