People today, generally, like to find the easier way to do something (I have mentioned this before, many times) but the easier way is not always the best way. I have shown that this is true with parenting, and spirituality, but there is another way that this truth applies, and that is with renewal. If you have been reading this blog for more than the last few minutes, you will know that I have been calling for a return to many of the ancient traditions of the Church. No, I am not just saying that we need to have more Divine Worship Masses, or even Latin Masses (though they each would have a good impact). It is much deeper than that.
Let me give an example. Someone came to me recently and asked for the "trick" to restoring the Church to faithfulness. What I think he really wanted was some kind of gimmick; a sneaky way to "make it work right". Certainly it would be nice to have a "quick and easy" method to resolve all that has gone wrong, yet if it is "quick and easy" it is probably not going to work. Whether it is personal, familial, or ecclesiastical, there is not a gimmick that works. Yes, there are many gimmicks out there, but they all fail in the long run; the only thing that works is good old fashioned Catholic faith and devotion.
I have read some who have said "we tried that and it does not work in this modern age". That is kind of like those who say that they do not want to get married because "marriage does not work today". It is not the practice of marriage itself that is the problem, it is the people who fail to carry it out properly. In the same way, there was never anything wrong with the traditional practice of faith and devotion in the Catholic Church; rather things began to fall apart when people failed to follow through with those traditions. It was in spite of Catholic spirituality, not because of it.
What worries me about this whole thing is that the questions about the "trick to make it work" are so common these days. I do not want to presume the worst, but it certainly appears that there are quite a few people who do not want to commit themselves to hard work; they want a quick and easy fix for our problems. People come to me for advice at times and I will occasionally have to tell them that it is going to take a while to overcome their difficulties that they are dealing with. Most of the time that I tell someone that, they look at me like they are certain that I have to be wrong. It appears as though people believe that there must be a "quick fix" and so my claim of a "long-term-process fix" seems to them as though it must be wrong.
So then, how do we overcome this mess that we have gotten ourselves into? It is not going to happen overnight. Our recovery must involve a spiritual form of "physical therapy" (I would like to call it "spiritual therapy" but I think everyone would misunderstand that phrase). I know someone who recently have to have a leg removed, and he told me that relearning how to do some of the basic things of life was annoying, but necessary. We also must relearn how to receive communion; how to pray; how to show love; how to care for the poor; how to live in community; and how to speak the gospel to others. Most have been doing these things incorrectly for so long (and have had so many bad examples of how to do them) that they assume that they are doing it correctly.
We truly do need to work on a greater commitment to the Sacraments and spiritual devotions that were practiced in generations of the past (please realize that the devil is attacking us and that is precisely what he wants to destroy, so if you do not work on these things, then he is winning and you are helping him do so!). It may sound overly simplistic, but simple holiness has not changed; sin is still sin, and we still need to repent and obey our Lord. Obviously, if we attempt to return to ancient spirituality as a merely outward habit, then we will fail like so many others have. We must return to an older spirituality, while remembering that we must always have our heart fully committed to the Lord. Remember, the greatest commandment is to love God and neighbor, not just to appear outwardly to love God and neighbor.
Thus, I would encourage you to begin preparing yourselves to "relearn" how to be a Catholic. Let us together reassess how we got off the rails, and seek to see those areas where we "threw out the baby with the bathwater". Let us abandon the wrong heart of Pharisaical pride, and restore the heart of Jesus to our obedience. The only other path is presumption, and that never leads to holiness.
