Franciscan at Home

Experience in the garden teaches us that the strongest of plants cannot flourish if the soil is poor. The wise gardener tends to his soil carefully, in order to prepare the necessary environment in which plants can thrive and bear fruit.

By analogy, the same is true in evangelization. When a Catholic organization—be it a diocese, parish, movement, or other apostolic entity—has issues located in its “soil” such as isolated or overwhelmed leaders, divisions, system-wide confusion, or little joy, then its “plants” (programs, plans, and people) cannot flourish. Efforts that might otherwise have produced missionary disciples get frustrated; and good, devout, and talented people can be left puzzled and deflated.

Earlier this year, Pope Francis promulgated The Joy of Love as a major part of the Church’s commitment to proclaim the Gospel of the Family in response to “the many signs of crisis in the institution of marriage” (no. 1). The rather lengthy document reiterates and consolidates much of the work of the recent synod on marriage and family, while also offering the Pope’s own profound reflections concerning the nature of marital love, the dynamics of family life, the education of children, and family spirituality.

By virtue of its sheer length and breadth of content, the document requires considerable time and effort to work through, and reaping the full fruits of Pope Francis’ teachings will certainly be a long term and multi-faceted process. Nonetheless, for those of us working in educational and pastoral situations there are key parts of the text that immediately stand out for the fundamental shape that they give to all our attempts to help others understand and more fully embrace God’s plan for sex, love, and marriage.

Why do so many newly baptized Catholics stop practicing their faith within only a couple years? The causes of attrition are various, and can include inadequate catechesis in the RCIA process, lack of interior conversion to Christ, and insufficient support and connection with other Catholics or the wider parish community.[i]

Let’s think about these new Catholics for a minute. Still wet from baptism and glistening with the oil of confirmation, they now have a new status and, according to the tradition of the Church, a new name. The elect who have been initiated into the Catholic Church are called “neophytes.” The term neophyte comes from the Greek, neos, meaning new, and phutos, meaning grown or planted, so, literally, “newly planted.” The former catechumens are now newly planted or grafted onto the Vine who is Christ. Initially, the term neophyte meant only those receiving full sacramental initiation; it has come to refer equally to candidates who are received into the Church. They retain this special name and status for a year following their initiation.

If the neophytes are fortunate, their parish provides a post-baptismal catechesis called Mystagogy, which lasts until Pentecost. Yet, whether at Easter or at Pentecost, the RCIA experience ends, and they set forth to begin a Catholic life, but now unaccompanied—seemingly alone and often surrounded at work and at home with non-Catholics, who are anything but supportive of their new faith. They are “newbies” in a faith that takes a lifetime to learn, in a world ever more hostile to the basic premises of Christianity. Their need for pastoral care is, one could argue, every bit as great as when they were engaged in becoming Catholic. No gardener would put his new plants in the ground unprotected in the early spring. No, he would keep them in a greenhouse, or cover them with plastic, and keep a careful watch on them. Just so, the newly planted need to be accompanied and strengthened as they “practice” being Catholic. This is the purpose of the “Neophyte Year.”

The true essence of marriage lies in the marital bond. Since the sacramentality of marriage consists principally in the indissoluble bond, the indissolubility does not come into being exclusively or principally by the mutual obligation that is undertaken with the consent of the two, but by the action of God…That which God gives remains forever; he does not repent of his gifts…The matrimony of two of the baptized…is in real, essential and intrinsic relationship with the mystery of the union of Christ with the Church…and therefore it participates in its nature…[i] These words from Italian Cardinal Carlo Caffarra contain truths that are rarely present in the hearts and minds of young Catholic couples today. These truths are basic to a Catholic understanding of marriage and yet are surprising to couples who have come to believe that marriage is only about them. Culturally, couples in the Western world have little or no conception of the supernatural reality that is Catholic marriage. To the average couple, marriage is about falling in love and then choosing to affirm that love with vows that they speak to one another. At best, for the nominally Catholic couple, the Church’s minister is at the wedding to “bless” their consent. They rarely discern a greater and deeper supernatural Presence who wants to enter their shared love precisely because it is his love that they are entering. This presence of course is Jesus Christ. The Bridegroom of the Church wishes to bless this couple by taking up their “yes” to one another into his eternal “yes” to his Bride, the Church. Catholic marriage will make a cultural impact in the West only when it is thoroughly bathed in this supernatural reality; otherwise it remains imagined as a secular affair surrounded by religious symbols.

We need to find the right language, arguments and forms of witness that can help us reach the hearts of young people,appealing to their capacity for generosity, commitment, love and even heroism, and in this way inviting them to take up the challenge of marriage with enthusiasm and courage. (Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia, art. 40) God is present in the ordinary humanity of family life: in the crises and in the joys. As catechists, we have the privilege of helpingpeoplebecome more attuned and responsive to this God who is present through matrimonial grace.

Hablando por mí, debo admitir que mi mente a menudo divaga durante la Misa, especialmente durante la Misa diaria. Generalmente me dejo caer en un banco de la iglesia unos treinta segundos antes o después de que el sacerdote haya entrado. Mi mente anda dando vueltas y estoy distraído por miles de pequeñas preocupaciones. Para cuando haya terminado el Evangelio, a menudo me doy cuenta que apenas he escuchado una palabra. Mi respuesta, "Gloria a Ti, Señor Jesús" a veces me provoca una risita silenciosa ya que viene pegada al final de un chorro de pensamientos que nada tenían que ver con Jesús. Luego, a pesar de mi sincera intención de concentrarme en la homilía, de nuevo se me va la mente. Sin embargo, a lo largo de los años, he descubierto unas técnicas que me han ayudado a lidiar con este problema.

Si entrabas a la tiendita de la esquina y preguntabas al ciudadano estadounidense promedio, "Qué es lo que representa la Iglesia Católica?", ¿cuál sería su respuesta?

Muchos enfocarían los asuntos morales: "La Iglesia Católica está en contra del aborto, en contra de la contracepción, y en contra del 'matrimonio' gay'". Casi nadie diría: "La Iglesia Católica representa a Dios quien es amor y quien nos creó por amor; quien nos invita a compartir su amor; quien envió a su Hijo para morir por nosotros por amor; y quien quiere perdonarnos sin importar lo que hemos hecho y nos sana para que estemos felices en esta vida y con Él por siempre en el cielo."

El amor y la misericordia de Dios están en el mero corazón del Evangelio; sin embargo, la mayoría de la gente, incluyendo muchos católicos, desconocen este punto central de nuestra fe. Esta es una razón por la que el Papa Francisco he hecho una llamada para este Jubileo extraordinario llamado "El Año de la Misericordia".

Those involved in youth and young adult ministry accompany and mentor young people as they center their lives on Christ. We hope you enjoy this testimony written by a young adult woman, who describes a significant instance of this conversion from her own life.

Recently, I spoke to 100 young adults on a retreat in the mountains of Prescott, Arizona. The majority of attendees were single and feeling uncertain about their lives and the direction the Lord was taking them. In addition, many spoke of the ache they have in their hearts—the longing they have to find someone to love them in marriage. I remember this feeling myself when I was a single younger adult praying for my vocation and wondering if God would ask me to be single for the rest of my life. The thought made me feel so sad and lonely. Then something changed.

All of us have experienced the natural instinct of physical thirst. Physical thirst can, therefore, be an effective starting point for a fruitful catechetical meditation on our desire for God and the fundamental disposition of the soul needed to seek him.

Throughout salvation history, we see numerous examples of thirst. After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, they became so thirsty in the desert that they grumbled against their liberator (Ex 17:3). Samson also cried out to the Lord in his thirst (Jdg 15:8). In both of these circumstances, God himself satisfies them. The Psalmist recognized this as he prayed, “O God, you are my God—it is you I seek! For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts, in a land parched, lifeless, and without water” (Ps 63:2). Another Psalm compares the longing of the soul for God to a “deer that longs for streams of water” and desires to “enter and see the face of God” (Ps 42:1). Through the prophet Isaiah, God invites “all who are thirsty” to “come to the water” (Is 55:1) and he assures the Israelites that they will “draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation” (Is 12:3). These examples of thirst give us a sense of the longing of the people for something more, something that will ultimately satisfy.