By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Quite a few years ago, I went hiking in the Alps on the border between Italy and France with a group of reformed drug addicts and their family members. One father brought his two sons who observed my delight as I ran up to the snow line ahead of the group and collected fresh snow for filling my water bottle. The boys mistook my good humor and liveliness for superficiality as I offered them a share in my mountain-fresh nourishment.
Drug addicts must become experts in spotting superficiality if they intend to live a life without drugs as they seek a life with God. Dealers and addicts have a fundamentally superficial attitude toward others because their real objective in seeking the company of others is either to sell, buy, or use drugs. The human person is thus objectified, and no longer an end in himself as demanded by God for those who love Him.
In reaction to my enthusiastic running on the mountain the day of the Alpine hike, the boys started chanting in Italian, “You’re a superficial priest!” — “Sei un prete artificiale!”
Pastors, priests, catechists, bishops, and many others in the Church have been deeply concerned for many years about the continuing phenomenon of young people dropping out of regular attendance at Sunday Mass after receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. This superficial approach to faith may be putting down roots for years before it surfaces in such obvious problematic behavior. Even faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is in jeopardy when parents are casual about ensuring regular family Mass attendance in obedient love of the One who offers Himself in the sacrament.
Some of our parents continue to attend Mass even after spouses and children fall away from weekly worship and they remain a sign of hope that we might reach their family members, as they can be strengthened and empowered to evangelize those they love most. Other families seem to approach the matter of Mass with premeditation when they are seen to be permanently absent from parish worship only a week after the celebration of their youngest child’s Confirmation. Increasingly fewer of these individuals will return to the Church in a desire for the Sacrament of Matrimony.
What can be done to stem the flow of faithful from the pews? A number of factors are involved in a pastoral approach that seeks to reach families that suffer any one or more of an array of spiritual liabilities. Delegation to one spouse for attending Sunday Mass with the children, many years of not receiving Communion, taking the kids to Sunday faith formation classes while being absent from Mass on the same day, and an uncaring attitude in regard to grave or mortal sins and scandal in the case of non-practicing parents are some of these.
The self-marginalization of families who want a cultural connection with the Church and who then link that to a mechanical reception of Communion or Confirmation in the context of minimal contact with the Church are extending a contraceptive concept of love in human relationships to that with God. Why they want that cultural connection is the question we must attempt to answer in order to reach them. That they do not understand that reception of sacraments in the context of mortal sinfulness is useless and sacrilegious is deeply worrying for those who seem to value the souls of these individuals more than they themselves seem to, is a cross to bear.
Of course, no one values the infinite soul of each of one of us more than the Lord Himself does and this is the most important reference point for all of us sent to evangelize those souls with whom we come into contact.
The predominant model of human love operating in society glamorizes taking while calling it giving. The use of contraception in sexual relationships across the spectrum, to include marriage, is simply one symptom of this phenomenon. Self-fulfillment as a response to perceived emptiness shows a lack of value or understanding of spiritual life. Grace as a rich resource for love and life must be the root of a restoration of faith and the practice of faith.
Materialism is an ideology which leaves individuals feeling disadvantaged and encourages imbalanced desire. A proper understanding of the faith imbues each of us with a conviction of giftedness that is sent to be shared and increased.
Why has the contraceptive mentality been so successful in hiding the self-rejection incipient in its approach? The lure of materialism no doubt must have some role. Many people spend as much of their time working as opportunities make it possible to do so. Fulfillment measured in dollar signs can be a very strong drug with its implied promise of worldly security. Glamorization of human companionship no matter how much it may require the sacrifice of a relationship with God also has some role. Individuals in reaction to divorce sometimes seek a relationship in ways that result in loss of the state of grace.
In large parishes it is easy for a family to hide in the pews and drift along sufficiently in a faith formation program in order to get the sacraments as the final objective. People often talk of the Church “selling” sacraments, but the opposite is too often the real case. Filling the pews on an occasional basis and using envelopes for a token offertory gift in fact amounts to buying the sacraments. When the parent or parents are modeling a superficial attachment to the Church, they inevitably teach their children there is a value to be gained by such behavior. The illusion of salvation in the presence of mortal sin is in fact the ultimate danger for humanity. This should be avoided as the true source of insecurity.
Smaller parishes have the opportunity of providing greater individual attention and challenging families to overcome superficiality. Even by simply naming it for what it is we can help to spark an examination of conscience and challenge those we reach at Mass to go deeper and seek authentic life in Christ.
Although the two boys I met on the day of my Alpine hike misdiagnosed the situation, due no doubt to their youth, they were being properly trained from a young age to avoid the spiritual pitfalls inevitable for those who lack discernment in their relationships with others. They were being trained by their parents to seek real friendships with others who value them too much to expose them knowingly to moral or physical danger. We must do the same for our young people in regard to their approach to Christ through His Church.
Our young people and their families must be regularly and consistently challenged to make a distinction between superficial use of Christ who comes through the sacraments and their source in the Church. They can learn to demand and to desire what God teaches is due to them and their worth as human persons made by Him in His image and likeness. In this way we can begin to grow in the hope of the real security and foretaste of eternal happiness He makes possible for us in our sole Savior, Jesus Christ.
+ + +
(Follow Fr. Cusick on Facebook at Reverendo Padre-Kevin Michael Cusick and on Twitter @MCITLFrAphorism. Father blogs occasionally at mcitl.blogspot.com@gmail.com and APriestLife.blogspot.com. You can email Fr. Cusick at mcitl.blogspot.com@gmail.com.)
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress