CATHOLIC ISN'T COOL. WHY? (First published in 'NZ Catholic, April 20, as 'We help priests best by praying the Mass')

‘He is not here, but is risen’ (Lk 24, 6).

Easter this year comes hard on the heels of statistics showing an ‘alarming’ decline in the number of New Zealanders calling themselves Catholic, and a drop in Mass attendance. The UN Committee ironically responsible for the Rights of the Child has the cheek to tell the Holy See to change Church doctrine on abortion, contraception and homosexuality. Catholic theologian Fr Ronald Rolheiser reckons priests are in a ‘no-win situation … tired of being cast as eunuchs’ and  unsurprisingly concludes, ‘small wonder hardly anyone wants to join us’.

The Church, it seems, has come to a pretty pass. Despite Superpope, Catholic isn’t cool. Why?

Listen to the angel at the tomb asking, ‘Why look among the dead for someone who is alive?’ Christ crucified lives within everyone newly baptised, but we can’t afford to rest on his laurels, as it were. Unless we take our opportunities to do good, to grow in love, climbing to God by ‘steps of love’ (gressibus amoris, to use St Gregory’s charming phrase) we stay put, stagnating in what Francis calls ‘a mundane spirituality’. Without works our faith is dead and spiritually speaking we invite the risk of death by serious sin, which destroys our status in its constituent elements of charity and grace.

If we’re not dead yet we’re sleep-walking, because life in Christ is restored only by confession and absolution. Many Catholics don’t know that. They’d agree with Fr Rolheiser that ‘Eucharist now cleanses you so you can sit at table’. That’s obvious from the numbers seeking Reconciliation, which homilies based on Scripture give no reason to do.We might as well be sitting in Protestant churches, and where the tabernacle’s hidden and the crucifix minimised it even looks as if we are.

In urging us to help priests to pray, to listen to the Word, celebrate Eucharist every day and confess regularly, because ‘the priest who does not do these things loses … his union with Jesus and becomes mediocre, which is not good for the Church’, Pope Francis is right on the button. We help priests best by praying the Mass, but do Catholics really believe in the Eucharist? If we did, our churches would be thronged every day.

If the Sunday readings’ themes were linked to doctrine and the unsung glories of the Magisterium, we’d know the reasons for attending Mass as often as possible. We’d know the more often we attend Mass, the more possible - indeed essential - it becomes.

 Because supernatural life is communicated only by love and grace, which is communicated best by the Eucharist, and ‘God communicates Himself most to that soul that has progressed farthest in love’ (John of the Cross).

Pope Francis is something of a hero, and in calling for ‘contemplative prayer, a strong friendship with the Lord (from which) is born in us the capacity to live and carry forth the love of God’ he calls us to be heroic priests and people.