Failures in the transmission of the Faith

The transmission of the Christian faith, from generation to generation since the Apostles, has been weakening; Christ’s flock has diminished drastically; today there are more lost sheep than those that remain in the fold. What is happening? The causes could be numerous, and I am listing just a few, and maybe the readers of this blog can discover others...

A doctrine is passed on, not a personal relationship with Christ – Christianity is not a doctrine, an ideology or even a philosophy of life. Christianity is above all a personal, intimate and loving relationship with Christ. Few educators of the faith (clergy, parents, catechists and teachers) have this type of relationship with Jesus; and since no one can give what he or she does not have, what these educators of the faith pass on to the next generations is a doctrine and precepts that Western culture has largely assimilated over the centuries.

For this reason, there are too many Christians who are Christians from a sociological, cultural or cosmovision point of view, and not enough Christians who put their faith into practice, striving to be like Christ in their daily lives; not enough Christians who celebrate their faith in community; not enough ethical Christians who are good people and who fight for a better world, sometimes at the risk of their lives.

Lack of pedagogy – Post-modern man, especially the young, has made himself the measure of all things. There are no objective, universal and eternal truths; only what he discovers for himself is true, has value and is normative, not what is imposed on him from outside by whoever it may be.

Faced with this reality, we present not a "new evangelization” as proposed by St. John Paul II, but rather an "evangelization anew" as proposed by Cardinal Martini. The solution is not to evangelize again, but to evangelize in a different way.

It is true that Christ continues to be the only way, the truth and the life, and there is no equally valid and viable alternative for living human life to the fullest and with meaning.  But now, in order for this truth to be operative, post-modern man has to discover it himself, within his own being.

Something similar happens in psychotherapy. The discoveries that the psychotherapist makes and declares to the patient as a diagnosis not only have no value for the patient, they can even be counterproductive. What truly has therapeutic value, and can be the beginning of an inner transformation, is what the patient discovers about himself and for himself with the help of the psychotherapist.

It is on the basis of this principle that two major currents of psychotherapy operate, the non-directive of Carl Rogers and the Gestalt therapy of Fritz Perls, as well as the theories of social intervention of Paulo Freire.

What these authors do is adapt Socrates’ old maieutics -- the art of helping to give birth. The truth is either already inside of us or we have the ability to discover it.  Jesus of Nazareth used this very method in his way of evangelizing.  He dialogued with his interlocutors and by way of parables, he revealed the truth of everyday life that they knew, he questioned them, exhorted them and helped them discover eternal truths that they did not know:

• "Simon, what do you think? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?" (Matthew 17:25)
• Which one of these three, do you think, was neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? (Luke 10:36)
• "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?" (Luke 7:41-42)
• The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard see, yeast, treasure hidden in a field, trader of pearls, a net cast into the sea, an owner who went out early in the morning, the ten virgins... (Matthew 13:31-32)

Lack of icons or points of reference – Icons are images or people that remind us of the truths of our faith; when we look at them and contemplate them, we are magically transported from the immediate present to the eternal of God; in a generic sense, an icon is anything that evokes in us something beyond itself; icons are thus points of reference of our faith, reminders and continuous invitations to incarnate our faith in the here and now of our personal story.  In short, they are the salt of the earth and light to the world, without them we would all be more lost and people of little faith would find no help. Let us look at some examples:

• Some priests, religious men and women, without any external sign to identify them, opt to walk around camouflaged;
• Crucifixes and images have been removed from public places and from the walls of our homes;
• Celebrities, politicians, scientists, arts and sports celebrities declare themselves agnostics, as if this were now in fashion, and if they happen to be religious, they understand that faith belongs in the private domain;
• Instead of swearing their oath of office on the constitution, many US presidents swear it on the Bible and do not start or end a speech without invoking God’s name; European politicians, when they are religious, are embarrassed or afraid to admit that they are Christians, for fear of losing the votes of the agnostics perhaps.
• The first pew in the Church was the parents' lap and Jesus was the third word that a baby would learn after papa and mama...

Science and technology as the new religion – A growing number of people have replaced faith in God’s omnipotence with faith in the pseudo-omnipotence of science and technology. Science and technology are indeed important, because they solve countless problems and make our lives more comfortable; science and technology tell us or answer us the "how", but they will never tell us the "why" or the "what for".

The agnostic will say that nobody cares to know the "why" or "what for"; it is true, as the atheists say, that man is the moment when nature became aware of itself. It is precisely from this moment that human beings seek meaning in their lives.  Every individual, the moment he becomes aware that he exists, which is around the age of 6 or 7, asks himself where he came from, where he is going and what meaning life has; in contrast, animals do not do this because they are not aware that they exist.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC