There’s been a growing trend amongst those in the Catholic world of media. Those who have “made it,” succumb to their own sins, presumptions and faults, leading to preaching something less than the Gospel. I suppose all of us preach less than the Gospel because all of us in our living, fail to grasp how entirely we need grace to get through the moments of each day, and how little of our success if we have success in this endeavor, is credit to anything other than God. We get the joy of having cooperating, and seeing the fruit. That’s it. That’s all. I’m guessing we keep forgetting that reality when the lure of the world blinds us.
I’ve been a fangirl of many a Catholic writer, and admittedly gushed when acknowledged by some, and followed others long past their moment of glory as friends. However, I’ve also witnessed over the years, the fall of Icarus after Icarus, who thought they’d reach heaven on fame, glory, honor and following. I’m not sure what is more discouraging, the fall of the one who seemed to touch the stars, or the dark glory some feel in the fall of the person, or the blindness of some to the fall, or of those who view then everything that was done, as somehow false. God works through imperfect vessels, and we are all such things. Likewise, God calls us to holiness, which involves self sacrifice and humility and willingness to endure suffering as Christ does –so when someone struggles or fails, or sins, we aren’t to rejoice, nor are we to pretend it isn’t a reality. We are to seek to address the injustice (all sin is an injustice), we are to address/redress the wrongs.
Given the number of scandals, of cover ups, of failures to address wrongs in a meaningful manner in the religious world, we have a dirth of sack cloths, of fasting, of people willing to offer their sufferings and their prayers and their acts, as atonement for the sins we’ve done against the Eucharist, against our Beloved Jesus. For those of us in Catholic media, whether part or full time, professional or not, we need to remember the measure of our faith is not how many followers or likes we get, but how many souls turn to the sacraments. Not how many people share the articles or purchase the books, but live the Gospel and share the good news with all they encounter through how they live.
As the current let us call it, the iron age of Catholic media persists, fewer pieces that are not “Order this” in nature. To be a disciple is to deny one’s self, to discover how dependent on grace we are not to be depraved –not just today but every day. Our own experience of fallen faith celebrity after fallen faith celebrity ought to instruct us as clearly as Peter and Judas and Thomas, that if we are relying on our own strength, our own gifts, and our own vision, we’re not subservient to Christ. If we are not about the business of washing each other’s feet, pouring oil on the wounds, and helping carrying the cross of someone suffering, we are in a business for something other than Christ.
The seduction of the world is a constant press, which disguises itself as a means to a “greater good.” We have lots of industries right now in the Catholic world that hum along, cranking out books and videos and materials, podcasts and rosaries and the like, all of which present a fair face to the world. However, when a ministry becomes an end in and of itself, as opposed to a means, it ceases to be a ministry. It becomes a carnival with a barker. It means that we are not witnessing Christ but marketing religion.
We need to be looking for witnesses that reveal the beatitudes in all their hard beauty –which usually in this day and age, won’t become a story because it wasn’t done and isn’t done to be a story, but to be of service. Grace infused lives, usually are visible not because the person doing is tweeting about their acts, but because their acts day in and day out, act as salve to a wounded world. Which brings me to the hard question for me, and for anyone who has read this far…what are we going to do, to make up for the pains our fellow Catholics have done to Our Lord? What are we going to do for the pains we have caused Him?
I will post tomorrow some ideas…
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