I hope you are ready for a wonderful time in our Church. We are beginning 4 Sundays of Feasts- today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension, next week is Pentecost, followed by Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi. And during this time of celebration, I have decided to give a mini- 2 week homily series to help lay out the direction that I have discerned for our parish.
What does it mean to you that you are Catholic? Perhaps that isn’t a question many of you have thought about before. But it is a question that each of us should be able to answer. That is the question that I want to help you begin to answer in these next 2 homilies.
What does it mean to be Catholic? Some of you might answer coming to Mass, maybe the Sacraments come to mind, or the rosary? All good answers. If we were to go and ask random people on the street: what comes to mind when you hear ‘Catholic Church’? Some might think old, outdated, out of touch with reality. Some might think about the priest scandal. Others might think about a religion with a lot of rules one has to follow. If we were to ask those same people if you have heard the phrase: Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Or is Jesus your personal Lord and Savior- Is that phrase more associated with a Protestant faith or Catholic? I am sure all would say that is Protestant.
Now, if we were living during the time of Jesus, or even in the first couple hundred years thereafter, and we were to ask anyone “What does it mean to be Catholic?” Undoubtedly, everyone would have answered: to believe in and follow Jesus Christ, to be a disciple of Jesus. It is time we as Catholics get back to establishing that mentality.
A couple of years ago I read this book: Forming Intentional Disciples. It really convicted me. I think it put into words what I have seen in the Church and country, and what I am sure you have seen as well.
The first chapter provides many alarming statistics about the state of the Catholic Church. According to Pew studies in 2010: Only 30% of American adults who were raised Catholic are still ‘practicing’- meaning they go to Sunday Mass at least once a month. Another 38% hold onto their Catholic identity but seldom or never attend Mass. The final 32%- that is almost a third of all adults who were raised Catholic in the United States- no longer consider them Catholic at all- of these a majority consider themselves un-affiliated or Protestant. What this means is that a full 10% of adults in America are ex-Catholics.
Many of our families have a child, brother or sister that are not practicing their faith any longer. Perhaps they went to Catholic school or CCD classes maybe their entire childhood and teenage years, but are no longer practicing Catholics. Many of you are saddened by this fact, perhaps you wonder what went wrong, if you did anything wrong. It has been the assumption that if people were ‘around’ the faith, then they would get and keep the faith for themselves, but we know that faith is not transmitted by osmosis. Individuals, who did not develop a personal relationship with God, tend to move away from the formal Church. So what needs to change? What this means is that in the 21st century Church, we need to foster intentional Catholicism, rather than the previous cultural of Catholicism.
Before I get to the good news, I need to point out one more statistic. Pew researchers also asked American adults who go to Church regularly- people like you- about the kind of God they believed in- whether God is a person with whom people can have a relationship, or God is an impersonal force. Only 48% of Catholics were absolutely certain that the God they believed in was a God with whom they could have a personal relationship. Did you catch that- over half of people who are in the pews on Sundays do not believe God is a personal God with whom they can have a relationship with. How about you? And many others might believe it’s possible, but don’t know how.
My brothers and sisters, we do have a personal God who is in love with us, and who calls us to be in love with Him. In the person of Jesus, the Son of God descended from Heaven and took on our human flesh, He walked with us, suffered and died for us and our sins, rose from the dead so that we can have life. And now today we celebrate, the God who first descended, now ascends to the right hand of God the Father. Today, as we celebrate the Ascension, we celebrate God who wants to be encountered. Luke reveals this, not only in his Gospel in which he revealed all that Jesus did and taught, but also in writing the Acts of the Apostles. Our 1st reading from Acts tells us that Jesus said to his disciples that they will receive the Holy Spirit and be his witnesses to the ends of the earth, “and when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took them from their sight”. And while they were looking intently at the sky, God sent 2 men dressed in white garments, who were most likely angels, to confirm what they saw- that indeed they had seen the Lord ascend into Heaven. God wants to confirm our faith by allowing us to encounter Jesus- to truly know deep down in our hearts that God exists, that He loves us, and calls every person into relationship with and to follow Him as His disciple. Listen again to the beginning of our 2nd reading from St. Paul, “May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of Him. May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened that you may know what it the hope that belongs to his call”.
As I mentioned earlier, the Pew statistics discussing the number of Catholics who have fallen away from the Church and those who don’t believe in a personal God, shows is that a majority of Catholics are Sacramentalized, but are not Evangelized. They participated in the Catholic culture, but they did not develop a personal relationship to Christ. Because everyone who really knows Christ and His love wants nothing else, for their joy is complete.
Our Gospel begins by Jesus telling his disciples: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved”. Notice that it does not say, just have them baptized and that will be enough- they’ll get the faith somehow- but it says to proclaim the gospel, that is proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. In fact John Paul II said, “It is possible for baptized Catholics to be still without any explicit personal attachment to Jesus Christ, they only have the capacity to believe placed within them by baptism and the presence of the Holy Spirit”. (Catechesi Tradendae). John Paul II, and each of the Popes since, has called for a New Evangelization in the Church. This new evangelization is personal, it is inviting into an intimate relationship with God. Perhaps you have heard that phrase, New Evangelization, echoed on Catholic Radio, or read it in other places. It is what I have been trying to share in my homilies ever since I read the book, to form Intentional Disciples who truly know and love Jesus personally, adhere their lives to His Lordship, and shares His intimate love and invitation to others.
The New Evangelization simply means to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, to everyone, even to those Catholics, in the pews or who have fallen away, who have received the Sacraments but who still do not fully know or have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Pope Emeritus Benedict said, “No effort should be spared in seeking out those Catholics who have fallen away and those who know little or nothing about Jesus Christ, by implementing a pastoral plan which welcomes them and helps them to realize that the Church is a privileged place of encounter with God, and also through a continuing process of catechesis”.
My brothers and sisters, I have heard the words of Pope Benedict, and with the parish staff, pastoral and finance councils who also have all read the book, I feel called to lead our parish in the new evangelization, so that every person can truly become His disciples. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit we do have a plan in place. And that plan begins now- we have ordered 200 copies of the book “Forming Intentional Disciples”, for you to purchase for a small fee of $5. The books should be here next week.
The first chapter of the book is hard to read and gives bad news about the state of the Church. But, don’t let it get you down, instead let it prompt you to praying for God’s mercy and spirit to descend on this parish in an even more powerful and tangible way. The book helps to share what we need to do in order to make the Church what it always has been called to, but has gotten away from a little bit. You and I are in a very graced time, it is time that we reveal what it means to be a true Catholic and take on the Mission of Christ. I hope I am leaving you as excited as I am, I’ll continue this mini-homily series next week at Pentecost, so until then, let us pray, Come Holy Spirit Come!
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