From time to time I am approached by good Catholic parents who lament the fact that despite all they have done their children have stopped going to Mass. “Where have I gone wrong?” they ask. This heartfelt question is part of a much bigger picture, which at one level can be quite depressing. Fewer people today are attending church on a regular basis. Attendance at the sacraments is down. Priestly and religious vocations are in decline. Religion seems to be in trouble.
Rather than bemoan the times in which we live we need to ask what exactly is going on. Why is it that we are faced today with a situation in which people are turned off by religion? Is it because we have become a godless and pagan nation? The churches clearly are in trouble; but the crisis goes deeper than that.
The Church is only one institution experiencing difficulties. A recent press article referred to a consultation paper submitted to the government which underlines the new face of modern Britain: an age of individualism, moral relativism, family- breakdown and an increasing distrust of all institutions; sometimes called ‘postmodern’ Britain. Other statistics from the European community tell of rising teenage pregnancies, abortions and increasing addiction problems.
Are we now in a state of terminal decline as a society? Are we less moral than we used to be? Some commentators might push that view; personally I reject it. My rejection is partly based on the vision I have inherited, as a Salesian, from Don Bosco and St Francis of Sales. A vision strongly rooted in an optimistic humanism, in other words a belief in the essential goodness of humanity. For Don Bosco that always meant looking for the best even in the most recalcitrant of his youngsters. If we can learn to look at what is happening in our world through an optimistic rather than a pessimistic lens a different picture emerges. Far from being depressing it points to something profound and very significant. Alongside the worrying statistics a new and encouraging feature is emerging. The best word to describe this new awareness is spirituality; but more of that later.
Our society is not in decline; but it is undergoing profound and rapid change, and our task is to discern what is positive and what is negative in what is happening. Our young people today are not in decline; but being young today is to be in a process of profound and rapid change, and our task is to discern what is positive.
We can’t stop this change any more than King Canute could repel the tide; but we can try to understand it and see what it is saying to us.
I believe that beneath all this change lies the energy of the Holy Spirit. In fact the opening sentence of the Bible makes it very clear:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a vast waste, darkness covered the deep and the spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. (Gen. 1:1)
In what way can we describe what is happening to us in terms of the action of the Holy Spirit? I think Jesus himself offers us an approach to this confusion in our lives. You will recall how he was caught up in the domestic differences in the house of Martha and Mary. Martha was busy preparing the meal for him; Mary was absorbed in the privilege of being with him. Martha was so conscious of her busyness, of all the work that needed doing, and here was her sister ‘wasting time’. No doubt Martha clattered a few pans before she finally could not contain her annoyance any longer and demanded of Jesus that he get her sister to help her. Jesus does the unexpected thing; he doesn’t encourage Mary to give her sister a hand with the meal, instead he stops Martha short in her busyness and reminds her that Mary has chosen the better part. Now we don’t know whether the meal was ready on time but we do know that Jesus felt it important to help Martha understand her obsession with work.
What light can this story shed on our situation today? I believe that Mary represents our inner life with which we can lose contact; in other words it represents our soul. As a good housekeeper Martha was devoting all her energies to the outer life, to all the many little things that have to be done. She needed to connect with her inner journey. Only when the outer journey connects with the inner journey can the true self be revealed and healing take place.
The outer journey represents the great masculine drive of our past and present culture. At its best it sought to change things for the better, to make the world a better place. But if that drive and energy is not in touch with the inner self, with the feminine journey, then it remains unbalanced and ultimately life-draining rather than life-enhancing. What we then end up with is people having to work longer and longer hours to do more and more things to provide ‘the good things of life’. But our workaholic culture demands a high price in terms of stressed people whose relationships both at home and at work necessarily suffers. So many of our young people are victims of this culture. It is an addictive society.
Working harder to provide for our children can often disguise the far more difficult need to communicate with them. This is what St John Bosco meant when he said that it is not enough the love the young; they must know they are loved. We cannot communicate life to others if we are not in touch with our own inner stream of life and energy. My inner self, my soul, is the place where I become most aware of how I am loved unconditionally by God. If I can connect with that love I can then make the critical step to a healthy spirituality by realising above all that God does not love me because of what I do, or how hard I work, but He loves me because I am.
Cardinal Basil Hume wisely commented that the key problem for us Christians is not that we don’t believe in God, but that we don’t believe that he loves us. For too long now our culture has pointed us towards the outer journey as the only significant activity. Science kept telling us that only what is rational and measurable is important. As we begin this new century we need to redress the balance; to connect the outer journey with the inner one; the masculine with the feminine, the yin and the yang. It is revealed in our personal experience, and the experience of others; it is discovered in story, poetry, art, films and the whole world of the symbolic; above all in prayer and reflection.
In the domestic difference between Martha and Mary, Jesus teaches us a valuable lesson that we can all relate to if we can get in touch with our deeper selves as Mary did we will find the place where we are loved wholly and completely. That is our true identity. We then discover in the Martha dimension of our lives, that all we have, and all we are we are, is a gift from God; we cannot nor do we need to earn our way into God’s love; it is freely given. We are surrounded by grace at all times, especially in moments of deepest suffering.
What we need from religion today is not good advice but good news.
Fr Michael Cunningham SDB
