From
Papal Visit to Packed Pews, they call
it. That’s the Archdiocesan operative’s
plan to get some “bounce” (to use a Washington term) in the faith life of our
local church from the recent visit of our Holy Father Pope Francis.
In the three weeks
since the visit, I have had an amazing array of people tell me just how much
the Pope’s visit excited and moved them.
Many of them were people who received their tickets to the Mass of
Canonization from our parish allotment, and therefore are people I know well
and see often. But there were also many
others, including some whom I had only just met. It is the first subject of conversation when
I run into non-Catholic friends and acquaintances, as well; they profess to
share in some of the excitement too.
An ever-growing
percentage of the population around us claims and professes identities,
associations, and ideologies that are not only Catholic or Christian, but
sometimes even opposed to Catholicism and Christianity. An ever-growing number of Catholics are
comfortable with, and confident in, those same identities, associations, and
ideologies, sometimes without realizing how they conflict with the basic truths
of Divine Revelation in Jesus Christ.
Our Archbishop,
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, recently released a Pastoral Letter whose purpose is
summed up in its title, Being Catholic Today: Catholic Identity in an Age of Challenge. Beautifully printed copies of this letter are
available for you, now, in the church.
He points out: As Americans, we are not required to carry
around identity papers or wear special insignia on our clothing marking us as
Christian. Nevertheless, each day the world does ask us, “Are you Christian?”
We must answer truthfully and then act accordingly. If we are Christian, then
Christ should be recognizable in us, and we should not be made to mask him or
appear to be something else.
Our Holy Father made
it his frequent refrain that all Catholics are called, first to
conversion, then to witness: first to seek God’s mercy, then to offer it. To remember the excitement of the visit and
forget the content of the message would be to betray Pope Francis, and
undermine the purpose of his visit. This
may seem like a burden, but in reality it makes for a great opportunity for the
Church in the United States, in Washington, and in Four Corners.
There is an abundance
of good will toward the Pope in particular, Catholics in general, and the
Church herself, which in our nation can never be taken for granted, but
especially now. All the more true right
now is what His Eminence observed: “What does the Church bring to society?”
Even when people seem to pose this question as a challenge, deep down there is
usually a note of hope in it. After
seeing the Pope, and the crowds, more people will be wondering, and well-disposed. They will be turning to you and me with that
question, and that hope. We must respond
ourselves, not with expectations for someone somewhere else in the Church.
Our
Catholic identity, even when challenged, should remain for us a source of
conviction and pride. As God was with those who first accepted the challenge,
“You will be my witnesses,” so God is with us as we accept the summons to be
faithful witnesses to our Catholic faith today in all that we say and do. By
taking our Archbishop's exhortation to heart, and following our Holy Father’s
example ourselves, we will do more
than pack the pews: we will draw souls to Christ. Now that
is “bounce.”
Monsignor
Smith
