Do Not Be Anxious --- But It's Okay To Be a Little Scared

It’s tiring, hearing all the continuing news stories about the sexual sins of priests, bishops and cardinals.  I see all around me that the stories are making some Catholics anxious, but not me.  My heart had been opened to what happened in the Church --- indeed in all churches, schools, medical personnel, and in all cultures everywhere: the world had changed with the “we’ll do our own thing” sexual revolution of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s.  It’s not surprising then that the hearts of so many priests and nuns changed, and so many, many left the Church (even those that stayed within it).  The world had changed.  Satan entered and said: “This is mine.”

Do not be anxious, Christ once said --- but I think it’s okay to be a little scared.

And as priests who stayed gained power in the Church, in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, seminary teachings changed to teach these newly found beliefs: “It’s only sex;” all things of faith are relative, and not strictly true.  And the teachings in public schools also changed, as kids learned early on: “It’s only sex.”  And even a president said so, proudly.  And so why should it be surprising that the next step was to say: “It’s my body; I’ll use it any way I feel like: “I define my sex, not my body.”  We might as well be saying: “I am God,” for indeed many believe we are --- and our courts agree.

Yes, it is scary, this world we now live in.  To those who still know the truth, the world says: “There is no truth.”  And we can feel alone, like scared children in the dark.  And yet, we know that there IS a light.  We can see it, and are confused why others can’t, and we don’t know how to explain it, how to convince others that it is real, and it is most wonderful.  Looking back, I believe that was a failure of OUR parents, our community, and our Church as we were growing up.  They taught us faith and Light, but never taught us how to teach others properly. We never considered that the world could change. Our parents, community and Church, existing all around us as we grew up, supported the faith teachings we learned, but today parents/families, community/neighborhood, and the Church itself are no longer there as supports as they once were.  All the supports we had, our kids don’t have.  So, all our efforts at teaching the Light to them, as good as our efforts might be, have no support outside our homes, and Sunday efforts are offset by 24-hour social media, re-enforcing the message started in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s: “We’ll do our own thing.”  And the new re-enforcement is in the electronic communities and in the schools and in the culture at large:  There is no light; your parents are in the dark imagining a light that doesn’t exist.  And children are taught to celebrate their differences, diversity, yet throughout all history (which they are not taught) mankind has naturally celebrated community/ways-in common.  Kids today who celebrate differences are often confused when they don’t get enough “likes”, for it is not natural to “like” those different than ourselves.  We like what we have in common.

While those embracing the culture exclaim that WE are in the dark, they don’t understand why THEY are anxious; having never seen the Light, it’s a scary dark world for them, a world without meaning, except that which they make up.  And while they celebrate life as a game, many feel it is a game they can’t win.  Loneliness, suicides, and yes, anxiety is way up.  The culture’s worldview has changed in our post-Christian society, and there appears no simple way back --- but there is hope.

The Catholic Church has started to change.  With the scandals of 2002 in the headlines, the then new Pope Benedict XVI changed al the seminary leadership in 2004, back to orthodoxy from “we’ll do our own thing” which had crept in there.  And we pray his changes won’t be undone.  Many old priests (and bishops and cardinals), relativists, are still around, witness the scandals in today’s papers, but a good change is coming in the Church.  And in the culture?  No one has begun to change what the schools are teaching our children, except perhaps in some charter schools.  Meanwhile, the courts and the media strongly support “You have a right to do your own thing,” whatever you (or Satan) wants it to be. 

What will start a change in these things?  I don’t know.

Perhaps, as I’ve read some say, we need to go back to the basics, just beginning as Jesus initially began.  He had no school supports, no culture supports, no Church supports.  He started by visiting --- and loving --- His neighbor.  He built a community of followers.  He built a Church.  It’s both very humbling and scary to think we must start so low, that we must give up politics, and perhaps even our family --- such as it is, since so many have walked away from us, into that dark world.  As so, I guess we now all face one question as we go forward, one key question, that was asked so many years ago, when the going got tough then:

“And what of you?  Will you leave Me also?” He asked.

And it’s okay to be a little scared before you answer.