Time
to get serious! Long have you heard me say that Labor Day is a spiritual
milestone without being an actual Holy Day.
It marks the end of summer, the return to business, to school, to
traffic, and to all those things that mark the seriousness of our endeavors,
whether we be of age six or fifty-six.
My first
recommendation stays the same: Go to confession this week. Seek God’s forgiveness for all your summer
sins, whether they be sins of indolence or self-indulgence, both very summer
sorts of sin. You cannot think that in Advent
you will remember your summertime sins.
Get the grace God wants you to have now, by identifying them, speaking
of them while you remember their context, and resolutely turning away from
them. Like a good haircut, or waxing
your car, it will reduce drag and increase both efficiency and speed.
It is time to get
serious. You can see it in the faces of
the littlest ones who have come back to school.
Not the middle-schoolers, no, no; they are too cool to give any indication
of being serious about anything. But the
little kids seriously set about their studies, and it is a sense of purpose as much
as the weight of their backpacks that makes them lean forward when they walk,
as if into a headwind.
It is time to get
serious about the things that may have slipped down the priority list, or gone
undone. I have mine, and I am sure you
have yours. We hope no one noticed
because they were too distracted by their own summer goofing off!
While we were diverted,
things have been getting pretty serious around the world. The Middle East, Ukraine, and Liberia have
all lit up our screens with an intensity it seems inadvisable to ignore. I found a note from Bishop Knestout when I
returned from my end-of-summer trip that said the Archdiocese is encouraging
parishes to take up special collections for aid to persecuted Christians in the
Middle East. There wasn’t enough warning
to do it this weekend, and we already
have second collections the next two weekends, so that means we will
have it the last weekend in September.
But tell me honestly,
is that anywhere near the response these situations call for? Are we helpless spectators who can only write
checks to assuage our feelings of guilt at having had a delightful summer while
so many people are fleeing for their very lives? Let’s get serious here. What else can we do? What else must we do?
Is there anything our
religion can do in the face of evil, in response to suffering, or to alleviate our
helplessness? Or does it require that we
all just cross ourselves and say that everything that happens must be “God’s
will?” What does our religion offer you
now, besides a return to the routine?
How do you respond to the much-advocated position that “religion” is a
major cause of human division, strife, and suffering? Is “religion” all one phenomenon with
multiple iterations, or is there something about one religion, any religion –
OUR religion – that resists such dismissal, even condemnation?
We are
Catholics. We are the Body of Christ
upon earth. Christ transforms suffering
into new and everlasting life – does that sound like something that the world
could use right now? Plunge into our faith, my beloved friends;
seek, study, and find what makes it different.
These problems are not going to go away, and no one is going to fix them
for us. What defense do you have against
evil? What has God given you in this
Church? Spend the time to find out – it
is only going to become more clear that the Body of Christ is the only truly different reality in the world. That can cost you, as well as help you. It is time
to get serious about being a Catholic.
Monsignor
Smith
