Franciscan at Home

We print here the inspirational homily given by the Bishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, O.P., at the year beginning preparations for World Youth Day, a marvellous meditation on the Cross and its meaning.

Behold the Cross. What does it mean? A gibbet on which a young man was tortured and executed for his beliefs? A totem at the end of beads hanging from the rear-vision mirror in a car? A symbol used by vampire-slayers to ward off evil spirits? A sign outside hospitals, ambulances, the Red Cross Blood Bank, indicating care and healing? A memorial along the side of the road to some young person who crashed or in a graveyard to some young solider who was killed? A tattoo on the arm of a bikie or jewellery around the neck of a cool girl? An invitation on the top of churches to come inside? The ‘halt and the lame creeping to the cross’ on Good Friday hoping for something?

Behold the Cross on which ‘the Son of man must be lifted up’. The first Christians saw this instrument of execution very much as a countersign to the world and as a source of a new kind of power and wisdom. Soon it was the code signal for Christians. Generations of theologians and bishops, mystics and saints, artists and ordinary people revered the cross. They bowed or genuflected before it in their churches or homes. They scratched it on the tombs of their loved ones. They brought to it their fears and sufferings, hopes and dreams. They made the sign of the cross, especially to pray for things or against evil. For as we just heard in our Gospel passage ‘God so loved the world he gave his only Son, that those who believe in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.’ (Jn 3:13-17) If you feel lost, right now, this day, or any day in the future, turn to him and find in his cross life, not death.

He sat in my office, his body tense with anxiety. He had years of training in theology, but nothing had prepared him for this. As he spoke to me, his eyes darted around the room, as if he was hoping to find some kind of answer written on the walls.

“How do I reach them?” He asked with such sincerity that tears were almost welling up in his eyes. “I know I’m telling them about the faith. I know what they are hearing is true. But it’s like I’m speaking a foreign language.” And then he looked up at me, hopeful that I could answer his important question:

“How can I talk to teens about the faith in a way that they will listen to?”

His experience (and frustration) is hardly unique. Many adults who try to pass the faith on to youth feel like they are speaking to people from a different planet. The General Directory for Catechesis tells us that to pass the faith on to young people, we “must adopt a missionary dimension rather than a strictly catechumenal dimension.” (GDC 185) As catechists to youth, we cannot envision ourselves as people who are teaching a group of “little adults”. Instead, we must view ourselves as missionaries to a foreign culture.

Working with teenagers is a challenge. Many adults ‘don’t get’ them. Part of the difficulty is a misunderstanding of what is going on in the period of adolescence. Catechists often wonder if they should approach them as big children or little adults. Clark, in Hurt: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers, gives us a different perspective: ‘Developmental theorists have acknowledged for decades what the general populace has yet to comprehend, much less embrace: adolescence is not a blend of both child and adult, nor is it an expanded phase of either. Adolescence is a unique phase of life that must be understood and dealt with on its own merits.’ (p.27)

As catechists, we need to understand the specific developmental needs of teenagers. Behavioural psychologist John Santrock writes: ‘[Adolescence is]the period of life between childhood and adulthood… [The process] lasts roughly from 10-13 years of age and ends at 18-22 years of age. [However,] defining when adolescence ends is not an easy task. It has been said that adolescence begins in biology and ends in culture.’ (see Clark p.28)

As they gathered together in the upper room, the Apostles knew the Truth. They knew Jesus was the Son of God, the Word who became flesh. They knew that He had suffered, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. Jesus had explained to the disciples what the Scriptures meant and how He fulfilled them. He had been recognized in the breaking of the bread. And He commanded them to ‘Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…’

But their next course of action, as chronicled in the Book of Acts, is one that should give us pause. We do not see them huddled around a table with a large map, sectioning out areas for each one of them to reach. Nor do we see them break into different committees to discuss which course of action would be most effective to impact their audience. And we certainly don’t read about the apostle who suggested that maybe the best way to start is to put an announcement in the bulletin to see if anybody would be interested in helping them.

No. They were praying and waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

What is a ‘young adult?’

This is the question that plagues many people in young adult ministry in the United States. Young adults are often described by their age range: 18 to 30 years old. But Christian Smith, author of Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults, suggests the term young adult is a misnomer. He proposes we call this age group emerging adults. ‘Rather than viewing these years as simply the last hurrah of adolescence or an early stage of real adulthood, (this title) recognizes the very unique characteristics of this new and particular phase of life.’[i]

Previously, he and Melissa Lundquist Denton wrote a book called Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Published in 2005, Soul Searching became one of the most influential books in American Catholic Youth Ministry since the USCCB published Renewing the Vision in 1997.

Soul Searching studied the religiosity of American teenagers. Souls in Transition continues that study by looking at the lives of 18 to 24 year olds. ‘The features marking this stage are intense identity exploration, instability, a focus on self, feeling in limbo or in transition or in-between, and a sense of possibilities, opportunities, and unparalleled hope. These, of course, are also accompanied… by large doses of transience, confusion, anxiety, self-obsession, melodrama, conflict, disappointment, and sometimes emotional devastation.’

As well as visual appeal, YOUCAT significantly highlights the words of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, more than any other saintly inspiration. She has for many years had world-wide iconic status among all age groups, especially the young, for her relentless devotion to the poorest of the poor. Her prayer-soaked words marinate every section of the catechism. They need to be returned to often so as to savour them. By bringing Mother Teresa’s teaching together in this article I intend to allow the reader to view the full landscape of her thought, adding only brief commentary as a navigational aid.

The formation of the laity is a life-long process, consciously undertaken in faith, as Newman well knew, but there is a special problem in awakening, retaining and reviving the Faith among the young. The problem is not new. It faces every generation. There are several reasons for this youthful resistance. In the first instance there is the natural disinclination of the young to accept the beliefs and customs of their elders. But one of the more corrosive causes of unbelief in the young is the relentless barrage of secularist propaganda that bombards them. Another contributory factor can be the reluctance (often well intentioned) of adults to give ‘a reasoned defence (apologia)… with gentleness and reverence’ of the Faith they hold (cf. 1 Peter 3.15). The fact remains that many people fail to recover the Faith to which they were introduced when young. Catholics may form the largest religious group in the United States, but it is said that the second largest consists of lapsed Catholics.

Hollywood loves to blur the lines. One of the things I disliked the most about the Star Wars prequels is how it took a clear cut conflict between good and evil (Rebels/Jedis were good, Empire/Stormtroopers were bad) and turned it into a moral quagmire. This is a constant theme in Hollywood: make the good guys evil and make the bad guys good. But these past few years, a new genre has emerged that speaks to the heart of what it means to be good, the virtue of sacrifice, and the responsibility that comes with power. They are known as, ‘superhero movies.’