Many Catholics today are asking about our nation, “How did we ever get ourselves into this position?”
Today’s first reading proposes the answer the prophet Amos offered to the people of Israel about 2,500 years ago:
They drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the best oils; yet they are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph! Therefore, now they shall be the first to go into exile, and their wanton revelry shall be done away with.
Amos’ answer—fine wines and expensive perfumes—was directed at a culture whose people have grown sufficiently wealthy enough to many of the creature comforts the world had to offer. In the process, however, they focused increasingly upon accruing for themselves and then enjoying these creature comforts by living in the present moment. Instead, they should have been living in the present moment expecting what the future moment will have required of them. They didn’t and as their nation’s moral and spiritual strength was gradually sapped, the people increasingly became slaves to their desires. Eventually, their nation collapsed and they were left in this world with nothing but abiding moral and spiritual agony at all they had forsaken.
In today’s epistle, St. Paul addressed the same matter with his protégé, Timothy. Looking backwards from the future moment, St. Paul noted how the people of ancient Israel should have been pursuing righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness in the present moment. He then added they also should have competed well for the faith and, thus, laid hold of eternal life where there would be no agony, only abiding joy.
Jesus also addressed this issue in today’s gospel, using a parable about the poor man Lazarus as a prop to teach the Pharisees how an exclusive focus upon enjoying all the creature comforts this world has to offer—luxurious garments, fine linen, and dining sumptuously each day—can cause grave moral and spiritual harm.
Like the ancient Israelites and the Pharisees, the rich man’s problem wasn’t that he was rich, that he had the finest of everything, and never went without the finest foods. No, the problem was that everything this world offered led the rich man to focus so much upon enjoying all of that, he gradually grew unaware of and insensitive to the needs of those around him who had little if any of the basics they needed to sustain life in this world. And so, Jesus taught the Pharisees, the rich man received what was good during his lifetime—so much comfort—while the poor received what was bad—so much torment. In eternity, however, the poor will trade places with the wealthy and, Jesus noted, not only will the wealthy be incapable of changing anything of their eternally bad present situation but they also won’t be able to warn the people they left behind in death not to succumb to the temptation wealth presents.
Consider the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II of England. One of if not the richest of women in this world, the Cullinan diamonds in her tiara and imperial scepter were priceless. Glistening beautifully in Westminster Cathedral’s light as they lay atop the Queen’s coffin, the tiara and imperial scepter were removed as the coffin was lowered into the Cathedral’s tomb for the royal family. The Queen left this world as she entered it...with nothing but promise. On one end, the promise of life in this world. On the other end, the promise of eternal life.
The sad fact for the rich man is that during his days in this world, he could have changed his focus—had he repented—from satisfying his every desire to desiring to share his wealth with the poor. But, possessing everything he wanted in this world and believing it all was his personal possession rather than God’s gift to be shared generously with others just as generously as God shared it with humanity, the rich man worried more about himself, lulling himself into complacency and then neglecting those who sought to possess what they needed just to survive in this world. Now in eternity, Jesus taught, the rich man is experiencing moral and spiritual torment—realizing the error of his way in this world from which he did not repent—while the poor are luxuriating in the creature comforts that was never theirs in this world because the rich man was indifferent to their plight.
The rich man entered this world in the same way Queen Elizabeth did and left it exactly as she did. What about the promise that life in this world offered each?
These images oftentimes set the stage for a homily concerning the allure of wealth and how it can corrupt good people who otherwise would not become self-centered, seeking to acquire everything they want, and grow increasingly insensitive to offering some of that wealth to provide for the needs of the poor. Good as that homily may be, it doesn’t focus upon the substantive moral and spiritual issue that underlies both Amos’ judgment of the ancient Israelites and Jesus’ judgment about the Pharisees. That is, what led to the fall of ancient Israel and their 40-year exile in Babylon as well as the enslavement of the Jewish people living in Roman Palestine was what people forgot: The purpose of life in this world is to prepare for life in the next.
That’s how those people woke up one day in the morally and spiritually depressing situation in which they found themselves. Not repenting from the sin of indifference when they could, they weren’t up for the fight—they didn’t know what to fight or even how to fight it—to preserve their belief in eternal life in this world so they would experience it in the next.
Were the Jews of ancient Israel and the Pharisees of Roman Palestine today’s Catholics, they’d dutifully have attended Mass on Sundays and glibly professed their belief “in the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting. Amen”—as each of us did when we confirmed our Catholic faith. But, outside of Sunday Mass, assuming they even attended Mass, those words were meaningless, having absolutely zero impact upon how they lived each day in this world except perhaps when the funeral of a family member, relative, friend, or co-worker compelled them to contemplate the fact that they also will die...“When?” not “If?” being the salient question.
To answer the question many Catholics are asking today, “How did our nation ever get into the position?”, Amos and Jesus might respond that it’s because so many Catholics have become “sleepy” Catholics. They have allowed their desire to enjoy all the creature comforts this world has to offer to distract them from focusing upon the fact they are destined to die and patterning their days upon this fact. The prospect of eternal life and deciding what this requires each day of their lives in this world doesn’t even enter their minds.
For this reason, “sleepy” Catholics are quick to answer the question concerning how our nation got itself into the situation in which its citizens currently find it by pointing the finger of blame at politicians, the media, and what are called “social influencers.”
If “sleepy” Catholics are to be believed, all those folks are at fault:
- Politicians who focus upon accruing increased power to remake this world in their image and likeness.
- The media which promotes a godless if not anti-religious worldview that accords rights to human beings not their Creator.
- Social influencers who preach the gospel of death and promote for people of every age, especially the young who are most vulnerable to coercive propaganda.
While “sleepy” Catholics are correct about politicians, the media, and social influencers, the data suggest “sleepy” Catholics have three fingers of blame pointing back at themselves.
While a recent Pew survey reports 85% of all self-identifying U.S. Catholics believe in Heaven—45% of them males and 55% of them females—only 17% of Catholics under 30 years of age believe in Heaven, with 68% of those Catholics over 30 years of age. Of those self-identifying U.S. Catholics who believe in Heaven, 62% report that religion is “very important” in their lives while only 27% of those who don’t believe in Heaven report that religion is “very important” in their daily lives. Short of some divine intervention, those datapoints offer a clear portrait of where this trend is headed short of some divine intervention: In the future, there will be very few U.S. Catholics who believe in Heaven, the importance of religion in their lives, and who pattern their days in this world upon that belief.
Moreover, a majority of those who don’t believe in Heaven attended college—52%—while 48% didn’t. This datapoint indicates that younger Catholics are educated in and about this world, the less likely they will believe in Heaven and that religion is important in their lives. With the number of young adults who are attending college increasing exponentially to the point that politicians are now calling it a “fundamental right” and taxpayers should bear the burden of the cost of tuition, the trend further clarifies what the first two datapoints portend: The lack of belief in Heaven and the importance of religion are not only increasing the number of “sleepy” Catholics in the present but will continue to do so into the foreseeable future, once again short of some divine intervention.
Then there’s a third, alarming datapoint for anyone who is concerned about where the Catholic Church in the United States currently is and where it’s headed short of some divine intervention: Among Catholics under the age of 40, a 2018 Gallup poll indicated that only 20% practice their faith regularly—meaning “attend Mass at least once monthly.” Looking ahead, this datapoint suggests that within a very short period of time—perhaps 10 to 20 years, 80% of U.S. Catholic parishes will be shuttered. While this will assist greatly to reduce the priest shortage, the moral and spiritual guidance people need will be also be immensely reduced, further marginalizing the Truth of Christ to the peripheries of the public square.
Is there any question about how the nation got into the position in which its people find the nation today?
Stop the finger pointing! Don’t blame secularism. Don’t blame consumerism. And, don’t blame relativism. While those certainly shaped the present and did so increasingly over the past 50 years at least, the fuel powering the rampant secularism, consumerism, and relativism has been the increasing lack of belief on the part of the nation’s Catholics “in the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting. Amen.” Furthermore, that fuel doesn’t emerge out of nothing—nothing in this world is sustainable. The resource from which this particular fuel took its life is “sleepy” Catholics who cared more about creature comforts in this world than eternal life in Heaven.
Succumbing to this temptation and using St. Paul’s admonition to Timothy, “sleepy” Catholics should have been but didn’t pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Instead, they sought the possessions and comfort which they offered to the point that while “sleepy” Catholics claimed to care about the plight of the poor—think of the people on Martha’s Vineyard this past week—they never once invited a poor person into their homes...even to eat the crumbs that fell from their tables. No, their pet dogs took care of that.
The rich man in today’s gospel wasn’t a bad guy. But he did live enclosed in an environment where he enjoyed the good life, including sumptuous dinner parties. Enclosed in this environment, the rich man grew apathetic as his riches and the vanity and pride they filled him with caused the rich man to care absolutely nothing about anyone other than himself. So indifferent toward others had the rich man grown that he didn’t even take notice of the starving man he knew by name—Lazarus—lying at his doorstep.
The rich man’s callous indifference, fueled by wealth and living in an enclosed environment, led him to take care only of himself which, in turn, caused the rich man to compromise his moral and spiritual values to the point he had none. The rich man wasn’t just a sinner, but a sinner whose heart had grown corrupt. Although he entered life in this world with two promises, one his destiny in Heaven, his corrupt heart blinded him to making the choices he needed to make to experience the fulfillment of the promise of an eternal destiny . Instead, the rich man who has no riches now finds himself in an eternal present where there is no chance to repent…where he will always suffer the poverty of moral and spiritual anguish.
Reflecting upon this parable, Pope Francis observed:
Damned are those who place their hope in themselves because there is nothing more treacherous than a hardened heart. Once we are on that road, it’s very hard for our hearts to be healed.
The nation is in the situation it’s in not because of wealth but “sleepy” Catholics—which include politicians, media, social influences, and all of us as well—who have grown indifferent to what’s primary: Living each day in the awareness that Heaven is our destiny.
That represents or challenge from this week’s scripture: To realize that each of us is a “sleepy” Catholic in some degree and on the road from sin to corruption of heart from which there will be no return unless we repent.
The sin is indifference—not caring about the needs of others—which has been corrupting our heart to the point we’re asleep—anesthetized—to the fact that we’ve grown indifferent to the point of callous indifference. The challenge is to “awake from our slumber and arise from our sleep” as the hymn states—to become “WOKE” Catholics—by repenting from our indifference.
This week, our repentance will take the form of this memento mori: At the end of each day, review the day and identify a moment when someone bothered you, caused you to become upset or angry, or you ignored because you were busy or interested doing something else. Ask yourself “What did that person need?”
This memento mori has to power to help us grow in awareness that the “poor” are all around us:
- They could be materially poor—in need of food, shelter, and clothing.
- They could be emotionally poor—in need of understanding and guidance.
- The could be morally and spiritually poor. And, most damning of all, many of these poor are members of our own families…about whose poverty, like the rich man in today’s gospel, we do absolutely nothing.
It’s about these “sleepy” Catholics that Pope Francis has observed:
We must ask the Lord to look into our hearts to see if we are on that slippery slope to corruption, from which there is no return. Sinners can repent and turn back but it is very hard for those with closed and corrupt hearts.
The antidote to this indifference to the moral and spiritual needs of those around us, Pope Francis has said, is prayer:
Let us pray that the Lord will show us which road we are following.
That is, after conducting this week’s memento mori each evening and as we become increasingly aware when we have been tempted to be indifferent, offer a prayer asking God to guide us toward and forward on the pathway of “WOKE” Catholics who aren’t indifferent but who consciously strive to make a difference in this world.
Doing “this, in memory of me” is yet another way we gradually will “awake from our slumber and arise from our sleep”—assisted by God’s grace, of course—when the new day is dawning for those who weep.” Having lived in darkness, we will see a great light by repenting from the sin of indifference and, as St. Paul taught, “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” Competing well for the faith by breaking free from the enclosed environment in which we spend our days enjoying many creature comforts, we will “lay hold of eternal life to which you were called when we made the noble confession of faith”—that is, when we confirmed our faith in the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Then, given time and a practice, let us pattern each day according to confession of faith in “the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting” so we will experience the fulfillment of the promise made on Christmas Eve: “They shall name him ‘Emmanuel,’ that is, ‘God is with us’.” Living live in this world as citizens of God’s kingdom, one day we will experience the fulfillment of the promise of eternal live and “be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”
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