The Gomer Pyle Axiom of High and Low Expectations

A reader from Utah writes some very kind words:

I’ve just finished Vol II of your trilogy and want to say “Thank You” for sharing the bounty of riches you have amassed on your faith journey and now have recorded in your wonderful style. I have such newfound depth and appreciation of the Marian doctrines. Another delight for me in reading your books is the revelation of the charm, depth, humanity and struggles of the Early Church.

As a very poorly cathechized Catholic (despite 9 years of Catholic school–grades 4-12. It is breathtaking to realize the paucity of faith transmission despite my being an eager learner who loved history.), I never knew such accessible accounts of the mind and life of the early Church existed. I learned practically nothing of church history–it saddens me to think of the monumental waste of money my parents incurred for a so called “Catholic” education.

Your books should become required study for every Catholic (and Evangelical!) high school student worldwide . (I will pray that your trilogy becomes a classic to be found in the library of every Christian home and classroom).

Again, thanks. You have done the Faith a great service . Our King and His/Our Mother must be very pleased, indeed.

Your pal in the American “Zion”,

Thank you for your very kind words about Mary, Mother of the Son. I’m glad the book is of service!

Your note puts me in mind of something I’ve been thinking about for a while. I often hear from Catholics about how lousy their education in the Faith was. All over the place, Catholics who are waking up to the treasure of the Faith have a very common response: “Why didn’t anybody ever tell me?”

That’s to be expected. When you discover that you aren’t an orphan in a Dickens story but are instead a sort of spiritual Richie Rich, sitting on top of this colossal gold mine of apostolic tradition and that it’s yours for the asking, it can be dazzling. It can also engender feelings of anger: “We wuz robbed!”

But there are some things I think we should add to the mix. First and foremost, we wasn’t always robbed. In my own case, no small part of the reason I never knew this stuff growing up was because I had no desire to hang around with, you know, Christians.

Beyond this, though, is what I call the Gomer Pyle Axiom of High and Low Expectations. When we expect greatness, mere adequacy is a hanging offense. When we expect nothing (as we do from Gomer Pyle) than we react as though a new Caruso has been born when Gomer burst forth in a voice of moderate tone and talent.

We expect awesomeness from the Catholic Church. What we usually get, at the parish level, is people who are more or less like us–average–doing the religious ed. At the time, we just sort of shuffle through the averageness, not expecting more. Then we discover the full awesomeness of the Church and feel robbed. What we are overlooking, I think, is that the reason we are seeing the awesomeness *now* is because the Church’s members are creating more and more and more and *MORE* catechetical materials which really are doing a pretty darn good job of delivering the goods as far as helping us discover the length, breadth, height and depth of the riches of the fullness of Christ.

20 years ago, when I came into the Church, there wasn’t much out there at a lay catechetical level. There was the Hardon Catechism, Catholicism and Fundamentalism, various books by Peter Kreeft, Catholic and Christian, and a couple of volumes of conversion stories. Ten years later, when I spoke at my parish, there were two lunch tables groaning with books and A/V materials. Now you could probably fill 10 or 20 tables with stuff. So the good news is: the Body of Christ has heard and responded to the cry of “Teach me!” from the faithful! Now the problem is “How to drink from a firehose.” A perusal of all the stuff from say, Ignatius, Catholic Answers, St. Joseph Communications, and all the other Catholic media outlets out there would bury us in information.

All of which is to say, “Take hope!” We live in a radically theologically illiterate age. But we also live in a time when it has never been easier for even a total illiterate to gain a really sound education in the faith if they want to. And if you are reading this, you aren’t illiterate. So dig in and enjoy!