The Institutional Church as well as the every local parish has come out of a time in the life of the Church where we were only offering services to Catholics. Simply put, the purpose of the local parish was to provide sacraments for their parishioners.
This meant that spiritual ministries were only focused on their own parishioners and Priests saw their role as only sacramental. As parishes began to witness the decline in membership, they began to scratch their heads and wonder what was going on. Many tried to hold their traditional practices by citing that this “is the way we have always done it.” They are at a place where their reluctance to pay real attention to the issues has now placed their parishes in arduous financial straits, due to the lack of attendance.
Clearly, for the most part, we have only been serving those who normally get baptized through the course of growing up in a Catholic Family. When those Catholic kids grew up and didn’t want to be Catholic our numbers began to drop. Now we find our parishes in the same neighborhoods and surrounded by thousands of families, in danger of closing their doors because there are no more Catholics to serve.
Over the past ten years, while doing training for local Parish Leadership Teams, I have been using an illustration to help them define what it is that they are offering to their current parishioners. If we were a manufacturing company, our doors would have closed along time ago because the product we have been offering has not been helpful to those we are trying to serve.
Please don’t misunderstand my point. I am not saying that the Sacraments are not beneficial for those who receive them. What I am saying is that the Sacraments don’t appear to be relevant in the lives of our youth and adults who receive them. It is interesting to note that the only segment of individuals who really come to appreciate the Sacraments after receiving them are Protestant Converts and a tiny segment of Catholics.
What might they have in common that would reveal to us what we are missing? I believe the answer is simple and before our eyes. They already knew the Lord before getting their sacraments. With the exception of infant Baptism, when an individual has experienced a conversion-making encounter with Christ, they tend to grow deeper in Christ through the Sacraments.
RCIA has shown us that those who receive the sacraments as adults, without ever encountering Jesus, quickly act like cradle Catholics who after experiencing their religious formation became nominal believers.
So what can we do about this?
We must return to the real product of Christianity – Life with God!!!! We have not been effective in articulating what we really have to offer an individual. In a world that relishes personal freedom to sin, what could Catholicism/Christianity offer in comparison? A lot!! If we know what we are trying to accomplish in a parish.
We have reduced the Catholic experience down to three things.
1 Religious Education (solely for attaining sacraments)
2. Being a good person
3. Donating money to the Church.
People need so much more than that.
Where is the Faith?
Where is the Hope?
Where is the Love?
Where is the Power?
Where is the Holy Spirit?
Where is the Heroic Sacrifice?
Not only do we need to learn how to articulate what we really have, we (each one of us) also have to live a life that reflects the Word of God. If we were really living that, we would be in stark contrast to the world we live in. We would be hated and reviled for our goodness.
Unless we present an authentic product to this consumer culture, we will remain irrelevant in the culture. Have we forgotten all the Martyrs that went ahead of us? Have we forgotten that the very action of living according to the teaching of Jesus Christ not only causes people to hate us, but also provides opportunities for the Holy Spirit to illuminate in the hearts of those haters in a different way?
The days have come when we will be forced to choose Christ or the culture. Those who choose Christ will pay for it, but gain eternity. They will also reap a bountiful harvest of converts who will question why they did that. What kind of Christianity (Product) do you offer by the way you live your life?
We are not offering an authentic product but rather Jesus, who is truth himself. We are not God, and Jesus will not leave us orphans. Our good Lord is kind and mercifull to all, even to the lost, to the ends of the earth. When will God light the fire of desire for Him on this earth? Let us be ready, with extra oil skins to capture the beauty of new life in Christ.
Hi Ruthann, Thank you for your comment. I agree with your statement, particularly the part where you say “let us be ready.” This is precisely what I am speaking to. The local parish needs to help the faithful become ready to handle the demand when God pours out his Light of Truth and Fire of desire. AMEN AMEN!!