Why I Lost Faith in the "New Evangelization"

 I've been made aware from homilies at Mass in which our priests were instructed to weave Eucharistic themes into their sermons, that we are in the midst of a $28 million National Eucharistic Revival, which is sponsored by the U.S. Catholic bishops and is to culminate in a National Eucharistic Conference in 2024. The stated mission of the Eucharistic Revival is to “renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the holy Eucharist.”

Now, I really try hard in speech and word not to crap on things that have an obviously good motivation and core; I try hard not to be too critical, give the benefit of the doubt, and do my best to support such initiatives which do not conflict with conscience; and (obviously as readers of this blog know), I don't always do a great job of that. That being said, when I heard about this Eucharistic initiative by the U.S. Catholic bishops, I let out a little sigh because it felt a bit like deja vu, like I had been here before. 

In 2017, I got involved with an apostolate called St. Paul Street Evangelization. I was drawn to their grassroots mission of "taking to the streets" to spread the Gospel of Christ and give bold witness in the public square. The mission of SPSE draws from Sherry Waddell's Forming Intentional Disciples, as well as the Second Vatican Council's reiteration that all Catholics by their baptism in Christ are called to evangelize and "make disciples of all nations" (Mt 28:19), given credence in Pope Benedict XVI's establishment of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization. In his 2010 homily on the Solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul, he called for “renewed evangelization where the first proclamation of the faith has already resonated and where Churches with an ancient foundation exist but are experiencing the progressive secularization of society and a sort of "eclipse of the sense of God", which pose a challenge to finding appropriate to propose anew the perennial truth of Christ's Gospel.”

I started a local SPSE chapter at the parish we were attending at the time, ordering placards, apologetic tracts, rosaries and Miraculous Medals in bulk. Once a month we would set up in a busy section of town and try to engage passersby. If they were non-Christians, we would speak to them about God and eternity; if they were non-Catholics, we would engage with them on our commonalities, and ask them if they ever considered Catholicism; if they were Catholics, we would ask them what their parish was and encourage them to come back to Confession and Mass if they were fallen away. In addition to monthly evangelization sessions and training team members wanting to get involved, I worked for SPSE as a 1099 contractor, typing up reports and testimonies from other teams across the country for the apostolate.

In his epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul writes of the various gifts of ministry, that "[Christ] gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers" (Eph 4:11). I did feel like I was called to give witness to the Gospel as an evangelist(as opposed to teaching, priesthood, or prophetic ministry), and this seemed like the practical application of that calling. The field seemed ripe for harvest--how many fallen away Catholics, how many baptized, had failed to have the seed of the Gospel take root in their hearts? These neo-pagans were surely ripe for the picking in the harvest of the New Evangelization--the 21st century New Springtime of Renewal.   

I don't know at what point I lost the fire for this apostolate and ministry; of course I had realistic expectations that we weren't going to see mass success or conversions, and I also knew that it becomes "work" at some point after the initial excitement and honeymoon wears off. While I never lost the zeal to bring souls to Christ, I did start to doubt that the model of this particular apostolate as an extension of these post-conciliar initiatives put forth by the Holy See under John Paul II and Benedict XVI. This doubt started to creep in around the time we were transitioning over to a Traditional Latin Mass parish and waking up to the problems inherent in the post-conciliar reforms, and I was faced with the question, "If someone I am evangelizing said, 'All you say sounds good. Take me to Mass! How do I become Catholic?' what the heck do I do?" Take them to the parish secretary or priest at the local (Novus Ordo) parish? Get them signed up for RCIA? It was almost a crisis of conscience, and one I felt guilty about even experiencing. Isn't it a good thing someone would (hypothetically) want to become Catholic? Attend Mass? Binge watch Bishop Barron videos? Sign up for the Bible in a Year with Fr. Mike Schmitz? Read the Matthew Kelly books the local parish gives out and become a Dynamic Catholic™? 

I said I didn't want to crap on good things, so I'm going to try really hard not to. But circling back to the National Eucharistic Conference that I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I am reliving that inner conflict I had with the evangelization apostolate and recalling the words of our Lord regarding the foolish builder who built his house on sand, "The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash" (Mt 7:27).

The new revised (1995) Catechism states that the Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life" (CCC 1324). It is fundamental doctrine that the Eucharist is truly and substantially the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ made truly present under guise of bread and wine. I believe this as a Catholic, as all Catholics should (though as many research groups have highlighted, a majority of Catholics do not have even this basic understanding of transubstantiation). 

And yet, there is this idea of "do as I say, not as I do." For if we truly believed that our Lord was truly present before us at Mass, why in God's holy Name do we persist in 95% of Catholic parishes with:

-employing legions of lay Eucharistic Ministers distributing Holy Communion;

-giving Communion in the hand;

-giving scandal by not ex-communicating Catholic politicians who support abortion and have the audacity of presenting themselves to Holy Communion;

-neglecting to remind Catholics who are in a state of mortal sin not to receive Communion;

-failing to preach from the pulpit about the sin of contraception and the permanence of marriage.

On that last point, I wrote in Consummation, 

 

Marriage is more than a contract, more than an agreement which can be broken. It's validity, it's lifeblood, the ratifying of the contract depends upon consummation--a fusion of flesh, and this is the nature of Eucharistic communion. In it we partake in the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection. It is not for everyone, because it is not profane or common, but exclusive to those disposed towards its worthy reception. In it we become one bread, one body, one spirit. One cannot get any closer to the presence of the Lord than during this moment when we become One Flesh with the Bridegroom Himself. It is a moment of profound privilege and intimacy reserved for those who are called to His chamber. We do not "think and speculate" in this moment about the Lord. We TASTE AND SEE the goodness of the Lord (Ps 34:8).

Satan has his work cut out for him in the perversion and debasement of the sexual act during his reign here on earth. But he does it, why? Because in deforming the meaning and act of sex as properly understood, he can obscure our understanding of true spiritual consummation--what it means to eat the flesh of the Son of Man! If we don't understand what sex is and what it is for, our telos is reduced to a temporal, sterile, material act of self-fulfillment rather than an eternal, fruitful, profoundly spiritual act of self-abandonment. And if we don't know what committed, chaste, fruitful, selfless sexual intimacy is, is it any wonder we have adopted such a casual, profane, and presumptuous posture in the Communion line?

The inconsistency in how we live as Catholics (and how our shepherds choose or fail to teach and admonish) amounts to an example of "do as I say, not as I do." I would never discourage someone, even a non-Catholic, from visiting an Adoration chapel and making a holy hour and encountering the Eucharistic Lord in prayer, and I see the value in Eucharistic processions as a means of public witness. But when the post-conciliar allowances present in the GIRM (EMs, communion in the hand, etc) which have now become common practice combined with the fact Catholics who eschew contraception and divorce-and-remarriage are considered "radical" or "rigid," and Catholic pro-aborts are given a free pass, we are sending mixed messages. 

Whether it is the New Springtime of Vatican II, the National Eucharistic Revival or the "New Evangelization," I'm sad to say I have do not have faith in these institutional initiatives as a means of renewal in the Church.

But I have not lost faith--in fact, it is quite the contrary. I still have a heart for evangelization, to bring the Good News of the Gospel to the poor, the lost, the lukewarm. I carry Miraculous Medals with me in my car and bag to give out wherever I go. I do the uncomfortable work of trying to admonish and catechize my poorly-formed Catholic father about the basics of Catholic doctrine (sin, the need for Confession, Holy Days of Obligation, judgement, Heaven and Hell, etc). I write into the internet void, hoping a seed of truth lands in someone's heart and strengthens their faith or leads them to metanoia. As a family we try to live basic, fervent authentic Catholic lives on the ground even when we eschew Catholic™ programming. 

But this is all because I believe, as I heard one Orthodox bishop insightfully state recently, that “Christ did not come to change a bad person into a good person, He came to give life to a dead person.” When you prepare a feast for a King, you set the table. Nothing should be neglected--not the polishing of the silver or the placing of the centerpieces or the instruction of the servers. Should the table or chair be wobbly or off center, wouldn't you want to correct that before he sits down to eat? Otherwise all your other initiatives are overshadowed by this shaky setting. 

Jesus Christ is not a "better way"...he is the only way to the Father (Jn 14:6). The Christian life is not a matter of self-improvement or ecological or economic harmony...it is the difference between life and death. The lukewarm the Lord will vomit from His mouth (Rev 3:16). That those who preach the basic fundamentals of Christian doctrine in the Church today are canceled, silenced or marginalized should cue the orthodox believer to read the signs of the times. There is an old saying: Red sky in morning, shepherd take warning. Red sky at night, shepherd's delight--which also appears in holy Scripture:

“When in evening, ye say, it will be fair weather: For the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today; for the sky is red and lowering" (Mt 16:2-3)

As the new sun rises blood red in the sky over this godless generation, we would be wise to trim our lamps and prepare for the Bridegroom's return rather than waiting for the warnings to come from the top down. The smoke of Satan has already entered the Church; someone fell asleep in the armchair as the cigarette hits the carpet. Or maybe it was shoddy wiring covered up by decades of plaster. Who knows. Meanwhile our shepherds are making their beds and brewing coffee and ordering new curtains for the living room rather than pulling the fire alarm. Meanwhile, the rest of us with burning nostrils and choked lungs are doing everything we can to pull out our brothers and sisters--tying bedsheets together, throwing mattresses out of second story windows, breaking our legs in the fall and running back in through the front door to try to pull out more bodies. 

We might never know what caused the fire in the first place. But to stand on the lawn and see the smoldering house, where not even the foundation remains, we realize that we are indeed now homeless tenants, sojourners, pilgrims and laborers. The rebuilding will take place over time, but slowly--brick by brick, joist by joist--from the hands of the survivors.