If a young Catholic reaches adulthood with a poor understanding and personal appreciation of how the sacraments infuse her life with the grace of God, then she will feel little reason to go to regular confession, attend weekly Mass, marry in the church, baptize her children and bury her loved ones with the aid and guidance of the church. The question for many is, “What difference does it make.”
In the homily today, our Holy Father, Pope Francis, spoke of the importance of ‘confessing faith in Christ’, of persecution and prayer. I have prayed during this week’s pilgrimage that we will all better witness to Christ – confessing him to the world around us by the lives we lead, our values, priorities, virtue and charity.
My dear family, as I write this month’s column, I am in Indianapolis for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ June assembly. Much will have transpired between now and the publication of the July Catholic Anchor. This “in between time” is the topic of my reflection, because it very much involves all of you.
I dedicate this article to Anya, my 14-year-old parishioner who just came to me and said she can’t tell her classmates she goes to church because they will call her stupid. Additionally, I dedicate this article to all teens who struggle to know and share their faith. We are with you and emphatically affirm that Christianity is the best way to be your best self.
On June 20 we celebrate World Refugee Day across the globe. This year’s theme is “Standing With Refugees.” People living as refugees are like any of us, and could, but for the grace of God, be any one of us.
I must confess, without shame as a writer, that I approach the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity each year with a sense of fear and trembling. Try as I might, to write something worthy of my God, I find that I fall short.
Dorothy Day writes: “We cannot love God unless we love each other. We know him in the breaking of the bread, and we are not alone anymore … We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”
During the month of June, we will conclude another Easter Season with the celebration of Pentecost, followed by some major solemnities (feast days). These are Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi (the Body & Blood of the Lord), the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, and Saints Peter and Paul. That is quite a line-up for any month of the year!
After some time, however, I learned that life in the world and life in the church are not all that dissimilar. In both settings ordinary people try to make sense out of disorder, problems, uncertainties, relationships, responsibilities and so forth. In most instances, people of good sense seem to insist on reasonable debate, peaceful conversation and respectful listening.
This spring, during Lent, I viewed Martin Scorsese’s film “Silence,” and it was more than just that word in the title that led me to remember those monks. “Silence” also carries a profoundly religious theme. And it’s also long, something about which critics and friends have complained but which I did not find troubling.