Catholicism Redeemed

“When I hear the word ‘Catholic’ today I think of a person who is trying to be good, follows rules well, and doesn’t have a relationship with Jesus.” The statement was as calm as it was direct, spoken without a hint of bitterness. The young woman was raised Catholic, and like 1 in 3 others in this country, she left the Church.

But why? Why did she leave the Church and why does she think this way about Catholics?

When given an opportunity to respond, she did not talk about doctrinal grievances or canon law. She never once mentioned ecclesiology or catechesis. What she did talk about was something far more personal, and in terms of her faith trajectory, more consequential.

“I think this way because that was my experience as a Catholic and it’s what I see with my family who is still Catholic. . . My mother has influenced a lot about how I view Catholics overall. She doesn’t go to church except on Christmas and Easter. She prays to Mary and the Saints, but not to God the Father or Jesus. She thinks the Pope, priests and religious are closer to God than she could ever be.”

Reading these testimonies as a part of my doctoral research, I was often left dumbfounded, saddened and numb.  I know that this doesn't represent every Catholic's experience but my defenses didn’t flair, my “fight or flight” impulses never triggered. I simply sat there with the unavoidable realization that we have a problem. A big problem.

Catholics are being “de-Christianized in the very process of being sacramentalized,” noted Dr. Scott Hahn, former Protestant and Young Life leader, now a Catholic Professor of Biblical Theology at Mundelein Seminary, a diocesan seminary in Chicago.[1] The crisis of the Catholic Church isn’t about its teaching. It’s about “the chasm the size of the Grand Canyon between the Church’s sophisticated theology . . . and the lived experience of the majority of our people, notes Sherry Weddell of the Catherine of Siena Institute.”[2]

The problem is not a matter of teaching but of witness. Pope Paul VI said it way back in 1975, “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”[3] Pope Francis reiterated it nearly 40 years later saying, "We need to remember that all religious teaching ultimately has to be reflected in the teacher's way of life, which awakens the assent of the heart by its nearness, love and witness" (Evangelii Gaudium, 42). We must be the transformation that we want to see in others. Incarnational from the beginning, Christianity is not a Gnostic intellectual assent to doctrinal principles or a cultural heritage from a bygone era but a veritable way of life, enfleshed and embodied in the daily acts and attitudes that mark modern life with the undying symbol of the Cross.

So what happened when this young woman met Catholics who witnessed an authentic and growing relationship with Jesus Christ?

“I can see now that both Catholics and Protestants [can] have vibrant relationships with Jesus. My isolated experiences as a child did not represent Catholicism as a whole. What replaced that was individuals who each had a story and that God loves dearly. As Scripture says, we are ‘hidden in Christ.’ Our identities are first and foremost in Christ. I know this in a deeper, more profound way now. I see us as more unified now. I see the Body of Christ at work.”[4]

Glory be to God.

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[1] Scott Hahn, Evangelizing Catholics: A Mission Manual for the New Evangelization (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2014), 13.

[2] Sherry A. Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus, Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor Press, 2012, 11.

[3] Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi (On Evangelization in the Modern World), 41.

[4] I want to communicate a deep debt of gratitude for this young woman whose faith in Christ and heartfelt participation in this research has shown me the face of Christ.

The Future of Christianity

My master’s thesis began with a cryptic quote from German theologian, Karl Rahner:

“The Christian of the future will be a mystic

or he will not exist at all.”[1]

But what does this enigmatic statement mean? What is a “mystic” and what does it mean that some Christians of the future “will not exist at all”? Interestingly, when we fast-forward fifty years from Rahner’s statement and ponder the “Christians of the future,” we find ourselves looking into the mirror. He is talking about us! We only need to stop and look around to see if what he said was true.

Now most people get tripped up by one word: mystic. Most of us hear the word mystic and think of levitating bodies and divine visions. We think of those superhuman holy men and women, those elite few whose privileged personal intimacy with God yield mysterious powers from another world. Yet for Rahner, the mystic is something far more accessible, more practical, more human.

To understand what Rahner is talking about, we need only look at one story from the gospel of John. At the very end John’s account, Mary Magdalene, downtrodden and deflated by the crucifixion of her Savior, went out to search for his body. “They have taken my Lord away,” she cried, “and I don’t know where they have put him”(Jn 20:13b).

What she didn’t realize was that Jesus was right in her midst. The living water to quench her thirst, the heavenly bread to satisfy her hunger, was standing right in front of her. Lost in sorrow, she was looking for the way. Confused and disoriented, she was searching for the truth. Lifeless and broken, she was looking for the only life that really mattered. Quite unknown to her, the object of her longing was right there in front of her. Matter of fact, Jesus spoke plainly to her and what he said changed her life forever.

Addressing this wounded woman, Jesus answered her need with one word:

“Mary.”

Jesus, the Lord of the universe, spoke her name. Jesus, the name above all names, addressed the end of all of her desires in a single word. He spoke her name with love and tenderness. And with this a "new horizon and a decisive direction" to her life was born (Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 1).

“In essence, that is the whole gospel,” notes Ronald Rolheiser.[2] “What are we ultimately looking for? What is the end of all desire? What drives us out into gardens to search for love? The desire to hear God pronounce our names in love. To hear God, lovingly say: “Mary”, “Jack”, “Jennifer”, “Walter”.[3]

This is the core of mysticism and the heart of Rahner’s statement about the future of Christianity. It is about experiencing the person of God personally. "We are all about a person," noted Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, "the greatest person who ever lived, who also happens to be my best friend, who knows me and calls me by name, who invites me to spend eternity with him." "We are not saved by a formula but by a Person," exclaimed Pope John Paul II. We will rise or fall on our personal encounters of the living God who speaks our names in love and changes our lives over and over again. The enduring presence of Jesus Christ is made manifest in the lives of those who have experienced God as Abba, a loving Father who holds, protects and loves his children as only a parent can.

“What is important is our encounter with Jesus, our encounter with him,” Pope Francis extolled in his 2013 Pentecost Vigil message.  “This is what gives you faith because he is the one who gives it to you!" The future of Christianity does not rest on the moralists or the scholars, the powerful or the privileged (as important as they all are), but on those who have encountered the person of Jesus, who have heard his voice, and who follow him with love and trust.

The mystic that Rahner was talking about is us.  All of us.

“I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God,” Jesus said to Mary.[4] Without this deep and personal encounter with God, it is impossible for us to understand the life of Christ and the mission he asks us to carry on in his name. Without this transformative encounter with the very Word of life, we have nothing to pass on to the next generation. Without hearing our own names on the sacred tongue of God, we will never be able to speak the names of others in the intimacy and power of our loving Father.

Open your ears and hear afresh the power of one word, your name, spoken lovingly by a God who is closer to us than we are to ourselves. The future begins today.

"The Lord called me from birth,

from my mother's womb he gave me my name."

Isaiah 49:1

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[1] Karl Rahner, The Practice of Faith: A Handbook of Contemporary Spirituality (New York: Crossroad, 1986), 78.

[2] Ronald Rolheiser is a Canadian-born systematic theologian, priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), and president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas.

[3] Ron Rolheiser, “Mystic or Unbeliever,” April 20, 2008, accessed June 24, 2014 at: http://ronrolheiser.com/mystic-or-unbeliever/#.U6mgxxYdLfJ.

[4] Jn 20:17.

You Lost Me

If the church has become a clearinghouse for programs and events, the question becomes, “What are we to do about it?” Many of you have asked, “So what do you propose?” Fair question. If I’m going to level a critique of the church and its pastoral practices, then I’d better be prepared to put some skin in the game.

It was probably no small coincidence that in preparing for my trip last week I threw David Kinnaman’s new book in my bag. Kinnaman is the president of the Barna Group, (as most of you well know) a research organization focused on the intersection of faith and culture. He also co-authored the 2007 best-seller unChristian, a somber and intriguing examination of how “outsiders” view Christianity, a YL staple and a must-read for anyone interested in reaching the unreached.[1]

Kinnaman’s latest book explores the other side of the coin: What do “insiders” think about Christianity, those that were brought up in the Christian faith, those who, in increasing numbers, are leaving the church today?  The title borrows from the sentiments of hundreds of thousands of Christians surveyed:

You Lost Me.

·      59% of young adults raised Christian have completely “dropped out” of the church.[2]

·      There’s a 43% drop in church engagement between the teen and young adult years.[3]

·      While teenagers are some of the most religiously active Americans, twentysomethings are the least religiously active.[4]

Why? Well, that’s the million-dollar question. There’s not a single answer or even a set of nice-n-neat bullet points on the matter. As Barna researchers regularly reiterated, “every story matters,” and every story is different.

But there are some themes and they’re worth our reflection. Why are Christians leaving the church? Here’s a start:

•        Easy platitudes, proof texting and formulaic slogans (the church is shallow)
•        Defensive attitudes toward culture, innovation and “the other” (the church is entrenched, naval-gazing and fixated on differences)
•        Faith in a silo, disconnected from the world around us and God’s personal call within us (the church is anti-science and dis-integrated from my vocation)
•        No room for doubt and questions (the church is not a nurturing environment for the long journey through life’s deepest questions)

Christian young people feel stifled, ignored, dumbed-down, disintegrated and mass-produced. They’re caught in a mechanistic and over-programmed paradigm that treats them like a number and misses their story altogether. We’ve got a massive, well-documented dropout problem here and the church is struggling to respond.

So What’s the Answer?

The thing that’s interesting about the diagnosis (feel free to examine Barna’s research yourself if you like) is that the prescription is the same. I’m not one for simplistic answers but the “simplicity on the far side of complexity” is remarkably constant. The answer to the problem is RELATIONSHIP.

The relational element is so strong because relationship is central to disciple-making – and, as we’ve said, the dropout problem is, at its core, a disciple-making problem. . . God-centered relationships create faithful, mature disciples.[5]

For every symptom of the dropout problem, there is a relational antidote:

• Our overprotective and exclusive tendencies must be mediated by relational engagement and participative discernment of “the other” in a diverse and ever-changing world.
• Our shallow and simplistic slogans must be grounded in authentic encounters with Jesus Christ and transformative religious experience of the faithful community.
• Our formulas must give way to the faithful pursuit of questions sought together with wise and caring adults.
• Our mass-produced, one-size-fits-all approach must be remedied by personalized, attentive apprenticeship in the fine art of following Jesus.

“Disciples cannot be mass-produced.

Disciples are hand-made, one relationship at a time.”[6]

I will continue to unpack the pastoral implications of a fully relational and incarnational model of discipleship in future posts but I think Kinnaman is onto something. If there’s one thing that I’m convinced of about the future of the church it is the centrality of dedicated, intentional relationships between young Christians and their elders. It is spending time, and big chunks of it, with the next generation, passing down the faith like Jesus did, one relationship and one story at a time.

“The church’s ministers must be merciful, take responsibility for the people and accompany them like the good Samaritan, who washes, cleans

and raises up his neighbor. This is pure Gospel.”

~ Pope Francis

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[1] See David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity . . . And Why It Matters (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007). Their findings? Outsiders most readily viewed Christians as hypocritical, sheltered, antihomosexual, judgmental, too political and fixated on personal salvation.

[2] David Kinnaman, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church. . . And Rethinking Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2011), 23.

[3] Ibid, 22.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid, 206.

[6] Ibid, 13.

Discipleship and Basketball

No matter how much one dribbles and passes, no matter how many fancy cross-overs or flailing shots one might take, if the ball doesn’t go in the basket then the game of basketball is hard to win.  Drawing on this analogy, we might say the same thing about Christianity.  Surely, Christian faith is not a game, but bear with me.

Jesus taught that the whole idea of Christianity is to make disciples.[1]  This, of course, means a lot of things – the Great Commission alone explicitly lists baptizing, teaching, and obeying the commandments of Jesus – yet sometimes I get the funny feeling that we, like those in the cartoon, are missing the point.  Worse yet, it seems that our Christian traditions haven’t even made it clear to us what that point really is.

Catholics have a very strong tradition of catechesis, that is, teaching the faith.  The average Catholic, by the time they are confirmed, have endured a virtual fire-hose treatment of Catholic doctrine, history, morality, etc. (now let it be understood that I’m writing as one who loves this stuff).  Yet our Mass attendance alone (hovering around 23%) suggests that our strategy has not produced vibrant, life-long disciples.  We might say that many Catholics have been “catechized but not evangelized.”

Eastern Orthodox have a strong liturgical and sacramental tradition (the same could be said for Catholics).  Yet the Eastern Orthodox Church also faces widespread nominalism and a similar limp in church attendance.  Eastern Orthodox theologian, Brad Nassif, has noted that many Orthodox Christians have been “sacramentalized but not evangelized.”

Evangelicals might look at this and say, “Well of course, you’ve missed the whole point!  It is about making a personal decision to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior.”  And in one sense they are right.  Personal faith, for all Christians, is both essential and indispensible.   Christianity, one might say, is not a spectator sport.  Rather, faith is personal and revolutionary.  It changes one’s life in real and tangible ways.  Pope Francis recently exhorted an audience at the Vatican, “A Christian who is not a revolutionary today isn’t a Christian.”[2]  Christian faith gives people “a heart that loves, a heart that suffers, a heart that rejoices with others, a heart full of tenderness for those who bear the wounds of life and feel like they are on the periphery of society.”  We share this passion with our Evangelical brothers and sisters!

Yet many are surprised to hear that the Evangelical emphasis on getting people to “make decisions” may also be falling short of the gospel’s call of discipleship.  While close to 90% of Evangelical Christians have made personal commitments to Christ, only 20% continue to live a “revolutionary faith.”[3]  Evangelical theologian, Scot McKnight, makes this startling contention:

There is a minimal difference in correlation between evangelical children and teenagers who make a decision for Christ and who later become genuine disciples, and Roman Catholics who are baptized as infants and who as adults become faithful and devout Catholic disciples.[4]

What?!  Really?!

The emerging problem with the Evangelical tradition is not so much that it makes faith personal.  This is something that we all need to do.  Rather, the problem that is surfacing is that many Evangelicals have reduced the gospel to “a statement about Jesus’ death and its meaning, and a prayer with which people accept it.”[5]  Evangelical theologian, Dallas Willard, has called it “the gospel of sin management,” a view of salvation that takes away your sin and destines you for heaven but has no connection to discipleship and spiritual transformation.  The data suggests that this personal plan of salvation - when severed from revolutionary story of Jesus Christ, the announcement of his kingdom, and a life-long commitment to ongoing discipleship - is no more effective than the Catholic or Orthodox practices of merely sacramentalizing and catechizing.

So who exactly is the kid in the cartoon who is saying, “Why has this been kept from us?”  Looks like the answer is . . .  all of us.  When it comes to Christian discipleship, we all have a lot to learn about “getting the ball in the basket.”

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            [1]  Mt 28:19.

            [2]  Cindy Wooden, “Pope calls for ‘revolutionaries’ to change hearts, share God’s love,” The Catholic Messenger, Vol. 131, No. 24 (June 20, 2013), 1.

            [3]  Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011, 20.

            [4]  Ibid.

            [5]  N. T. Wright, in the foreward to Scot McKnight’s King Jesus Gospel, 13.

Bridging the Gap: Church Teaching and Church Living

In the Evangelical world, the “bridge diagram” became a standard way to express the human condition, our separation from God due to sin and the reconciling (a.k.a. “bridge building”) work of Christ on the Cross.  Our sin has created a chasm between us and God tantamount to the Grand Canyon that we, no matter how we try or how “good” we are, can’t overcome.  Only Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross can bridge the gap and bring us into right relationship with God again.  This simple diagram could be explained in an elevator, written on a napkin and easily understood by young and old alike.  It typically looked something like this:

[1]

Recently another chasm has been reported and it is causing some serious headaches in the Catholic Church.  In her latest work, Forming Intentional Disciples, Sherry Weddell writes, “There is a chasm the size of the Grand Canyon between the [Catholic] Church’s sophisticated theology . . . and the lived spiritual experience of the majority of our people.”[2]  In other words, the truths and teachings of the Catholic Church are fine.  Matter of fact, they are beautiful, magnificent, timeless treasures.  The problem is, somehow all that sophistication is not “trickling down” to the masses.  Most Catholics are not living into the reality of the Church’s high calling.

The result?  Weddell continues, “As long as this holds true, the theology of the laity and the Church’s teaching on evangelization will remain beautiful ideals that are, practically speaking, dead letters for the vast majority of Catholics.”[3]  Wisdom is only valuable when it is used, when it is lived.  The sophisticated truths of the Catholic tradition are not simply intellectual statues to be lauded and adored.  It is not enough that “our team” has accumulated a trove of spiritual trophies.  Christ calls every baptized Christian to a conscious human response that is deeply personal, lived daily and communally embodied.

What is the cross that the Church must carry in order to bridge this tragic gap that has developed between its teachings and its flock?  In a word – discipleship.  It is not enough to ask people to lay their lives at the foot of the Cross.  We must tell them what to pick up.  We must show them through our lives and witness what it means to follow Jesus.  God’s Incarnate Son showed us in the flesh how to live a life in tune with the Father, in step with the Spirit (Gal 5:25).  The role of Young Life leaders is not to lead kids away from the Church but to help them live into the highest ideals of Catholicism marked on them at Baptism.

“And as the Father has sent me,” Jesus said, “so I am sending you”(Jn 20:21).  Let us, as Catholics, take up the cross of discipleship and follow in the footsteps of the Savior.  The world is waiting for true bridge-builders.

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[1]             If you still can’t figure it out, just ask your local Evangelical whose entire world would light up to hear you ask, “Hey, could you explain to me the bridge diagram please?” 

[2]             Sherry A. Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus, Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor Press, 2012, 11.

[3]             Ibid.