Archbishop Dolan fallows up on his markers of the faith post with some more reflection on this subject after attending World Youth Day.
…The planners of each Mass — wisely and thoughtfully, when you think about it — printed in the Mass booklet, and even announced before Mass, “Look, it’s so jammed in here, and you are all so hot and tired, why don’t you just stay seated during the Eucharistic prayer.”
Very practical . . . very wise . . . let’s make this simple and a bit more relaxed. Let’s “lighten-up.”
What happened? I’ll be darned, at all four occasions, all the hundreds, thousands of youth still knelt! They wanted to kneel in adoration! They didn’t want it simple or practical! They didn’t mind the challenge! They wanted it!
I realize it’s a trivial example, a little thing. Maybe I read too much into it. But I wonder as well if once again our people — our young people — are telling us something:
“We don’t like ‘Catholic-lite.’ Don’t pander to us! Call us to greatness! Call us to heroic virtue! Remind us that following Jesus calls for sacrifice, and that we long for ways to let ourselves, and the world, know that we are different. Don’t make things simple! Don’t cater to convenience!”
Jesus summoned us to be a “light to the world.” Nothing “lite” about that.
Have we put this lantern under a basket? Have we turned light into lite?
I would say the answer is yes. Holiness does not come lightly and minimum Catholicism results in minimum holiness.
5 comments
The “nw” church has made things too easy for us. Only fast two days a year; one hour hast before holy communion, standing to receive our God in communion, etc etc. Yuk. Give us back a challenge. Die for the faith. Amen
Excellent observation.
I’m an old guy who acts as a sacristan and occasional server at our college Mass at a highly secular Canadian university.
I observe, on a daily basis, the faith and worship of splendid Catholic young people who, unlike their sophisticated elders (I’m talking folks my age – 40 and 50+ year olds), routinely kneel during Mass when it means kneeling on the hard tile of a local parish which long ago, in an effort to accommodate a misguided sensibility, removed kneelers.
These same students brought to heel a student union drunk on its own power. After enduring several years of restrictive legislation by the students’ union which singled out for suppression the pro-life message and Catholic voice, our group, under the able leadership of a devout Catholic young woman, took the students’ society to court seeking restoration of status and funding previously denied. The court sided with the pro-life group and awarded funding for the years membership was denied! Other entitlements such as access to meeting spaces and enjoyed by all other campus groups were restored to the pro-life group.
When Catholics accept that we are the Body of Christ and we are ready to defend our christian identity with the spine God gave us (as our young people are doing!), we will reclaim the public sphere for Christ and return faith to the heart of society and culture. Our students recognize that we have an obligation to our community and nation to promote the dignity of every human being and to propose the Gospel without interference by the state or some college fascists bent on denying freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion.
Go Dolan!
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