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Are We Presenting God To The World Correctly?
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December 10, 2021It's hard to ignore the decline in church attendance, especially when visiting American churches often reveals dwindling numbers of individuals under 40 years old. This issue isn't exclusive to any particular community, as recent Pew research indicates. They conducted a poll that found 37% of American Catholics now identify as "spiritual but not religious," with an additional 20% showing ambivalence towards spirituality and religion. This trend is even more pronounced in denominational churches nationwide.
The late Blessed Archbishop Sheen once observed that Catholics have become "inoffensive," and there's a modern trend towards making religion easily understandable and non-controversial. Bishop Barron has noted that Christianity as a whole has become rather bland. We live in an era where spirituality fascinates many, yet the church often fails to captivate.
In our attempt to appeal to a secular world, we've smoothed out the rough edges of our faith, inadvertently losing its sacredness in the process. Modern Catholicism struggles to compete with the pervasive secularism that permeates our lives. We've made God overly comprehensible, potentially rendering Him boring to those who seek a deeper connection.
There's a Buddhist saying that goes, "If you see Buddha in the road, kill it." This underscores the idea that God should not be overly explainable; instead, He should remain mysterious and awe-inspiring. The great doctors of our Church caution against relying solely on personal experiences to define God, as these experiences are subjective and limited. While personal experiences are relevant to one's spiritual journey, their interpretation should be approached cautiously.
God invites us to trust Him, rather than the limited version of Him we create in our minds. Augustine and Aquinas remind us that our thoughts about God are inadequate, and we should remain open to the wonder of God's vastness.
God is beyond our wildest imagination, encompassing the whirlwind of Elijah, the burning bush of Moses, and the humble manger of His birth. He defies categorization and constantly reveals Himself in new and unexplainable ways. Even great theologians like Aquinas admitted that God cannot be accurately defined; we can only stand in awe of Him.
Our failure as a community lies in presenting God primarily through ethical teachings and moral instructions. People expect more from the Church—a journey of self-discovery leading to a personal encounter with the Almighty. God is not merely a dispenser of ethical guidance; He is a living presence. We must convey this sense of adventure and personal connection, making God intriguing and relevant to outsiders.
Bishop Sheen eloquently asserted, "Christ's legacy isn't a set of ethical principles or a compilation of moral guidelines." I find myself in full agreement with the late Archbishop, as it becomes evident that we're overlooking the profound essence of Jesus' message.
God approaches us with boundless love and abandon. In Christianity, it's not about our quest to find God; rather, it's about His relentless pursuit of us. The significance of the cross extends beyond salvation; it extends an invitation to a genuine friendship with God. This isn't limited to mere worship, discipleship, searching, or adhering to ethical standards; what God genuinely desires is an authentic intimacy with us. This is the core message I aim to convey in this blog, and regrettably, it's a message we seem to be neglecting.
On a recent afternoon a group of men from our church did some street evangelization. We met a young man who said the problem with Catholicism and Christianity as a whole is we are not conservative enough. I think what the young man meant to say is that we have become secularized and beige in our approach to the gospel message.
I paused and thought about that statement for a few days. That young man felt that people were not interested in us because we were not interesting enough to pay attention to. We’ve made God explainable and uninteresting enough to ignore.
Perhaps he is correct