Tuesday 24 June 2014

Sadness & Joy in Baptism Preparations

So many of those who seek Baptism for their child leave me feeling both sadness and joy: joy that the parents want their child to have the Faith, but sadness that it is likely to be easily lost because the parents themselves have little understanding of the Faith. What they (and their parents, the grandparents of today) received from pulpits and schools over the last few decades has left them with an understanding of the Faith that has no depth; it is simply too shallow to stand up to the trials of life such as the death of a loved one, and too shallow to stand up to the challenges of the relativist culture of our time.

It is always important to me to explain to couples who are not practicing or actually cohabiting that their understanding of the Faith is shallow but this is no fault of their own; it is similarly important to me to explain that in order to support their child in the Faith, growth in their own understanding of the Faith and its practice has to be sought now, as adults and especially as parents who have been entrusted by God with the forming of a soul for heaven.

Many of those who present their children for Baptism are cohabiting, and it becomes necessary to explain to such couples that not only are they placing their own souls in jeopardy by living in a way that is inconsistent with revealed Truth, but that by establishing their child in a sacramental system they themselves have abandoned brings about a disparity of life between child and parents which is unhelpful to all. It is important to tell the parents that this is not about them being ‘hypocrites’ but simply lacking in the necessary Faith formation.

What is true of such young parents is also true of so many Catholics leaving school today and of the older generation too: they simply don’t know what the Church teaches and when they do, they have little or no idea why she teaches it. In that they do not know because they have not been taught it, hypocrisy is not the problem. Rather, it is the inability to pass on and model the Catholic Faith and lifestyle to their child, who in time may confront their parents with the standard line, “why should I do A, B or C when you don’t?”. We need to help parents avoid this possible conflict with their children by helping them to rediscover their own Faith and providing them with an authentic worship experience. In my opinion we have let parents down from the days they themselves were children by providing superficial catechesis based on dialogue rather than instruction, and by providing very poor liturgy which, rather than aiming at providing an experience of the transcendent, merely aped the pop and performing arts culture of the secular world –and rather badly at that: much better music and performances are to be had in the local Club.

I think we have to revert a.s.a.p. to teaching the Catechism as we did before so that Catholics grow up with a question-and-answer foundation upon which to build ever-deepening responses to questions of Faith. We also have to recover a liturgy that is God-focused; one that is obviously ‘other’ than what can be seen and heard in the world; a liturgy where the Lord in His tabernacle is at the apex of the Sanctuary, and the celebration clearly God-centred rather than man-focused. The ad-orientem position (never abandoned by the Church even in the Reformed Missal of Pope Paul VI) and the use of specifically ecclesial music (chant and scared polyphony) are essential in the recovery. Anything else just will not do. Dialogue as catechesis and a performing-arts style of liturgy have done us no good in the last fifty years. Indeed they have accompanied the year by year increase in lapsation. They can only bring us great harm if we continue to peddle them today. And we will, unless we have the humility to admit we made mistakes in both catechesis and worship.

9 comments:

  1. Well said Father, lets hope some the Bishops conference are listening!

    In Domino,

    Patrick.

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    1. Thank you Patrick.
      The Bishops Conference are advised by those who were formed in the formless ways aof the 40's ff., and who are now the experts in formlessness. As such there seems little hope of the Bishops understanding that the problem is not 'out there in the world' but here in the heart of the Church.
      God Bless.

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  2. You are absolutely right. We must restore the sense of the sacred in the liturgy and restore the teaching of the catechism as soon as possible. The role of the priest is among other things to teach the Faith to the people. Is it possible to supply all Catholic families with young children with a catechism each? And then go around visiting or by some other arrangement by which the priest could examine them and determine if they have learned their catechism.? When I was a child I had to learn off by heart the answers to the key catechism questions. I still remember them today and what a great help they have been at various points in my life. There is no substitute for learning the Faith by rote. This is an authentic traditional method that has been abandoned like many other good things in the Church.
    Non Catholics will ask "Is this the True religion founded by God Himself?" then on reflection "Hmm . . It doesn't look like that to me"
    And that is the problem . . . the loss of the sacred in our Churches, the talking, the chatting, the lack of genuflecting, Holy Communion in the hand and standing, the use of God's house for a 'Gospel Jazz' service, special service for pets. man centred, man centred, man centred rubbish yechh!

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    1. Thank you, Paul.
      Yes, the sense of the sacred is essential but incompatible with the spirit of liturgy today which is the affirmation and uplifting of the community -composed of sinful human beings.
      I once gave all the children in school a simple Catechism but there is no hope of getting them to learn the questions and answers for any kind of assessment -not even in the home. Our First Communion course, now displaced by the Diocesan programmes, has both a colouring book component to do with the parents at home (it is available in adapted form in the tag above), and learned a brief, simple Catechism that they did as questions and answers with our Catechists as they worked through the (original) book. I think the problem was summed up very well in a TV programme I watched yesterday where the guy being interviewed said they as a child his class was learning the Catechism one week then it suddenly stooped and they were given pictures to colour in. The aim of the 'new catechises' was and remains experiential; it doesn''t teach one how to think, and in today's rationalist world, thinking and reasoning is essential to demonstrate the validity of the Faith to others. Sadly we have stopped teaching the children how to think and taught them how to feel, and a faith based on feelings is very fragile -as fragile and inconstant as the emotions. Learning multiplication tables by rote is being reintroduced in some places, because it provides a foundation. The same is necessary for forming us in the Faith.
      God Bless.

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  3. Perhaps we should introduce Sunday School. The One day of the week consecrated to God. It's a commandment that is not fully observed by Catholics. A Sunday school would be the one day when the children can learn their Faith without distractions. It's going to be a long uphill struggle . . . .

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  4. If most priests dealt with non-practising parents, living in mortal sin, as you do, many more would return to the True Faith and a state of grace, allowing them to nurture their child in the Faith. Thank you.

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    1. Thank you Lynda.
      To say one is placing one's soul in jeopardy and placing a disparity between self and child, all of which is rectified by marriage, is not hard. I don't know why a priest would not say it if he cares about the souls before him.
      God Bless.

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  5. Absolutely well said, Father.

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    1. Thank you, Damask Rose, for the affirmation.
      God Bless.

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