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Why Young Adults need the Catholic Church

30 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by mcummins2172 in Uncategorized, young people

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Catholic Church, Catholic faith, Christian life, Christianity, discipleship, faith, Roman Catholic, Young Adult Ministry, younger generation and faith

young adult praying in churchWhy do some young adults wander away from the Church?  There are no easy answers to this.  At least, I have not found one in my own experience of ministry.  I have seen some young people fully immersed in the Church in high school and college who then just stop coming one day.  I have seen other young people who had wandered off come back with a great fervor almost bordering on zealotry.  A good number of young people I have known wander in and out with some choosing to stay loosely connected on the periphery of the Church.

Certainly each person’s journey of faith is unique.  There are movements in the heart that only God can see and everything occurs in God’s time.  We all know that there are scandals within the Church that wound hearts and discredit the gospel and the community.  There are voices against the Church and Christianity in our world and caricatures of religion too easily tossed about in society.  There is a diffused mistrust of all institutions.  There are also people not willing to change their view of the Church just as they, themselves, insist the Church must change (usually to their liking).  Finally, there are some people who are just lazy spiritually.

With all this in mind, I am firmly convinced that young adults need the Church.  No one may be able to adequately answer the big concerns noted above.  Still, I want to offer a few thoughts about why young adults need the Church.  Here are the thoughts in the form of a letter.

Dear young adults,

Do you know that you need more than just your peers?  I never really became a fan of the TV show “Friends”.  I do remember watching it and being entertained although I didn’t always agree with the moral choices portrayed in the show.  I remember that the whole universe portrayed in that show was that of a group of peers.  Every now and then a person from another generation (younger or older) would pop in and out of the show but they seemed to be just a distraction.  Everything centered on that particular group of peers and their enclosed world.  I have seen this same theme continue in newer generations of shows.  I am sorry, but that is not life.  Sadly, though, I think society and, surprisingly, the Church have followed suit.  There are retreat programs and youth ministry initiatives intentionally and exclusively structured around peer-given talks and peer-led discussions.  There are youth only liturgies.  I would wager that the same trend can be seen in education, athletics and all forms of engagement with our youth.  Is there a certain value and place for this?  Yes, but there are unintended consequences.  Dear young adults, I apologize.  You have been done a disservice.  Although no one intended it, you have been taught to only value peer input and peer relationship.  The voices of other generations – the insight, knowledge and wisdom of older generations that can help guide in life and help navigate its struggles as well as the hopes and dreams of younger generations – have been blocked from your awareness.  With this block there can also be a forgetfulness of how God has been faithful and active in all generations and how God continues to be faithful and active.

In my ministry with young adults I often felt frustrated by this block.  Over time, I learned to not get upset or frustrated by this.  They were just doing what they had been taught.  I was not a peer and therefore my voice and consideration would sometimes just bounce off their perspective somewhere into the ether.  But as I shared above, a world comprised only of peers with a particular generational perspective is not real life.  One of the things truly wonderful about Sunday worship is seeing generations coming together in Church – young and old and even in-between.  Young adults, I have to say that you are noticeably absent from these gatherings.   You are missing out.  You need more than your peers and the Christian community needs you.

Another thought for you.  You need a deeper narrative than just the secular one.  There are narratives that people set their lives by but not all narratives are equal nor are all equally true.  I learned an important lesson in my seminary training.  The gospel narrative is the rule by which all other narratives should be measured and judged.  Some might see this as Christian condescension, but I am not convinced that is true.  Think about it.  Catholicism has a proven track record.  Empires, movements, theories of thought have come and gone.  Christianity has remained and has grown consistently and organically even through persecution and even despite the sinful actions of some of its adherents.  Secularization, at its best, has real value.  It has fostered religious freedom, protection from oppression, and respect due the dignity of persons.  But the secular world has its own narrative with a down side.  A closed-end secularity pushes the sacred to the periphery.  And that truly diminishes life.  Here, I would caution that certain forms of “generic Christianity” will not suffice because they are neither able to see beyond nor challenge the limits of the secular narrative.  Certain popular forms of contemporary Christian expression found often in non-denominational, evangelical and mega-church communities are, in fact, closely linked to the secular narrative and a step away from the Christian sense of the sacred.  For example, I would point to the emphasis by some on material concern and comfort as found canonized by the gospel of prosperity preached in many places.

There is a deeper and fuller reality to life, existence and creation itself than just the measure of the secular.  There is a transcendent, spiritual and sacramental dimension to life.  We can embrace the benefits of secularity, while not letting ourselves be bound by the limits of its narrative.  The Catholic Church with its tradition, theology and worship provides for this broader perspective on reality.

Dear young adults, here’s something that you won’t hear about very often, if ever.  You need an awareness of redemptive suffering.  The Catholic Church is at home with the crucifix not because we believe that the resurrection should be downplayed and that Christ is still on the cross.  No, we are convinced that by his suffering on the cross our Lord has brought a redemptive dimension to all suffering.  He has brought life out of death.  On the cross and in the tomb, God entered into the furthest edges of human suffering and death.  The crucifix reminds us of the cost of salvation that has been won through the love and obedience of Christ.  This is a great mystery.  There is suffering in life and sooner or later for all of us.  We see suffering throughout our world.  The crucifix and its bold display of redemptive suffering protects us against the temptations of choosing to ignore suffering in our world, getting lost ourselves in the darkness of suffering and giving in to victimhood in the face of suffering.  Suffering, in Christ, can be redemptive.

Let me say a word about something that many people are skittish about – commitment.  You need commitment and not just new experiences.  When I was in campus and vocation ministry my schedule and responsibilities allowed and even required of me quite a bit of travel.  Now that I am in a parish my travelling has been greatly reduced due to the commitment of being a pastor.  This is not a bad thing.  There are seasons to life and there are seasons to ministry.  My faith life and my life in general is now being nourished more by the commitment of being a pastor than by a string of new experiences offered through travel and life situation.  Commitments in life offer nourishment too!  Our world does not emphasize this but it is true.  Young adults do not get lost in the siren call of chasing new experience after new experience through life!  Sooner or later, you will wear yourself out and, frankly, not have much depth.  Commitments in life are what lead to the depth of personhood, awareness and insight.  Do not be afraid to commit in faith and in love to Christ, his Church and another person if you are so called.  Be willing to go deep!

You also need a real community that will not fit neatly into your box, one that is not perfect, that disagrees and that argues.  I have known young people to leave the Church either because it is not “perfect” or because it does not fit into their own framework.  Frankly, I think that this is not a sign of good, adult judgment.  On college campuses, people are talking about “trigger notices” and “safe zones” around discussions that students might find threatening or challenging.  Social media and our current structure of news outlets may allow us to exist and interact in a universe occupied solely by like-minded people (this is one of the dangers of our contemporary information age) but the real world does not.  It is okay to argue and it is okay to debate and it is wonderful to be in a Church that has this and the Catholic Church has it in spades!  Many social commentators have noted that argument and disagreement are turn offs to young adults who like to avoid such things at all costs (again this is an unintended consequence of how the generation was raised) but life and insight is gained through respectful disagreement, discussion and debate.  We believe that the Holy Spirit leads the Church and this is testified especially through moments of disagreement, discussion, prayer and debate.

You need holiness that sanctifies.  One of my favorite professors in seminary likened the Catholic understanding of grace to a house that is being renovated from the inside out.  Grace, in our Catholic understanding, does not just cover over our sinfulness but rather goes to the heart of who we are in order to heal the wound of sin from within on out.  We are fully healed and fully restored through a lifetime of the working of grace and our cooperation with it.  The ones who witness this most fully are the saints.  Young adults, life can be different!  We can know a holiness that heals, restores and is authentic!  We are not meant to be defined by our sins, our stumblings and our weaknesses.  We are all called to be saints!  It is not just a nice thought but an eschatological truth.  We are called to sanctification through and through and we should not settle for anything less.

Hopefully, these thoughts will prove to be helpful.  Every generation has its blessings and every generation has its struggles.

Dear young adults, you need the Church … and the Church needs you.  From a priest who has truly been blessed by his interaction with so many young adults and who cares deeply about you, may God bless you and may God guide you.

 

The witness of Eli: Mentoring Young People

24 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by mcummins2172 in Uncategorized, young people

≈ 1 Comment

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Eli and Samuel, faith, mentoring, Young Adult Ministry, younger generation and faith, Youth Ministry

hannah taking samuel to eli  222On January 31st, the Church will celebrate the Feast of St. John Bosco – a man who devoted his life to helping young people.  One of the greatest blessings of our Christian faith is the witness of men and women throughout history who let go of their own needs and worked tirelessly for the good of youth and those generations who were to come after them. The witness of these men and women should call us, as the Church, into a reflection on how best to minister to youth and young adults, especially in a time and culture that is “youth obsessed”.  We can readily see how this obsession plays itself out in all areas of society – the entertainment and news media industry, politics, sports, education, relationships – just to name a few.  A fair question is how might this “obsession with youth” bleed into and perhaps even negatively influence the Church’s own ministry to youth and young adults just as they are seeking to claim their own Christian faith and discipleship and how might we best avoid the danger of this obsession?

For full disclosure, I will begin by stating that one of the core convictions I gained in my ministry with youth and young adults is that young people do not benefit from older people trying to act or pretend young; rather young people benefit when their elders remember their own age and are authentic to who they, themselves, are.

To use an image from Scripture: in our world today, young Samuels need the guidance of older and wiser Elis.  For any person ministering to young people, 1 Samuel 2-3 is an important and essential point of reference.  There is much insight to be gained in continually returning to these chapters. Eli is one of the unsung heroes of Scripture.  For our purposes here, we will make use of the famous encounter between the young Samuel and the elder Eli as a way to explore some thoughts.

In the second chapter of 1 Samuel we are told that the Lord had withdrawn his favor from the house of the priest Eli due to the corrupt actions of his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.  Yet the young Samuel “continued to grow both in stature and favor with the Lord and with men.” (1 Samuel 2:26)  In the third chapter we find the well-known scene of the young Samuel hearing the voice of the Lord, mistaking it for the voice of the old priest and going each time to the sleeping Eli until finally Eli catches on to what is happening and instructs the young man in how to respond.

Our focus here is more on Eli than Samuel.  There are four things that Eli does and personifies which are worthy of reflection and emulation.

  1. Eli has a relationship with the young Samuel while not pretending to be Samuel’s peer.
  2. Eli was a man of prayer who was able to eventually recognize what was occurring and then give good instruction to the young man.
  3. Eli put what was in Samuel’s best interest before his own.
  4. Eli trusted in God.

The fact that the young Samuel is comfortable in seeking out the elder Eli each time he hears the voice of the Lord testifies to an established relationship of trust between the two persons yet nowhere is there expressed any confusion between their differing roles.  Eli knows who he is and therefore he is comfortable in his own skin and he has no need to pretend to be something that he is not.  An approach to Christian faith and ministry that needs to abandon itself and our Christian heritage in order to chase after the world in the hopes of relevancy lacks maturity and therefore any real depth of insight to offer a young person who is searching.  It might be flashy in the moment but beyond that there is just really not that much there.

What enabled Eli to be comfortable in his own skin and act out of his own authenticity was that he was a man of prayer.  Like any true discipline, the fruit of prayer is only born after the establishment of a hard-fought for habit and practice.  Let’s be honest, the discipline of prayer is not easy. That which enabled Eli to finally recognize what was occurring with the young Samuel was a lifetime spent devoted to the often daily and mundane work of prayer.  An approach to Christian faith and prayer which seeks to manufacture “spiritual highs” at all times rather than developing the daily discipline of prayer is more about feeding addiction than honest Christian spirituality.  Such an approach is in fact a disservice.  The life of Christian faith grows gradually, often unnoticed and through daily habit.

Not only did Eli know what the Lord’s call meant for the young Samuel; he also knew what it meant for him and his family.  Frankly, God’s calling of Samuel meant the end of the road for Eli and his own sons.  It would not be out of place to believe that this recognition must have crossed Eli’s mind along with the temptation to intentionally misguide the youth in an attempt to watch out for his own sons.  Yet, Eli did no such thing.  Eli put Samuel’s best interest before his own and even that of his sons.  This will forever be in Eli’s favor.  To let go of self for the good of another person takes a mature and wise heart. Wisdom is sorely lacking in our world today and one way that this can sadly be seen is when members of an older generation cannot let go of their own interests, needs and particular viewpoints in deference to what is in the best interest of the younger generation.  When we let go of our own needs to help those who come after us then we make a choice for hope and a choice for the future.

I believe that one of the many contributing factors behind younger generations no longer defining themselves as religious is their own experience of their elders’ inability to put the needs of others before their own – the “elders” in this context being a generation of people who would more readily define themselves as “religious”.  When young people no longer define themselves as religious are they forsaking religion per se or are they reacting against impoverished examples of religion which they have seen?  True maturity is found in not always needing to put oneself first. True maturity is expressed in seeking the good of the other person.  It is this type of maturity that truly aids the next generation, as shown in this encounter between the elder Eli and the young Samuel.

What enables this letting go is a profound trust in God.  Eli had such a trust.  Following upon God’s revelation to Samuel; Eli requests that the young Samuel inform him of all that had been spoken by the Lord, holding nothing back.  Samuel shares all, including the ending of Eli’s house.  Eli responds, “It is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him.” (1 Samuel 3:18)  Eli’s trust in the Lord was perhaps one of his greatest gifts to the young Samuel.  A faith obsessed with pursuing youth and relevancy lacks this depth of trust because it is a depth that can only be achieved by negation and passing through the dark night of the senses.  At this point, everything Eli had been about was negated yet he is able to offer this profound statement of trust in the Lord.  In the end, the most important thing is that God’s will be done.

It does the Church no good to chase after the world.  Yes, we live in the world and there are truly positive things to be gained and we must seek to encounter and dialogue with the times we find ourselves in but it does no good if we are co-opted and lose our own soul in the process.  Eli has much to teach us about helping younger generations find and know God while, at the same time, remaining authentic to who we ourselves are.

Pope Francis and non-defensive Christianity

24 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by mcummins2172 in non-defensive Christianity, Pope Francis, young people

≈ 6 Comments

My friends in Rome tell me that Pope Francis is drawing about four times as many people to the Vatican as did both Pope Emeritus Benedict and Bl. John Paul II.  Pope Francis has certainly caught the world’s attention and whether he is being quoted correctly or not people are showing up to listen.  

My own hunch is that many of the people are ones who have not felt connected to the Church in a while.  Why?  I think that the Holy Father is witnessing a non-defensive Christianity and that people find this extremely appealing and attractive, especially younger people.  Whether through his pastoral phone-calls, his choice not to reside in the papal apartments, forswearing security measures and wading into crowds or sitting down with a prominent atheist for a newspaper interview; Pope Francis is demonstrating a Christianity secure in itself and comfortable both in its own skin and in the world.  He is authentic and authenticity attracts.   
The pope has himself said that he is a, “son of the Church”.  He has not changed doctrine.  He thinks with the mind of the Church but he also demonstrates that he is not afraid to encounter the world, he is not afraid to be creative and that he recognizes the beauty of the world and of people while also not being naïve to sin and human weakness. 
The authenticity of Pope Francis can only be born of faith, humility and contact with the poor.  When asked how he would define himself, Pope Francis responded with, “I am a sinner … a sinner upon whom the gaze of Christ has fallen.”  What beautiful words!  And words that immediately connected the pope with every other single person on the face of the earth!  We are all sinners upon whom the gaze and mercy of God has fallen.  
A telling picture I have seen of then Cardinal Bergoglio was a random photo taken of him sitting, obviously tired and weary, on either a bus or train.  The story has been told of how he would take public transportation whenever possible during his time in Argentina – demonstrating both his chosen simplicity of life and his need for being with ordinary people.  If other popes have spoken of the “school of prayer” or the “school of the family”, Pope Francis has truly learned and knows the lessons and wisdom that can only be acquired from the “school of the poor”.  Wisdom acquired from the school of the poor cannot be faked nor pretended.  It is authentic and it speaks directly to people’s hearts.  
I think that it is also of import that Pope Francis is of an older generation and living a non-defensive Christianity.  This should not be underestimated.  I think Pope Emeritus Benedict also lived a non-defensive Christianity but, honestly, too many factors and false perceptions negated against this message getting out.  I think that time and history will demonstrate this component of Pope Benedict’s papacy.  Certainly, Bl. John Paul II proclaimed the goodness of God and the world but for most young people of today their first memory of him is rooted not in the athletic hiker and skier pope but in the time of his physical decline and ill health. 
Pope Francis is the first pope of our era who was not present at the Second Vatican Council. 
I have spent my priesthood working with young people and one thing I have found that truly turns young people off and shuts their ears is when older generations speak as if theirs was the greatest generation or when older generations (because the world may be changing in ways they did not expect) act as if the world is coming to an end!  Neither perspective being true and both demonstrating an inherent narcissism.  By living a non-defensive Christianity, Pope Francis (a man in his later seventies) is doing neither and I think that young people are picking up on it.  
Might a fair question of why young adults are not present in our churches be partly because these two forms of our own narcissism leave them no room in our church pews?  Honestly, why would a young person want to go to a place where either he or she is reminded that his/her generation does not measure up or that there is no future and that everything is coming to an end?  Both are denials of the possibility of youth and are ways of telling younger generations (in subtle and not so subtle ways), “you don’t really matter”.  
Pope Francis is not saying that.  He is saying quite the opposite.  He is saying, “You do matter.”  By living a non-defensive Christianity, Pope Francis is demonstrating a Christianity of hope and a faith that is certainly aware of the beauty and gift of the past but also open to the possibility of the future and he is demonstrating a profound recognition of the dignity and gift of all generations.  
People are showing up to listen for a reason.                   

The audacity of Pope Benedict and our young people

27 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by mcummins2172 in Pope Benedict XVI, poverty, resignation, young people

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When I walk across the campus at ETSU I sometimes wonder about how this generation of college students and young adults has experienced religion.  Yes, they each have their unique experiences both positive and negative and these certainly fundamentally guide them but, as a whole, they also have some defining experiences.  Two of which are particularly negative.  As pre-teens this generation witnessed 9/11 – a horrific and violent abuse of power and religion.  This generation has also grown up in the midst of the clergy abuse scandal – again, another horrific abuse of power.  These events being held together, this generation has witnessed, in a defining and particular way, abuse of power in the religious context. 
In light of this, I find Pope Benedict XVI’s audacious decision to resign from his ministry as the successor to St. Peter to be truly prophetic.  The papacy is the quintessential symbol of religious authority and power in our world and I cannot help but wonder how his resignation is speaking to the younger generation.  I do not presume to know the mind of Pope Benedict and I can only go on his own comments as to why he has decided to step away from the Petrine ministry and devote the remainder of his life to prayer and study and I certainly take him at his word but I wonder (and hope) if the eighty-five year old pontiff has in his heart a pastoral lesson he wants to offer the world and young people in particular.  By his resignation, Pope Benedict is offering a lesson that power does not have to control and that power can also be stepped away from for the interest of the whole and the common good.  In this lesson there is also the recognition that there is value to humility and to prayer.
I think that this younger generation has a deep yearning to see religious people willing to step away from the trappings of power.  Yes, there is an authentic role and need for power and authority in religion.  Authority is certainly needed and I do not here argue against the authentic exercise of power to help grow the faith but it must be recognized that power which is abused leaves deep and long lasting scars and that power, by its very nature, can also create distance between those who hold power and those who do not.
One reason I think that this generation yearns for religious authorities who can step away from power is because they are, in many ways, a generation without power.  By stepping away from power, religious authorities can go and meet the younger generation where they are at.  It has been said that this younger generation of Americans will probably be the first to financially make less than their parents.  It is not their fault.  It is the cards that they have been dealt primarily due (in all honesty) to the greed and narcissism of older generations.  Theirs is a generation that cannot find jobs once they graduate college (partly because older generations are not retiring).  They are weighed down by exorbitant student loans due partly to the fact that benefits afforded previous generations have not been passed down to them.  They are not planning on social security being around once they retire.  Many are facing unemployment or underemployment.  One student recently told me that out of five of her friends who just graduated college, four have had to return home to live with their parents.  If we as ministers can step away from the security of power we can go a long way in meeting these young people where they are at.
This calls for a creativity in ministry, because it means “going to” rather than “waiting for them to come to us” – which has been the dominant model in ministry for a long time.  But it should be recognized that this dominant model is a model of power.  When “they” need to come to “us” a power dynamic is immediately set up.  We know how things operate, we know how things should be done in the church.  In other words, we have the power and they do not.  The Catholic Church is a church of weighty institutions – we have schools and universities, we have hospitals and far-reaching charity organizations, we have large and expansive parishes – these all have a role and they are not going away and neither should they but we should recognize that sometimes the maintaining of institutions diverts energy away from the needed work of evangelizing and the very ability to go outside the walls of the institution. We need to creatively think a space apart from these weighty institutions where we can meet and welcome this generation without power.
To find a space and a means to step away from this model of weighty institution and power means to embrace a form of evangelical poverty.  It means to let go of control.  I think, in my heart, that Pope Benedict is witnessing this for us.   We need to be a more humble church with ministers inspired by an evangelical poverty and a missionary zeal.  We can see to the needs of the weighty institutions but we do not have to be so weighed down by these institutions that we cannot do what the gospel demands.  We need the audacity of a Pope Benedict who at eighty-five and at the pinnacle of church power and politic can step away from that very power and say, “God is calling me to prayer for the Church.” 
Our young people – who are a generation without power – are watching.     
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