The Reality Of The Mass: The Support Young People Want And Need

Obstacles

There are contemporary popular approaches to education and socialization born of a false compassion that reinforces self-deception. The results are, as we are seeing multiplied tens of thousands of times, a torrent of victims. Duped into false promises, young people are indulging offers of body-altering hormones and surgeries that exacerbate depression, anxiety, and suicidal tendencies. Those maimed or near-maimed who call out for help, for relief from the terror of advocates determined to win the war to destroy original sexuality, are too often ridiculed by their peers who are captured by various societal fictions.

2 Timothy 3:1-9 | But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good,  treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  holding the form of religion but denying the power of it.  Avoid such people.  For among them are those who make their way into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and swayed by various impulses, who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth.  As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith; but they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

The struggle to maintain virtue in a world laced with moral landmines requires vigilance, immersion in God's ways, godly friends, and constant resistance lest evil men drag individuals, families and societies down into decadence and slavery to soul-rotting attitudes and behaviours.

2 Timothy 4:3 | For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings(.)

More than words.

It is appalling when elders turn their backs on young people and give them atrocious counsel that enables complacency or perverse behaviour.  Adults are shirking their duty to mentor youth in ways that prepare them for adulthood and help them become responsible members of society.

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk. Marcus Tullius Cicero

In every age, there are misguided individuals who attempt to appropriate society and culture and return a community to barbarism.  Said proprietors may or may not be aware of the potential consequences of their actions.  Regardless, their actions are corrosive.  Sadly, in the Church, more than a few of the ordained have become the malefactors that Jesus warned us about.

St Matthew 18:6 | (B)ut whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

There is no shortage of laymen and women, too, who have become objects of scorn, having placed themselves under the judgment of God for participating in the culture of death by promoting one kind of abomination or another.

The charlatans identified above are easy enough to spot.  They design and inhabit liturgies that resemble their own disordered desires, ceremonies that inflict upon the Lord of the Eucharist the pain of their sins.

Liturgical Formation

What does the Mass offer young people and parents?

• Communion with God in the Holy Eucharist.
• The wisdom of God in sacred scripture.
• Fellowship in the company of the brethren.

When celebrated with dignity, the Mass also provides young people with a sublime model of decorum and self-respect, a formation in a life of God-oriented holiness appropriate to a child of God.

In the Mass, children gain a sense of their place in the grand scheme of things.  We are immersed in a legacy of wisdom, of sacrificial love and service, born of an encounter with the living God Whose Only-begotten Son freely offered Himself and died for our sins, restoring man to friendship with God.  

When young people come into contact with the rich reservoir of biblical knowledge and observe how dignified adults behave with kindness, generosity, integrity, and love for their families, they gain confidence in the understanding of what it means to be loved by God and to love as Jesus loves.

In the worship and service of Almighty God, which Christ and His Apostles have left to us, we are vouchsafed means, both moral and mystical, of approaching God, and gradually learning to bear the sight of Him… We approach, and in spite of the darkness, our hands, or our head, or our brow, or our lips become, as it were, sensible of the contact of something more than earthly. We know not where we are, but we have been bathing in water, and a voice tells us that it is blood. Or we have a mark signed upon our foreheads, and it spake of Calvary. Or we recollect a hand laid upon our heads, and surely it had the print of nails in it, and resembled His who with a touch gave sight to the blind and raised the dead. Or we have been eating and drinking; and it was not a dream surely, that One fed us from His wounded side, and renewed our nature by the heavenly meat He gave. Thus in many ways He, who is Judge to us, prepares us to be judged,— He, who is to glorify us, prepares us to be glorified, that He may not take us unawares; but that when the voice of the Archangel sounds, and we are called to meet the Bridegroom, we may be ready. | St John Henry Newman, ‘Worship, a Preparation for Christ’s Coming’, Parochial and Plain Sermons, Volume 5, Sermon 1

Authentic Accompaniment

Young people flourish when they are presented with guidance to help them become aware of their responsibilities and ways to exercise authentic freedom for the good of others.  Most importantly, they benefit from assistance that provides a healthy perspective on their relationship with God.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 | Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

In the Sacred Liturgy, young people are relieved of their fears about life and the unknown and become free actors cooperating with God and neighbours to work out their salvation as children of God (Philippians 2:12).  They find their place among friends and fellow sojourners who accompany them in the midst of joys and sorrows, new challenges, and the mundane.  They witness their parents and grandparents practicing the Faith and giving thanks for the gifts of family and friends, working through challenges, and humbling themselves as men and women approaching God, their Creator.

The Mass is a nonpolitical ecology... or it should be.

The members of the Body of Christ gathered by the Holy Spirit in unified worship of God receive healthy spiritual and psychological formation by Christ Himself through His word and sacrament from those ordained to minister the sacraments to the people of God.

All the good works in the world are not equal to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of men; but the Mass is the work of God.  Martyrdom is nothing in comparison for it is but the sacrifice of man to God; but the Mass is the sacrifice of God for man. | St. John Vianney, Cure d'Ars

Jesus is the bread of heaven. He provides spiritual nourishment and sustenance.

St John 6:35 | Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

In the Gospel of Saint John, Jesus declares, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever" (St. John 6:51). This powerful statement encapsulates the essence of our faith. Jesus is not merely a teacher or a prophet; He is the source of eternal life.  He further emphasizes, "The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh" (St. John 6:51). This declaration invites us to contemplate the depth of His sacrifice and the gift of the Eucharist, where we receive His Body and Blood, nourishing our souls and uniting us with Him.

Understanding Jesus as the Bread of Life invites us to reflect on how we can incorporate this truth into our daily actions and relationships.  Christ continues today to exhort His disciples to become personally engaged: "You yourselves, give them something to eat" (St. Matthew 14:16).  This call challenges us to recognize the spiritual and physical needs of those around us and to respond with compassion and generosity.  By participating in the Eucharist, we are empowered to live out our faith actively, becoming instruments of God's love in a world that often feels fragmented and lost.

Just as physical bread is necessary for the body, so is Jesus for the soul. We become bread for others when we are grafted to Jesus, the Bread of Heaven.

The Mass—more than a human forum—is the realm where both the temporal and eternal intersect.

The Cross of Christ orients us to the love of God and neighbour and of ourselves as beloved of God.  To intentionally commit acts that are gravely sinful ruptures our relationship with God. We Catholics, of course, can appeal to God for mercy and, in the Sacrament of Penance, be forgiven by God through the actions of His priest and can know the fullness of freedom when we are restored by grace to friendship with God.