Homily for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
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A member of the Unitarian/Universalist Society where I formerly lived, once estimated that more than half their members are former Catholics. And a local Baptist Minister has said something similar about his congregation.
While cause for concern, these unreliable, quasi-statistics are less alarming to me than what I encountered 40 years ago as a seminarian studying sociological trends in the practice of religion, and specifically in the rise of cults in those years — the late 1970’s.
Those groups would include:
+ The Unification Church (Moonies)
+ The People’s Temple (who committed suicide in Jamestown)
+ The Branch Davidians (who met their end in Waco, Texas)
… and more.
Upon Ordination, a brother Priest and I put together a program for education and socialization for University students and families whose members might be attracted to these cults.
A young fellow whose family I assisted in removing him from the “Moonies” told us that about 90% of young people in the cultic movements came from Catholic families. What was the attraction for these young Catholics? The fellow said he thought that the Catholic Church had too many rules and regulations and was filled with hypocrites (that would be us… though we self-identify as sinners) and that he could feel no care for him personally.
In my study and in practice with students and families, I came to discover that in attracting new members, the cults practice what was known as “love-bombing” wherein an abundance of personal attention is given and inductees are kept from sleep, and fed a diet lacking in protein in order to break down their resistance to this grooming activity.
Our fellow, no dummy: a second-year college student, soon came to discover, however, that rules and regulations in the cultic pseudo-religions were
+ more abundant
+ more stringent
+ dis-integrative (meaning the inductees would be separated from family and friends)
He came to discover further, the sinister undertones of cultic formation when they began training him to fire a handgun. Eventually, his Dad broke through armed guards, “kidnapped” his son and took him home, where his parents and I worked at helping him overcome the cultic brainwashing.
In speaking with other parents in similar situations, we had to explain that in order to bring a son or daughter home successfully, the atmosphere at home has to be better than what the young person experienced in the cultic movements, specifically: their need for love and affirmation (which most parents had assumed was obvious) must be made more apparent than it was before.
I use this little vignette as a means of approaching the Lord’s own question in today’s Gospel, “Do you also want to leave me?” … as we witness the departure of so many, young or otherwise, from the pews in our present time.
In our Gospel passage, Saint John tells us that people turned away from Christ because of His Teaching concerning His coming down from heaven, as well as His giving of Himself — that is — of His body and blood in the Holy Eucharist, and then, John tells us that they were not just a few who left, but many. So, what we’re experiencing in the exodus from the post-pandemic Church, the Lord Himself witnessed in His ministry. Nothing new, then, but shocking when we look around us.
However, when we look at why contemporary Catholics leave the Faith, they don’t say that it’s because they question dogma, such as:
+ The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist
+ The Mystery of the Holy Trinity
+ Our Veneration of the Saints
…what they cite as their reason for departure (the top five responses, listed here in descending order from more to less frequent) is:
+ Divorce and remarriage outside the Church
+ It’s just plain easy (college students’ response)
+ The Church’s moral theology
+ The scandal of priests failing to live up to the morality that they teach
+ Boring sermons
Or… as one elderly Catholic recently said, “Why can’t the Church be nicer?”
The Lord Himself heard His disciples grumble among themselves, about His Teaching: “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” … to which He responded, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life” … meaning His wisdom far surpasses the spirit of human thinking and points us to a better, holier life, indeed, to a share in His divine life.
What the Church offers in the Lord’s name is:
+ no love-bombing
+ no false freedom
+ no promises of an easier life, or an illusory spirituality,
… but eternal, universal Truth.
Should a person find himself restless, searching, falling away from the Faith, one should ask oneself the question that Saint Peter raises: “Lord to whom shall we go? You alone have words of eternal life.” We can be sure that there are many charismatic personalities out there in religion and politics who have ready answers… should one look to them for life’s meaning?
Similarly, there are many self-help programs, pill-centered solutions, and published formulas, some of which might be quite contrary to what our Faith can contribute, offering easy, if questionable, solutions to life’s difficulties.
It will be good for us, then, to keep in mind that familiar prayer of Saint Augustine: “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”
When the temptation to escape from reality arises — and it comes in many forms — we must always keep in mind that we cannot create our own god. This is why God became man in Jesus Christ, and entered into human history, changing it, so that we might know Him as Savior and desire to transcend humanity in our hope for heaven. Therefore, the primary thing that matters in human life is an encounter with Jesus Christ. Our Catholic faith enables this encounter, as it embodies and sacramentalizes our answer to St. Peter’s question: “Lord, to whom shall we go?”
We go to Him who is present in the words of the Gospel and uniquely present to Catholics by His Real Presence as the Bread of Life in the Holy Eucharist. To say “Yes” to Jesus fulfills all our human searches and longings, because He reveals the true meaning of our existence.
Others may wander because they cannot accept the Lord’s Teaching, or, perhaps because we ourselves fail to live up to His word and His teaching in the midst of our human weakness and our limitations while retaining fidelity to the exercise of our Faith as best we can.
So, in the end, should a prophet such as Joshua address us today, saying: “Decide this day whom you will serve," we might be able to answer, as did the ancient tribes of Israel, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord for the service of other gods.”