They do not want anyone to know they are Catholics. They do not want to talk about Catholic things in public, at parties, with relatives.
They are hiding the greatest heritage a person can inherit-the Catholic Faith.
And, why?
Fear, timidity, lack of confidence?
Doubt, sin, loss of faith?
Not to want to share Catholicism may even be a sin. John Hardon said this.
What does re-evangelization mean? And we repeat – re-evangelization means restoring the Christian Faith to millions in our country who no longer believe that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ. They just don’t. You read the big thick book called Jesus Christ by the Dominican theologian Schillebex – if you read that and you still believe in series that I was asked to analyze for the Holy See. Bad, very bad! Widely used in one Catholic school after another in our country. Eight years of indoctrination in what we call Nestorian Christianity. That Christ had the same sex passions that we do. That is not only heresy or a lie. That is perversion!
Many of our once believing Catholics no longer believe that Christ died on the cross for the redemption of the human race; that Christ rose from the dead. A German bishop – not to be identified – he was elevated to the hierarchy and I have reason to think that he is now more Catholic than he was before he became a bishop. He wrote a very learned book in German published in different languages on Jesus Christ: the Resurrection is merely and only and exclusively something which those who want to believe in but we cannot establish that Christ really, truly rose from the dead in a human body. Millions of Catholics no longer believe that Christ instituted the sacraments.
It was here after one of our Sunday classes a lady came to me and told me she had just witnessed a baptism at which the priest baptizing the child before the baptism told everybody, “I want to make sure you understand that baptism does not remove original sin. Am I clear? Baptism does not remove original sin.” This can raise some very serious problems! Including, including how validly some priest are administering the sacraments. Now just because a priest does not believe that baptism removes original sin by itself does not invalidate his administration of the sacrament. But it does raise problems and that is why I was called twice by the Holy Father’s secretary, as I’ve told you last year, to do something! Do something to restore and, therefore, re-evangelize the Catholic faithful in your country in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.” One Catholic Church after another looks like a Quaker meeting hall. There are dioceses, I am told, where the bishop forbids the people to kneel during the consecration. I think I told you what I do with a group of men that I spoke here at Domino’s Farms on one Good Friday lecture that I gave them. “How many of you men will genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament? Well, who does not genuflect?” A dozen hands went up. “How many of you will always genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament?” About 50 hands went up. “Come, how many – how many of you?” Finally, every hand. Remember, for a man, this is a contract. The scandal, as I am sure you know, of the massive desecration of the Real Presence means we’ve lost their Faith in Jesus Christ being on earth in the Eucharist.
It is easy to be proud to be a Catholic. But, many Catholics fear divisions in families, at work, in schools.
So?
Re-evangelization is to be done in the same way as evangelization. Only you must work harder! Re-evangelization, therefore, is more demanding than evangelization of pagans. It is always harder to reconvert a former believer than it is to convert a non-Christian to Christianity or a non-Catholic to the Catholic Church. Re-evangelization is more difficult, it is less it’s appealing, is more costly in time, effort, and energy, and human resources. Then, I’m planning for the rest of the semester: How do we re-evangelize? We re-evangelize, that means we restore the Christian and Catholic Faith in our country, by doing five things:
- First, we learn our Catholic Faith!
And the ignorance in allegedly learned circles of the Catholic Faith is abysmal. - Secondly, by living our Catholic Faith.
If we are going to convert others we had better be living bona fide authentic Catholic lives ourselves; otherwise people will say, “Well, if what you are telling me is the truth, then why has it been lost on you?” - Thirdly, we must pray our Catholic Faith.
And I mean pray. And I mean pray!. Back to my five days in a country rather where my parents were born – in the village from where my mother came – 500 people – I found out they are all related – every one of them. You meet somebody on the street – you don’t say hello or good morning. You say “Praise be Jesus Christ.” And the answer is, “Now and forever.” They pray! There is such a thing as praying all day. I knew I made a mistake coming to class here. Pray! We’ll talk about this! - Fourth, share the Catholic Faith.
I would welcome, by the way, any literature you can provide. In fact, we may even have some exhibits here for class of the way others are promoting whatever they are promoting – the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witness, the Hari-Krishnas: Take the New Age people – they are there peddling their wares and have penetrated, as you know, many, if not most Catholic dioceses in America. You’ve got to learn some of their techniques. How zealous they are! How aggressive they are! I did tell you, didn’t I, of the two Mormons – two young men well dressed, meets me in Manhattan – came from the mother church in Salt Lake City to convert Father Hardon. I told them I was flattered! You’ve got to work on people. You’ve got to be shrewd. By the way, St. Ignatius in the 16thcentury – he was shrewd. So, whatever I have inherited from him – shrewdness – so share the Faith. You don’t hit people over the head, “You gotta become a Catholic!” No, you smile. They’re nice. When I began teaching at Western Michigan they forbade me, as I think I told you, to exercise any of my priestly ministry outside the classroom. There they told me not to evangelize. Well – so I got myself a job as a Catholic chaplain at the state hospital and when I finally cleared things with the Bishop and the superintendent, 14 people showed up for my first Mass in kind of a small auditorium they have there. So I thought to myself, and I asked the administrators – there must be more than 14 Catholics out of 3000 residents in the state hospital. I found there were over 600. You know what happened? The Protestants were paying mazuma. They were paying the people their money to come to their Sunday services. I had no money so I had to use other “Jesuitical” means. I told you what we did, didn’t I? Oh – I got the Protestants of Kalamazoo to form a committee. Of course, you know who was chairman of that committee – to build an inter-faith chapel on the premises of the state hospital. I told you about this, didn’t I? Oh yes! We got money from – we got $400,000. And, of course, remember, this was engineered by a person who had other plans in view. So in the contract, as long as Kalamazoo’s state hospital exists, it’s in writing, there must be a Catholic chapel within that larger chapel where the Blessed Sacrament’s permanently reserved. Isn’t that neat! Then we have the church filled. So we must share and share shrewdly. - Finally, suffer!
Let me just say a word about the last item. We usually think of suffering for our Catholic Faith. Well! That’s still true! But there is also such a thing as suffering the Catholic Faith. Meaning what? Meaning as Christ could not have been plainer in telling us! Finish the sentence as a class; “If you wish to be my disciples, you must”— “take up your cross daily and follow Me.” In other words, to be a Catholic, you’ve got to suffer! Well, let me change it. Can I use the blackboard or will that spoil it? Is that o.k. or is that too far away? I can use it. Is there chalk there? Pardon me! (inaudible …) There’s first such a thing as pain. Pain is whatever is contrary to the created will. We’ve touched on this before but here it comes to the very heart of what we are teaching. Whatever is contrary to what we want is pain. And the least pain we can suffer on earth is pain of the body. Whatever is contrary to our will is pain. You married people; you want your married partner to love you – if – I don’t say the married partner does not love you if you even think that maybe perhaps he or she does not love you – you already have pain. However, animals suffer pain but animals do not suffer.What is suffering? Suffering is a rational experience of pain. It is the experience of pain by a rational being. Because what is most painful about pain is not the pain – quote pain – it is my mind reflecting on the fact that I am suffering, that I’ve got the pain. I know what’s going on in me and I don’t like it. And the more I think about it the harder it becomes. I know people who are tempted to question even the existence of a God. What kind of a God is this that I am suppose to believe in? A God who allows innocent children to suffer! But that’s not all. Every human being suffers. Every human being! From the moment we are born, in fact – you have the use of reason already in a mother’s womb. I keep telling people unless we are totally anesthetized before we leave this world, we leave it in a spasm of pain. So everybody suffers but not everybody suffers willingly. So what is willing suffering? Suffering that I am willing to endure. That’s patience.Patience is the willing resignation to pain, the main resistance to the pain that I am experiencing. But that is still not the highest, but for our purpose the deepest meaning. We can suffer without wanting to and do everything in our power to resist. The pain doesn’t go away, in fact, stupidly the pain gets worse. You’ve got two kinds of pain; you’ve got the pain of whatever source is causing the suffering and you’ve got the pain of resisting the pain. Be smart, be patient! But that’s not enough! For us who believe in God becoming man, it is not only that we suffer willingly; it is that we choose to suffer. And that is sacrifice!When we say that one of the ways that we are to re-evangelize, which means to reconvert our nation – mostly Christianity and to the Catholic Faith – is suffering. I mean not only suffering for the Faith but suffering the Faith. Living a Faith which not only experiences pain, but realizes what I’ve been enduring, wants to endure it but even – what are we saying – chooses to suffer. And – here – you better be you better be not just a Catholic but a very deeply intelligent Catholic – I mean it – to believe – only experience can teach it! No books you can read will prove it to you. The deepest joy on earth is to choose to suffer out of love for God. You don’t find that in Adler or Freud or modern psychologists. All of this is locked up in what we are talking about. Namely, that by our suffering we evangelize of for our purpose re-evangelize those who have abandoned their Faith because how many people have told me it is the lives we live as Catholics that are the most powerful magnets for attracting other people to the Faith we profess. But you have to profess it, not just with your lips – oh no – you’ve got to profess it not only in your life but by your patient and, indeed, sacrificial, loving – not only acceptance – but even choice of suffering because then, then we make sense to the unbelieving world that Christianity must – it must be very deep. Look at what it does to human beings. It changes them from selfish persons to those who out of love for God even choose to suffer because they love Him.And it is OUR duty as the laity to evangelize.
More Fr. Hardon
Who? There’s no doubt. The answer should be: It is the Catholic laity! And so why? And I have six reasons:
- The laity are empowered by the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation to evangelize and re-evangelize other people. Nary in 2000 years of the Church’s legislation have the rights and responsibilities of the laity – I repeat – evangelize – for our purpose, re-evangelize, than the present Code of Canon Law. It is the laity!
- The laity are the most numerous members of the Mystical Body of Christ. And nobody has to delegate you or appoint you. This, by the way, is one of the major developments of doctrine in the Catholic Church introduced by the much maligned Second Vatican Council. There’s no longer a need for being – well – officially delegated, say by a bishop. No! All the lay person has to do or a group of lay people is to want to do what they believe before God – would be, say teaching the Faith, evangelization and all the bishop has to do, all he needs to do is to tolerate them in the diocese. Isn’t that neat? Oh wow – it works! Your numbers – organize! mobilize!
- Why are the laity mainly responsible? They are in direct contact and in daily association with a de-Christianized world in which we live. In other words, you can immediately have impact on those with whom you are dealing. As I was talking to one of the representatives in Washington, of one of the political parties and candidates, and I found out that one of the secretaries for one of the candidates is not a Catholic. So I said, “Why not?” “She’s not interested.” So I got the phone number. I’m going to call her up. Can’t lose!
You’re in contact immediately with the people who have the power – political power, financial power, legal power. - The laity are in positions of influence. In the world and on the world such as new priests or religious could possibly have. They are in charge of newspapers, magazines. Sometime ago I was in New York, St. Agnes Church, with Father George Rutler. You probably know Father Rutler, oh Father Rutler; he’s the Assistant Pastor. And I had some work in Manhattan – so I left my suitcases in the rectory to save myself luggage, came back before I took the flight out of New York. So we met, Father Rutler and I, and he introduced me to a couple he was giving instructions to, the editor and his wife of Sports Illustrated. And so he said, “Oh, by the way, look what we are using for instructions, The Catholic Catechism of the Catholic Church.” So you people are in contact with people of great influence. Use that influence. That’s why you’ve got it! If you’ve got money, that’s why you’ve got money. You’ve got money to be more powerful in sharing your Faith with others.
- The laity realize as mothers and fathers of families, as persons in the world, how business and politics, how deeply the de-Christianization of America has become. You should have no illusions, you are right there.
- Finally, the laity have the immediate experience of dealing with the secularized world in our day. They know, you know, how to cope with this world, how to affect it, how to change it, and with God’s grace, how to convert it back to Jesus Christ.
- The laity are empowered by the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation to evangelize and re-evangelize other people. Nary in 2000 years of the Church’s legislation have the rights and responsibilities of the laity – I repeat – evangelize – for our purpose, re-evangelize, than the present Code of Canon Law. It is the laity!
