Yesterday, I published an article which noted the fact that fully half of young people leave the Church after high school, and some say that only 7% of Millennials raised Catholic actively practice their faith today, meaning they attend weekly Mass, pray a few times each week, and say their faith is “extremely” or “very” important.
For the remaining 93% who have disassociated themselves from the Church, only one conclusion is possible: the Church is in danger of losing the next and future generation of Catholics.
Why?
Because the parents of these children do not actively practice the faith themselves.
Put another way, the religious commitment of some 93% of Catholic parents is certainly questionable.
So, in light of these facts (the conclusions of multiple studies conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as well as numerous surveys undertaken by various Catholic university social departments), let me see if I get this right.
This Wednesday, as our secular culture celebrates Valentine’s Day, is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten Season.
A number of Bishops have reminded (some gently, others sternly) that Valentine’s Day or not, the rules regarding fasting and abstinence on Ash Wednesday still apply and Catholics are expected to observe them.
These same Bishops have taken the coincidence of Valentine’s Day falling on Ash Wednesday to encourage or insist that the dietary regulations of fasting and abstinence remain in force and Catholics are obliged not to excuse themselves of these obligations lightly.
But who in the world do these Bishops think they are addressing?
Do these Bishops honestly believe that the 93% of Catholic Milennials will honor the Church’s dietary restrictions it imposes during the Lenten Season?
Do these Bishops honestly believe that the overwhelming majority of Catholics who are regularly absent from the pews on weekends will observe the dietary rules and regulations regarding the days of fast and abstinence during Lent?
Are these Bishops living in the real world?
Why do the Bishops continue to demean such the remarkably graced Lenten Season by continuing to focus upon what has become so trivial and so meaningless in today’s culture.
Lent is a remarkable opportunity, a moment of grace, during which a person is both invited and encouraged to look inward at what is weak and vulnerable, to reflect upon the missteps and mistakes one has made, to be mindful of the frailty of a soul weakened by sin, a soul fickle in its commitments and promises, but a soul beloved by an eternal and ever-loving Father.
Lent is a remarkable opportunity for conversion, not from moral failure to moral victory, but a conversion of faith, hope, trust, assurance that no matter what else may prove untrue or unfulfilled, God’s love and mercy endure.
No matter how weak, sinful or selfish, no matter how much we may give up on ourselves, God never will.
Lent is a remarkable opportunity to remind ourselves that, while we daily see what is unlovable in ourselves and our fellow human beings, God Our Father sees something quite different, something to love and cherish and jealously cling to forever.
Lent is a remarkable opportunity to hear again that Our Father has and will spare nothing, not even His Beloved Son, to bear the brunt of the evil our sinfulness causes.
Lent is a remarkable opportunity to be inspired by the fact that Jesus, the Son of God and Our Heavenly Brother, is the Unconditional Lover Who is always there with us and for us, no matter what.
The Bishops need to inspire us with these truths and stop the nonsense of the dietary prescriptions they publish each Lent to audiences long deaf to the ridiculousness of such trivialities.
For what it is, here is my focus this Lent. Here is my Lenten prayer this year:
Dearest Jesus, Dear Father in Heaven, I regret all my sins for the evils they have caused and the lost moments of love and service they could have been. I confess my arrogance, my weakness, my infidelity, my sinfulness. I thank You for Your forgiveness, Your patience, Your love and Your embrace. I rejoice in Your constancy, Your fidelity to me and to all the broken human beings like me. I celebrate Your love and forgiveness. Help me to be an instrument of Your love and forgiveness to others. Amen.
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