27th Sunday OT
If you pay no attention to social media you may not have heard – there's an unprecedented boom going on in the Church. Specifically, a surprising increase in the number of 18 – 24yo's being baptized and confirmed worldwide. For example, btw 2023 – 2025, the number of young people entering the Church in France has doubled. And then doubled again. Campus ministries in the US are also noticing a huge increase in Mass attendance. So are regular parishes. This boom isn't restricted to the Catholic Church. Protestant and EO ministries are also reporting similar revivals. What's going on? Secular media are pointing to CK's assassination and attributing the booms to reactionary forces taking advantage of populist sentiments to rile up the rabble. There may be some of that going on. But the vast majority of these young people seem to be drawn to the Church by everything but politics. Their motivations vary but the common thread seems to be: they are tired of the incessant drone of nihilism and the performative morality of their peers. IOW, they are tired of the emptiness preached by the spirits of the world and fake utopias of godless ideology. They want to believe in something. They need to believe in Someone. They are seeking faith.
(Forgive me for Going Professorial. But it's always a danger with Dominican preachers). We've been calling the last eight decades of turmoil in the West a “culture war.” And it is that – at some level. All sorts of ism's get thrown around: capitalism, modernism, nihilism, progressivism, fascism, etc. It's a near-blinding flurry of warring ideologies and philosophies, each trying to define the Real and insisting that only its solutions can truly bring about utopia. What all these ism's have in common is their disdain for faith in a transcendent referent, something to point to beyond the material world that gives meaning. If your only way of making meaning in the world is the world itself and the world itself is constantly changing, then who and what you are is always changing. These young people are living with the war-torn leftovers of their cultures' failed revolutions, most especially the horrific failures of the sexual revolution. I don't need to list all the failures but here's a few: abortion-on-demand, the collapse of marriage, the destruction of the family, and transgender ideology. From this moral and social chaos, these young people are looking for – needing! – a way to give their lives meaning.
Thus, the culture wars. But these wars aren't just being fought in the world. They are being fought in the Spirit. I don't mean some sort of cosmic battle btw the equally matched forces of Good and Evil. That's heresy. Christ has won. He won from the Cross and the cosmic war is always, already won. The spiritual wars I mean are being fought within the hearts and minds of each man and woman. They fight to choose Christ. These men and women were born and raised in de facto Christian cultures. And they have in them the seed of God's Word (however deeply buried!). Paul writes, “...God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.” It is this spirit who is stirring and finding its voice in the tumultuous lives of these young people. I see it everyday in my UD students, the seminarians I direct and teach; and in our own novices. What I hear them saying is that they are exhausted by defeat in a worldly war that can have no winners. They are tired of the stupidity of politics and the pablum of therapeutic religion. Where is the Spirit of power, love, and self-control? Where are the witnesses who will testify to the saving power of God?
The Sexual Revolution has failed. Paraphrasing Cardinal George from 2007, the progressive revolution in the Church has failed. One Utopian revolution after another has failed. Now it's time for a Spiritual Revolution and – as usual – our young people will lead the way. What can we older brothers and sisters do to help them choose Christ? Again, Paul writes, “...do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord...but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” Show them your scars. Tell them about your battles and how Christ rescued you. Let them see you fight yourself and win with God's grace. Don't be ashamed of your battleground. With Christ, it's where you won. This is not a fight where you must maintain your polite, middle-class American facade to save face. Your fight may be private but the war is public. Share your hardship. But most importantly, share your victory in Christ Jesus. They are looking for witnesses. You've been there. Tell them what you know. Tell them what to expect. And then show them nothing but mercy and the love Christ died for sinners. For you and for me.
