Posted on 09/05/2018 9:59:43 AM PDT by Salvation
Consider a five-year-old child who had not yet learned to walk or talk, who could only lie in his crib, who could not eat solid food. Most of us would consider this a great tragedy, a case of arrested development. Surely as he failed to pass expected milestones his parents would consult multiple doctors in an anxious search for the cause of the problem and its cure. No one would fail to see the problem or shrug it off.
Now, let’s look at a case of arrested spiritual development and compare the typical response:
Consider a young adult—say 25 years old—who has graduated high school and even earned a college degree. Perhaps upon graduation he landed a job in a cutting-edge field. Despite being a highly trained expert in his secular field, his spiritual development is arrested; he has progressed little since the second grade. In some ways he has even gone backward: he can no longer recite an Act of Contrition or even the Hail Mary.
He still goes to Mass, but he is incapable of expressing much of anything about his faith. He knows that there is a God but does not know for sure if Jesus is God—he thinks so, but he’s not sure. He is aware of the Bible but can’t name all four Gospels and wouldn’t even be sure exactly where to find them in it. Names like Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, David, Peter, and Judas all sound familiar, but he can’t tell you much about them except that they’re in the Bible—somewhere. He’s heard of the sacraments but can’t name them; he isn’t sure he’s received any of them or if they are only for priests and nuns. Every now and then he thinks to pray, but he really doesn’t know what to say or how to do it. Sometimes he remembers a prayer from Mass, but when he tries to recite it on his own he gets stuck because there aren’t other people around him saying it and helping him along. He can recite the Our Father, though; we have to give him that!
Mind you, this is a smart guy: he has a lot of knowledge in his field and is sought out for technical advice in the corporation where he works. Spiritually, however, he’s an infant.
The interesting question is this: why were his parents and others in his parish not alarmed as they noticed his arrested spiritual development? As he went from second grade to third and then on to fourth, not only did not progress, he regressed. Why were his parents not concerned? Why were the pastor and catechists not shocked that he seemed to show no progress in the spiritual life?
As he advanced to high school his moral life began to slide. Soon his language coarsened, he resented authority, and he began consuming pornography on the Internet. His parents were irritated by this, but not alarmed enough to intensify his recourse to the sacraments or to augment his spiritual training. Spiritually he was frozen in time, but no one seemed to care enough to do anything about it.
But, by God, when he almost failed a math course his parents sprang into action and hired a tutor! After all, a failing grade might threaten his ability to get into a good college. In contrast, his failure to grow spiritually didn’t seem to faze them much. When he went off to college they drove up with him, toured the dorms, met a few professors, and attended orientation sessions—but they never thought to meet the college chaplain or to ask who would be spiritually teaching or pastoring their son. That sort of stuff just didn’t occur to them to ask about.
Well, you get the picture:
So, here we are today with many Christians who have a very bad case of arrested development. Scripture says,
Scripture is clear that the normal Christian life is this:
Yes, this is the normal Christian life. Maturity pertains to the human person in general and it certainly ought to pertain to men and women of faith. I pray that you who read this blog are well along this path and are seeking to grow. I presume it, in fact.
Many are not maturing, however, and I wonder if enough of us in the Church today see this for the horrifically strange and tragic phenomenon that it is. It is far stranger and more tragic than a five-year-old still lying in a crib, speechless and unable to eat solid food. It is vastly more serious than the high schooler who is failing math. To fail math may affect college and a career, but those are passing consequences. To fail in the faith affects eternity.
Why are we so serious about passing, worldly threats and not so much about threats that have eternal consequences? Arrested spiritual development is by far the most serious of all developmental issues. Parents may give their child every good thing, but if they do not ensure the gift of strong and mature faith, they have given him nothing but sand that will slip through his fingers.
Only what you do for Christ will last. Pray God that we get our priorities straight and make sure that we—and everyone—grow up in the Lord. It is true that we must accept the Kingdom of God like a little child in order to enter it, but this well-known scriptural text refers to our dependence not our ignorance. God made us to know Him and to fail to do so is to miss the whole point and dignity of our life.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
Under the “Consider a young adult” paragraph:
He/She know that there is a confessional box or room, but he/she doesn’t know how to go to Confession.
I have a 31 year old RCIA catechumen who's going to de received into the Church and married to a Catholic woman in a month. Speeding along so he'll get all his lessons before the Big Day.
I've been giving him special assignments and recommending all sorts of prayer experiences, including silent payer in the Adoration Chapel.
Very bright guy, loads of academic and technical training (he's in medical technology) --- doesn't see why he has to memorize the Ten Commandments.
What??
Well, I'm trying to inspire him with the vision that Catholicism is VAST and God Himself INCOMPARABLY VASTER STILL, and His TRUTH is like a two-edged sword separating bone and marrow. And he's skimming along ---
Well, he'll be received for sure, because he's getting married and this is something on his list to check off with his black felt-tip pen.
And he's young. I hope he'll keep growing.
How I wish I could find a way to convey this: God wants your whole mind! He can fill it! He wants your heart! Give it into His hands, the only safe place for your heart to be.
This offten happens when a big life milestone such as getting married or a sibling is going to become a parent and one is invited to become a god parrent to the new baby. Where I live there is classes to prepare Catholic adults who have not been confirmed to prepare them twice ayear.
Correct. I’m praying for him.
Really!
The books mentioned in the video:
Saint Thomas Aquinas: Summa Contra Gentiles
Saint Augustine: Confessions
Dante: Divine Comedy
Chesterton: Orthodoxy
Bonaventure: The Mind’s Road to God
God bless you as you seek to carryout the Great Commission!
It is a nearly impossible task to have ten or twelve weeks of intensity make up for ten or twelve years of neglect; especially since much of the faith cannot really be taught but can only be “caught”.
bump
Great books.
**And he’s young. I hope he’ll keep growing.**
Do you have someone else who can be an orthodox and true Catholic teacher for the neophytes?
Others have good instincts but are not particularly well-read or well-educated.
How the chips will fall if there were a real schism, though, I do not know. None of them --- including our Bishop --- would tolerate in-your-face heresy, but as we all know, Team Bergoglio is more into dithering ambiguities and diversions than into declarative sentences that lay it all out plainly.
For instance, PF will probably canonize Paul 6, incense all around, and then murder Humanae Vitae with equivocations.
**For instance, PF will probably canonize Paul 6, incense all around, and then murder Humanae Vitae with equivocations. **
This would be sooooooooo sad.
Ahem!
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