As I was driving down the freeway I passed a car that was driving a bit slower than I. When I got alongside of him I happened to glance over at the driver, and noticed that he had a set of earphones in his ears and he had on a pair of very dark sunglasses--the kind with the blinders on the sides. I assume that the sunglasses are probably illegal because of the blocked vision; I also assume that if the earphones are not illegal to drive with, they would at least be extremely dangerous to have on because of how they block one's ability to hear.
Have you ever met someone who just did not seem to be able to understand something that you thought was perfectly clear? Maybe it was only a mundane concept, but they still could not seem to grasp it no matter what you said to explain better. It was like they had some "noise" in their ears preventing them from hearing what you were saying, and a type of blinders on their eyes. I have at times met people that I think were behaving as though they had background noise in their hearts, and blinders blocking their minds, and it is painful to experience.
I was speaking with some visitors after Mass this evening and we were together lamenting the sad state of catechesis over the last few decades. Teaching has been largely poor and confused, and numerous children have been led astray as regards many of the basics of the Catholic faith. When you think about the massive confusion that exists among Catholics today just over simple subjects like the widespread murder of the unborn (the term "abortion" is just too neutral in my opinion), it is clear that the evil one has been spreading his lies quite effectively for about a generation now.
Many Christians (of all denominations) have been lulled into a passive state of mind and thus opened themselves up to various types of false beliefs. They have confused mercy with "niceness"; they have sought entertainment over reverence; they have put more effort into politics than into spirituality. These and many other things have worked to corrupt hearts and minds in such a way that we have become largely ineffective in influencing the surrounding culture and because of a general blindness to it, we have not even seen it happening.
I dread the thought of what will have to happen to turn this around. It is hard to catechize people who have already been led to accept many of the lies of the world. Some are aware of the problem, and for them that knowledge makes them more responsible to work to fix this. If some parents were to turn the tide in their own homes, and teach their children the fullness of our Catholic faith, they could begin to prepare a new generation to stand firm. In addition, if they were to safeguard this effort by teaching their children the value of marrying only within the Catholic faith, then future generations could be raised up to change the course of history.
We cannot ignore the fact that many of our brothers and sisters are "driving down the street" with "blinders" on their eyes, and loud noisy earphones in their ears. They do not see the consequences of their actions, and this is having disastrous effects on future generations of Catholics. If every one of us works to turn the tide in our little area of influence, then we can genuinely make a difference. We can lay the groundwork, even now, for what will open the eyes and ears of future generations.
