The Cathedral of St. Patrick Young Adults announced that the Archdiocese of New York will be conducing its 2nd annual “24 Hours of Confession” from 5-6 March 2010 at parishes throughout the Archdiocese. While I commend the Archdiocese of New York for taking this step, much more is needed if the importance of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is to be increased in the lives of Catholics.
A sense of Catholic culture, in general, must be restored. This begins with re-capturing the liturgical traditions that have been lost in the misinterpretation of Vatican II. It seems that, in much of America today, it is difficult to tell whether one is attending a Catholic mass or a Protestant service (e.g. Life Teen). Many of the parish structures look the same, and much of the music sounds identical as some mistakenly see the way forward as shifting with the whims of the age in liturgy and/or thought. As a result, many Catholics have lost sight of what separates us from our Protestant brethren, especially with regard to the Eucharist as the focal point of the mass, instead basing faith on fleeting emotional highs that cannot be sustained indefinitely.
Additionally, the past several decades have left us a laity that is poorly catechized. I will offer myself as a case in point. I attended school at Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, MI for much of my youth. Thankfully, the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati still wore habits at that time (They’ve since removed their habits and engaged in open revolt against the Church.). However, the downward trajectory of catechesis was apparent in the fact that I learned little else from the sisters than 1) Jesus loves me and 2) I’m special. At the age of 25, I was so ignorant of my faith that I was unable to explain to a well-meaning Protestant friend the difference between mortal and venial sin. That embarrassing realization of ignorance began my “awakening”. Prior to that experience, I saw no importance in confession. After all, I thought, should not my sins be between me and God? Why should I tell them to some priest? After my eyes were opened, the need for repentance became clear. Forming a properly catechized laity that reveres the Eucharist is vital to drawing more Catholics to the confessional.
To properly catechize the laity, the clergy must take their vocation seriously. The priesthood is not a job. It is a calling, and that calling requires that the priest devote his whole life and his entire being to feeding Christ’s sheep. In battle there is no time for rest lest mortal lives be lost. In spiritual battle, the stakes are infinitely higher, as eternal souls are at stake. The devil does not rest and does not consider his prowling about the Earth a mere hobby. Neither should the priest become lax in his vocation to defeat this enemy and save the souls that Satan seeks to devour. This requires heroic virtue.
For me, the embodiment of the priestly vocation is a dear friend and mentor, Fr. George Rutler. He is the pastor of, and only priest at, The Church of Our Saviour in mid-town Manhattan. Yet, despite being the only priest at the parish, he reverently celebrates mass twice daily and four times on Sunday. He also hears confessions every day of the week, including before the 1100 mass on Sunday. Furthermore, he speaks the Truth, as proclaimed by Christ and His Church, rather than watering down the Faith or simply telling others what they wish to hear.
As Fr. Rutler pointed out to John Janaro in the 1986 book “Fishers of Men”: “[A] priest should never spend more time eating in any given day than he does hearing confessions.”
It is a shame that more priests do not take this advice, for it would do far more to draw people to the confessional than a once a year push.
Nicholas
Thank you for the article Nicholas. I couldn’t agree more.
Great post Nicholas!
It seems to me that the heart of the problem is summed up in this quote from the book Faith, Truth, Tolerance:
“How on earth is it that faith still stands any chance of success [even for us who have been baptised]? I would say that it is because it finds a correspondence in the nature of man…. There is in man an inextinguishable, nostalgic aspiration toward the infinite. None of the answers which he seeks is sufficient; only the God who has made Himself limited in order to pierce through our limitation and to lead it to the breadth of His infinity is able to meet the questions of our being. Thus, again today, the Christian faith shall return to find man.”
I like this quote very much because it alludes to the fact that unless a person is certain, 100% certain, that Christ is an “encounterable Presence” that he/she encounters today – an “encounterable Presence” that fulfills the deepest and elementary desires of the human heart – He will merely be a name and the sacraments just another piece of catechetical information.
So yes, I agree that all the things you mention are vital but unless one has the awareness that the Living Christ begs for my yes, your yes, every moment of the day of every moment of our life, a yes born from the depth of our heart, those things, while vital, will be as useful as giving people suggestions on how to rearrange furniture on Titanic as it sinks.
But how does one develop this awareness? What method does Christ use to help us develop this awareness? You actually tell us in your post when you talk about your well meaning Protestant friend and Fr. Rutler.
What’s the method? That the Living, resurrected, Christ is imminent, becomes present to us, in the guise of a different humanity, a humanity He has possessed at baptism – i.e., the “new” man or woman that St. Paul mentions. For the encounter with Christ, the impact with the Living Christ, takes place when we encounter this “different” humanity, a humanity that strikes us because it corresponds to the structural needs of our heart.
This running into a different humanity is very simple and must be something that comes before everything, before any catechesis, reflection, or development. Why? Because Christ did not persuade simply because He catechized, but because He showed who He was. And if we look at our experience, we will see that we learned the truths of the Faith analytically and osmotically because we were fascinated by the encounter with this new humanity. And that’s the method we see Christ using in the Gospels! Think of Zaccheus, the way Christ looked at Zaccheus; Zaccheus did not understand anything from that gaze, but he understood everything. The same thing happened and must continue to happen to us because it’s only by following the magnetizing Beauty of Christ that’s hidden behind the flesh we bump into that we understand many things, but the important thing was that we, like Zaccheus, were struck by His gaze!
And so, I think the question we should all ask ourselves is: Do I believe that Christ is an “encounterable” fleshy Presence that I bump into today that fulfills the deepest and elementary desires of my heart?
Pax,
Henry