Before I met my wife, I had never heard the term "C and Es" before. For those who may be as unfamiliar with the term as I was, it is shorthand for "Christmas and Easter" Catholics, that is, those who only attend mass at those holy days.
Such people are what are commonly referred to as "cultural Catholics," or what I have called "heirloom Catholics." While the fact that some people go to mass only on Easter and Christmas and don't attend the rest of the year is certainly tragic, this situation also offers hope. True, their Catholicism is something apart from them rather than integrated into their lives. However, they do have this tug, this tie, to something that they don't understand, and they still retain the sense that there is something important about their Catholicism.
That faint light can be used to show them the way to the full glory of The Light of World. Rather than referring to such people as "Christmas and Easter" Catholics, perhaps we should change the "C and E" to stand for "Come and Encounter." Those of us who attend mass regularly need to invite and catechize those who do not attend regularly. Catholics who can stay away from the mass do not understand what the mass is, or they would move heaven and earth to be at mass regularly. Rather than looking at the speck in their eyes, perhaps we need to think about the log in our eyes; what are we not doing to help our brothers and sisters see what they are missing? Are we showing them what they can encounter at mass? Do our lives and words reflect the joy, the transformation that is the Eucharist and the Gospel? Are we welcoming?
How did Jesus welcome the woman taken in adultery, or the Samaritan woman at the well? With truth and love.
What did the Samaritan woman do after speaking with Jesus? She left her water jar (that is how excited she was) and went into the city telling people, "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" (John 4:29). Are we that excited about what we have found in Jesus? Do we invite others to "Come" to Him?
Let us pray to Jesus for the words, the courage, the humility, to invite others to Come and Encounter Him.
Showing posts with label heirloom Catholic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heirloom Catholic. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Heirloom Catholicism
I was re-listening to Vinny Flynn's CD, Seven Secrets of the Eucharist today. (Order it TODAY.) Flynn is so good at trying to rouse us from our complacency, our lethargy, our ignorance, our indifference regarding the Eucharist. His talk got me thinking about the term "cultural Catholic." This term is typically used to refer to people whose Catholicism is a legacy rather than a lived faith. They go to mass, but not generally every week, and perhaps only at Christmas and Easter. The sacraments are rites of passage that "connect the dots" of their lives, but the long stretches between the dots are lived in a predominantly secular way. They tend to be selective about which of the teachings of the church they follow or agree with. This is a broad brush, and some people will fit some of these categories and not others. For an example of cultural Catholicism, see this posting by Creative Minority Report about Joe Biden. (Regardless of your political inclinations, the general portrayal of the nature of a cultural Catholic is helpful.)
However, I began to think more about the term, "cultural Catholic." On the one hand, we may go to mass every day and if the Eucharist does not change our lives, then we are in a sense a cultural Catholic. (Vinny Flynn talks about this idea without using the term "cultural Catholic.") On the other hand, we actually want to promote Catholic culture, which is the "body" of the "spiritual" life of Catholicism. The website Catholic Culture is devoted to the development of such a culture. David Gibson wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal describing Pope Benedict XVI's advocacy of a vibrant Catholic culture. We should all strive to be cultural Catholics in the best sense: sacramentals around the house (holy water, images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, a crucifix in every room), blessing your children each day, crossing yourself when you pass a Catholic church which has the Eucharist reserved, saying grace before meals in public, etc.
I think perhaps a better term is "heirloom Catholic." By that I mean those who treat their faith like a family heirloom which rests on a shelf, gets dusted off and brought down from time to time to look at and remember past times, then to be put back on the shelf. It is itself a treasure, but it is something distant, something outside of one's self. Again, perhaps all of us are such Catholics at one time or another in our faith journeys. But it is a matter of life or death that we not remain such Catholics.
Typically the term that has been opposed to "cultural Catholic" is "devout Catholic." I also think we need to re-think that terminology. There is nothing wrong with being a devout Catholic; we want to be devout Catholics. However, the way the term is used has become increasingly meaningless. Mark Shea has a commentary on this point. I would suggest that we should oppose "heirloom Catholic" with "Eucharistic Catholic." If we are devoted to Christ in the mass, Eucharistic adoration, and spiritual communion, then we cannot help but move outward toward others (this was Mother Teresa's approach); we cannot help but create a Catholic culture that makes the spiritual visible, which is a sacramental way of living in the world.
However, I began to think more about the term, "cultural Catholic." On the one hand, we may go to mass every day and if the Eucharist does not change our lives, then we are in a sense a cultural Catholic. (Vinny Flynn talks about this idea without using the term "cultural Catholic.") On the other hand, we actually want to promote Catholic culture, which is the "body" of the "spiritual" life of Catholicism. The website Catholic Culture is devoted to the development of such a culture. David Gibson wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal describing Pope Benedict XVI's advocacy of a vibrant Catholic culture. We should all strive to be cultural Catholics in the best sense: sacramentals around the house (holy water, images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, a crucifix in every room), blessing your children each day, crossing yourself when you pass a Catholic church which has the Eucharist reserved, saying grace before meals in public, etc.
I think perhaps a better term is "heirloom Catholic." By that I mean those who treat their faith like a family heirloom which rests on a shelf, gets dusted off and brought down from time to time to look at and remember past times, then to be put back on the shelf. It is itself a treasure, but it is something distant, something outside of one's self. Again, perhaps all of us are such Catholics at one time or another in our faith journeys. But it is a matter of life or death that we not remain such Catholics.
Typically the term that has been opposed to "cultural Catholic" is "devout Catholic." I also think we need to re-think that terminology. There is nothing wrong with being a devout Catholic; we want to be devout Catholics. However, the way the term is used has become increasingly meaningless. Mark Shea has a commentary on this point. I would suggest that we should oppose "heirloom Catholic" with "Eucharistic Catholic." If we are devoted to Christ in the mass, Eucharistic adoration, and spiritual communion, then we cannot help but move outward toward others (this was Mother Teresa's approach); we cannot help but create a Catholic culture that makes the spiritual visible, which is a sacramental way of living in the world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
