Lent is a time to return home. We began on Ash Wednesday with the song, “Hosea – Come back to me with all your heart, don’t let fear keep us apart…Long have I waited for your coming home to me...and living deeply our new life.” Soon we will be reading one of the most loved parables – the return of the Prodigal Son. There is a longing in us to be reunited with loved ones – those at some battlefield…others estranged for whatever reason.
At Campus Ministry, as part of our Welcome Home Project we invited a guest speaker, Lorene Duquin, a noted author whose list of books includes: “Could You Ever Come Back to the Catholic Church?” She asked us what we thought were some reasons for folks staying away from the Catholic Church. Responses to the question included: Divorce…Married Outside the Church...Conflict in Sunday Schedule (work, kids’ sports programs, shopping, chores, etc.)…Church is Irrelevant…Mass is Boring…Doubt…Changes in the Church…Angry with Church…Bad Experience with Church/Priest/Nun/Others…Warmer Fellowship/Community Elsewhere…Church Out of Touch with World…Lack of Understanding Regarding Eucharist…Family Conflict…Lifestyle…and Interfaith Marriage.
We were told that Interfaith Marriages are the primary cause of leaving the Church AND of entering the Church. Also that there are three distinctive groups of Catholics who stay away: Inactive Catholics (who attend only at special times such as Christmas, Easter, Ash Wednesday, Our Lady of Guadalupe); Alienated Catholics (who are angry with the Church); and Un-Churched Catholics (baptized but not catechized; very little if any faith formation). Each requires its own method of inviting and welcoming.
Ms. Duquin also shared with us the ten reasons for coming back to the Church (in reverse order a la Letterman):
10. Seaking Meaning in Life
9. Childhood Memories
8. To Get Rid of Guilt
7. The Need to Forgive Others
6. The Need to be Healed (Physically, Emotionally, Spiritually)
5. The Quest for Truth/Understanding
4. Children
3. The Need for Community
[She shared Four Pillars of Faith: Prayer and Personal Morality, Social Justice, A Sense of Awe/Wonder/Mystery, and Community]
2. Desire to Help Others
[not mere altruism but seeing the face of Christ in others…in Self]…and
1. Hunger for the Eucharist.
I mentioned that there is a human longing in each of us to be re-connected with loved ones. It is a Divine longing as well (as seen in the Father’s running to his prodigal son, embracing and kissing him, and throwing him a feast…“for he was lost and has been found; he was dead and has come back to life”).
One of the most powerful Scriptural passages for me is at the very beginning of our human life, when God seeks Adam and Eve, after the Fall, asking, “Why didn’t you come to me when I called?” Their response: “We were hiding because we were naked.” Then God asked, “Who told you that you were naked...Who told you to fear me…to hide from me…Don’t you know how much I love you…How much I hunger for you…That’s why I created you…Your are mine…You are special to me…Never fear…Never let it keep us apart. COME BACK... PLEASE.”
A response I have often heard when asking a returnee, "What took you so long?" is "No one ever asked me to come back." As shared in a prior blog, we are the hands...the voice of God. Let us say to a loved one, "COME BACK…PLEASE."
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Inspiring, as well as informative! So many avenues we could be traveling to make Jesus/God real for others -- which means we need to be aware of both the need and our ability to make a difference, some of that accomplished by simply living what we believe, and the willingness to BE what we claim to be! THANKS for the good word!
ReplyDeleteYour sharings are always inspiring and we do miss u.
ReplyDeleteI myself plan on being GODs voice by living my faith to the fullest and being the best person I can be. This in itself helps to awaken others. For me it starts with a smile and a simple hello in the morning.. I try to follow the golden rule. I found that you just have to be who you are. All too many times people resist because they dont want to be different from what society says is right..which is wrong..I deal with people like this by not giving up, respecting their beliefs and by letting them know how much GOD and I love them.. I too was once the "Prodical Son"..
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to "COME BACK PLEASE" when one does not accept, believe, or understand the church's teaching en total? For instance, in regard to the Church's teaching regarding premarital sex, holy orders, sanctity of life, papal infallibility, the Eucharist and contraception, what if some of these areas are not practiced, understood or truly believed? Should one COME BACK just because........just because they were raised Catholic, just because everyone knows we don't practice one or more of the above teachings, i.e., birth control, etc. I believe we ignore true obedience, including myself, so should I COME BACK just because you have written an idealistic reason for doing so. The reasons given by Ms. Duquin are commendable, feel good thoughts, but can we really be and do what The Church has commanded us to do in real life? I believe it is better to stay away than to pretend we "believe" all orders demanded of us by a Pope, who after all, is just a man. There is nothing in the Bible to suggest a Pope was to head the church in the oppressive chauvinistic way he does. How can "just a man" speak for women in particular when he has no experience in "real life", in being "married", in raising children, in working for a living, etc. He is a symbol that some of us put above God when it is only God we really need.
ReplyDeleteWhether in relationships with one another, or with a Church, or with God...I, too, believe that "it is better to stay away than to pretend".
ReplyDeleteBut I also believe that there is a hunger in each of us...for union/intimacy...with God...and with those who help us to connect with God...who help us to discover the best - the Christ (for some the Buddha or Brahman) - in us.
When we are truest to ourselves...the hunger...the passion...the dream...within us, what in Arthurian days was called the quest for the Holy Grail, we will be truest to what we really believe...which will guide us to the profound encounter with the source of our being, whom we call God. May we more and more discover (and live) what we truly believe.
I have previously suggested to friends two books: This I Believe and This I Believe II, higlights from the program on National Public Radio. These are excellent (and brief) expressions of what others believe, which may help us to more clearly express the convictions we stand for...that give meaning and life to us, and through us.
Dear Anonymous, while this isn't my blog, I hope that Fr. Frank will forgive me for interrupting.
ReplyDeleteLet me suggest that there are coherent answers for all of your objections, but they would take some time to explain. If you are willing to listen, I'm sure that Fr. Frank or the priest in your local parish would be happy to explain.
Let me just point out that one of your fundamental premises is inaccurate, that flawed premise is that the "Pope … is just a man." It's true that any given pope is a man, and especially is not God, but he is also a successor of St. Peter.
In Matthew 16:13–20, Jesus renames Simon as Peter and says that he will found his Church on him, "and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it." Further, he gave Peter "the keys to the kingdom of heaven" (this image of the keys is probably drawn from Isaiah 22:15-25 where Eliakim, who, succeeding Shebnah as master of the palace, is given "the key of the house of David," which he authoritatively "opens" and "shuts") and gave him the power to bind and loose on earth and in heaven. If the netherworld isn't to prevail against the Church founded on St. Peter, and Peter is no longer with us in body, he must have a successor; that's the Pope.
In Luke 22:31–32, Jesus said to Simon Peter (and so to his successors) "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you (plural), that he might sift you (plural) like wheat, but I have prayed for you ("thee") that your ("thy") faith may not fail; and when you ("thou") have turned again, strengthen your ("thy") brethren." As I have indicated, many of the forms of 'you' are actually second-person singular ('thou', 'thee', 'thy') in the original; they are directed specifically to Simon Peter. Then in John 21:15–19, Jesus commands Simon Peter (and so his successors) to "Feed my lambs", to "Tend my sheep", and to "Feed my sheep". Thus, the Pope has the responsibility to strengthen his brothers, to feed Jesus' lambs and to tend and feed Jesus' sheep. That is what the Pope is doing when he heads the Church and teaches as he does. That's in part what the Bible teaches about the Pope in his role as the successor of Simon Peter.
"St. Frances of Rome fan"
One of the objectives of this blog is to have an exchange of views. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to help if I can, Fr. Frank. I certainly don't mean to offend Anonymous, and I hope she (I'm guessing) takes my comments in the positive sense intended.
ReplyDelete"St. Frances of Rome fan"
Thank you for your thoughtful presentation of your understanding of the how the Pope came to be. My mind is a sieve for knowledge and whether I agree or not is irrelevant. I respect your opinion Mr. Anonymous and of course I take your comments in the positive sense you meant them to be. I am not offended; I am actually pleased that you spent your valuable time giving your take on what "You Believe". Going back to Fr. Frank's commentary on the books, I Believe and I Believe II, the views expressed present a conglomeration of this very important part of our essence, i.e. humanness, the further affirmation that we each have our story, based on our background and what we continue to learn, This I Believe. Thank you for your comments.
ReplyDelete