Luceat!

I was speaking with some friends the other evening about some of the trends and qualities of the so-called JPII generation of Catholics in America that set us apart from our forebears. Our previous Holy Father indicated on numerous occasions that this generation was to usher in a springtime for the Church, a renewed and vibrant expression of our ancient Faith in the modern world, an assertion that was the springboard for our discussion. [Note: The fact that such a discussion took place spontaneously is a testament to the inherent goodness of sitting down at a real table, eating real food, and talking to people who are really there.]

The question arose: If we are to be the leaders of the New Evangelization, proposing (again and for the first time) Christ-centered culture to the mostly secularized culture we’ve inherited, will this take the shape of revolt or renaissance? That is, are the teenagers and twentysomethings and thirtysomethings who’ve rejected many of the values of the generation who gave us the ‘Sexual Revolution’ merely in a state of rebellion against their elders in much the same way that their elders rejected the worldview of their elders? Will the ‘neo-’Catholicism of our generation of the faithful prove to be just an ideological pendulum swing (followed by a swing in the other direction), or will we leave something solid–a way of life, an actual culture and heritage and the means to pass it on–for posterity?

We talked briefly then about some of the more insidious pitfalls threatening us young Catholic folk. Chief among these dangers is contentment with a superficial Catholicity, which is not at all the same animal as a really Catholic approach to the world–there is an absolutely crucial difference between having Catholic answers in your head and having a bona fide Catholic mind. This tension between the Catholic veneer and the really Catholic worldview is played out in a lot of important places–the student’s desk, the classroom, the liturgy committee meeting, the dating relationship–above all: the heart of the believer. By way of illustration, this difference in approach can mean the difference between peacefully preparing for and hearing one’s vocation from Our Lord, and grasping for it because one has begun asking the question in the wrong frame of mind.

I believe this conversation wasn’t mere navel-gazing, but yet another call to a more total conversion to Christ; it is my firm belief that this total conversion will grow organically into a real Catholic culture if we but allow it, and won’t ultimately prove to have been a mere fashion of the time. What will it look like? More on that later…