Sacred Liturgy vs Secular Religion: Reclaiming Culture

Exploded Head, 1982 | Salvador Dali

The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God. Saint Teresa of Calcutta

Without honest and compassionate support, a vulnerable person could be trapped in a terrifying oxymoron, a maze of contradictions and deceptions that, in today's world, can and often does metastasize into a perpetual nightmare.

If you hope for mercy, show mercy. If you look for kindness, show kindness. If you want to receive, give. St. Peter Chrysologus

History's Child

Young people are routinely conscripted to fight wars started by ambitious and often deranged old men, and not just men, who enjoy the comfort of their view of the frontlines from the safety of their castles. If not castles, then boardrooms and classrooms. The consumer of innocence needs only a darkened heart and mind in which to hide and design and host deranged programs. Many are those men and women whose corrupt behaviour has resulted in a devastating assault on innocence to the ruin of countless vulnerable people.

Saint Luke 17 | And (Jesus) said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung round his neck and he were cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

Dante and Virgil observe the false counsellors, Canto XXVI

The perverse are hard to be corrected, and the number of fools is infinite. Ecclesiastes 1:15

When elders—whether educators, counselors, administrators, advisers, parents, guardians, or physicians—give young people terrible advice and then turn their backs as those youth endure the resulting pain, they lose all credibility not only as professionals but as human beings as well. Such negligence creates a cycle of disillusionment and despair.

Well-intentioned professionals can fall into traps set by powerful groups, sometimes resulting in divisive practices that harm families under the guise of advocacy. Without genuine care, children may struggle with doubt and identity, making them vulnerable to exploitation. Using these crises for political purposes is a serious injustice and violation of dignity.

Secular Religion

A secular religion provides community, moral guidance, and shared rituals. It can manifest in political ideologies, cultural practices, or social movements, and attempts to demonstrate that the human need for meaning, ritual, and collective identity can be satisfied by conforming to worldly or material ideals without reference to God. Which is to say, secular religion promotes idolatry.

The honest witness, the historically informed witness, is aware of how idolatry leads to rebellion and chaos.

Rebellion

The blurring and fragmentation of human identity is the result of a loss of an appreciation of the sublime origin of human identity. A failure to appreciate basic distinctions testifies to a crisis in understanding—and fear?—between males and females. For that and a loss of authentic intimacy and respect, we can blame the sexual revolution—a diabolical construct if ever there was one.

The sexual revolution is a complete rebellion against authority, natural and supernatural, even against the body and its needs, its natural functions of child bearing. This is not reverence for life, it is a great denial and more resembles Nihilism than the revolution that they think they are furthering. | Dorothy Day

In every godless revolution, human ties are inevitably destroyed in ways that persist for generations. This frequently leads to a disastrous loss of trust, vitality, and creativity, and can lead to the end of a society and nation.

St John 14:27 | Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

The Catholic Church, guided by the Spirit and faithful to the teachings of its Savior, shares insights that help shape and direct understanding of both the physical and spiritual aspects of human life. A barrier against destructive ideologies that seek to deprive people of their dignity, the Church's witness offers hope.

Original Sexuality

Consider the following Magisterial teaching gleaned from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The Catholic perspective on original sexuality is deeply rooted in the understanding of human nature, relationships, and the divine plan for creation. This perspective emphasizes that sexuality is not merely a biological function but is integral to the human experience, reflecting the image of God and the call to love and communion.

Creation in the Image of God. According to Catholic teaching, human beings are created in the image and likeness of God, which includes the capacity for love and communion. This divine image is expressed through the relationship between man and woman. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "God is love" and that humanity is called to love in a way that mirrors this divine love, which is inherently relational and communal.

References

1. Familiaris Consortio 11 / Pope John Paul II
2. CCC 2360
3. Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church: Christ – Our Pascha 861 / Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
4. Evangelium Vitae 25 / Pope John Paul II

Perspectives

The Church recognizes that every human person is created in the image and likeness of God, male or female (Gen. 1:26-27). And so we should help people discover their true identities as children of God(.) Thomas Nash

Sequitur

As communities claiming a Christian identity have embraced a worldly confusion of identities that are a result of an unholy liaison between power and mere utility, said communities have—perhaps unwittingly—unleashed support for the chaos afflicting individuals and societies. The resulting chaos is a sign that human imagination has been cut free from its mooring in the truth, in objective reality, and so aberrant and abhorrent behaviours (e.g., chemical and surgical disfiguration) too often rob young people of their health and well-being. It’s hard to ignore the many heartbreaking stories emerging in various forums, showing how so-called affirmative therapies have led to tragic outcomes. Bright, beautiful young people are suffering deeply because harmful ideologies have been turned into dangerous industries that exploit youth just as ruthlessly as sweatshops and human trafficking.

The Consumption of Innocence

Contemporary popular approaches to learning and socialization tend to reinforce self-deception. The results are, as we are seeing multiplied thousands if not tens of thousands of times, a torrent of victims. Those maimed or near maimed who call out for help are too often ridiculed by their peers and former allies.

Attempts to liberate human identity from God's design and attempts to refashion human identity in the image of artificial constructs are frequently proving to be dangerous. Therefore, it’s perfectly reasonable to push back against harmful policies affecting young people and to speak up for their protection.

Liturgical Formation. Restoration through encounter with Jesus.

What does the Mass - the Holy Eucharist - offer young people and parents, families and individuals? 

1. Communion with God in the Holy Eucharist (St John 6:51; 1 Corinthians 10:16).
2. Lifegiving knowledge. The wisdom of God in sacred scripture. When young people encounter 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 be a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).
3. Authentic community. Fellowship with God in the company of the brethren (1 John 1:7).
4. Identity. When celebrated with dignity, with a mind to beauty, the Mass also provides young people with the sublime model of decorum and self-respect, a formation in a life of God-oriented holiness appropriate to a child of God.
5. Perspective. In the Mass, children gain a sense of their place in the grand scheme of things. They are immersed in history, the stories of holy men and women who met life's challenges with grace and perseverance.
6. Authentic love. 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 (St John 3:16; 15:12-17; 1 John 4:7).

Authentic Accompaniment

People thrive when they receive guidance that helps them recognize their responsibilities and discover how to use genuine freedom for the common good.

Accompaniment in Catholic worship and community life emphasizes the importance of personal and communal relationships in the journey of faith. It is a call to action for the Church to embody Christ's love through practical support and spiritual guidance, ensuring that all members of the community grow closer to God and to one another. This dynamic interplay of support, love, and shared faith is essential for the vitality of the Church and the fulfillment of its mission in the world.

Freed by Jesus to love, young people in the Sacred Liturgy develop mature outlooks about life and the unknown. Through faith in Jesus, they are set free to join with God and their neighbors, working together to live 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. 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 loving Creator.

The Mass isn’t a political ecology in the strict, narrow sense of politics. The members of the Body of Christ gathered by the Holy Spirit in unified worship of God encounter healthy spiritual and psychological formation by Christ Himself acting through His sacraments offered for our sanctification.

If (when?) the Mass is celebrated without due dignity and clarity of identity, Catholics—perhaps unwittingly—foment confusion and chaos that obscures the witness of the Church to the truth. If Jesus is Lord (and He most certainly is the Lord of all!), then the Lord of the Eucharist merits our best efforts to preserve the dignity of the identity of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Shouldn’t we give our very best so that the earthly liturgy reflects or clearly points toward the truth, goodness, and beauty of the heavenly Liturgy?

The Mass—much more than a human forum for self realization—is the realm where both the temporal and eternal intersect. The Cross of Christ orients us to the love of God and neighbor and of ourselves as beloved of God. To commit acts that harm our God-given lives is gravely sinful. We Catholics, of course, can appeal to God for mercy and, in the Sacrament of Penance, be forgiven by God through the action of His priest, and can know the fullness of freedom when we are restored by grace to friendship with God.

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Solidarity

When we accompany another person, here are several elements that can help guide the relationship (Excerpt from Catholic Missionary Disciples):

1. Intentionality. If you don’t have an intentional purpose for why you are in the relationship, then you will never be able to properly accompany anyone. The clear purpose of making disciples of Jesus needs to be at the forefront of every part of the relationship.
2. Availability to the other. You can’t exactly grow in a relationship if you are not available to one another. This means making time for one another and prioritizing the time it takes to build such a relationship.
3. Authenticity. To grow closer to God together, you will have to be authentic with one another. This means showing that you are trustworthy, reliable, and personable. Another way to put this - don’t be so weird that you turn others off to Jesus or the Church.
4. Vulnerability. After you start to build up a relationship, there needs to be an appropriate level of vulnerability. This doesn’t mean bearing your deepest secrets, but rather taking off the masks that we sometimes hide behind and showing the reality of who we are.
5. Accountability between one another. Once we are vulnerable, we can start to have real accountability. Accountability isn’t a wagging of the finger when someone messes up, but a holding up of one another to the goals that we each set for ourselves and ask the other to help hold us to.
6. Responsibility to the Gospel. To be a disciple means to have a mission. Every Christian disciple should have the Gospel at the core of his mission. This means every disciple needs to take on his own shoulders a part of the responsibility Catholics have in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
7. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. St John 13:34-35

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Reports & Studies

1. Legal: LINK-A; Medical Malpractice LINK-B; LINK-C
2. Youth Health: AP LINK1; AP LINK2; OPAHHS.GOV LINK3
3. Personal Stories & Professional Perspective: ACPEDS LINK1; LINK2; COLE LINK3; COLE LINK4; DPC LINK5