Fr Joe Borg
Christian joy vs faith fatigue
Inner happiness from knowing Christ and belonging to the Church are powerful antidotes for faith fatigue.
Regular churchgoers are growing older all the time and their number is constantly diminishing. Recruitment of priests is stagnating. Scepticism and unbelief are growing.
This is a condition that one can describe as faith fatigue. It is not a rosy description of the situation of religion in Europe.
The assessment gains credibility as it was made by Pope Benedict himself during his annual ‘state of the Church’ pre-Christmas speech to the Roman Curia. The problems mentioned by the Pope exist in different degrees in different European countries.
While it is important to analyse correctly and realistically the situation one lives in, it is surely more important to be able to offer the strategies that lead towards a solution.
The Pope does this in the speech referred to.
The strategy proposed by the Pope is not the facile solution proposed by those who think marketing and a good communications strategy are the way forward.
“What, then, are we to do?,” the Pope asked.
“There is no doubt that a variety of things need to be done. But action alone fails to resolve the matter. The essence of the crisis of the Church in Europe is the crisis of faith.
“If we find no answer to this, if faith does not take on new life, deep conviction and real strength from the encounter with Jesus Christ, then all other reforms will remain ineffective.”
What the Pope proposes is doable. He mentions a number of examples where joy and enthusiasm fuelled by faith have overcome the faith fatigue witnessed in other countries. Pope Benedict refers to his experience in Benin and during the World Youth Days.
He said that in Benin he encountered Africa’s joyful passion for faith. During that visit he found no sign of the faith fatigue and the oft-encountered sense of having had enough of Christianity that one finds in several European countries.
The joy of being a Christian and the inner happiness that comes from knowing Christ and belonging to the Church were the two powerful antidotes for faith fatigue.
The other beautiful experience that marked the Pope was the celebration of the World Youth Days. Once more, he singled out the feeling generated by the joy of being Christians.
The theme of joy forms the subject of one of his beautiful books. He described the priestly ministry as the ministry of joy.
The joy the Pope refers to is a joy based on faith which lives on the certainty that “I am wanted; I have a task in history; I am accepted, I am loved”.
Read the following long quote, which for me, is the gem at the heart of the Pope’s speech:
“Those who are unloved cannot even love themselves. …This sense of being accepted comes in the first instance from other human beings. But all human acceptance is fragile.
“Ultimately we need a sense of being accepted unconditionally. Only if God accepts me, and I become convinced of this, do I know definitively: it is good that I exist. It is good to be a human being.
“If ever man’s sense of being accepted and loved by God is lost, then there is no longer any answer to the question whether to be a human being is good at all.
“Doubt concerning human existence becomes more and more insurmountable.
“Where doubt over God becomes prevalent, then doubt over humanity follows inevitably.
“We see today how widely this doubt is spreading. We see it in the joylessness, in the inner sadness that can be read on so many human faces today.
“Only faith gives me the conviction: it is good that I exist. It is good to be a human being, even in hard times.
“Faith makes one happy from deep within.”
I have rarely read anything as beautiful.
To read the speech in full go to www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2011/december/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20111222_auguri-curia_en.html.
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Jessica Debattista
Jan 16th, 11:38
When I try to understand how the present young generation perceive the Church and its teaching, I cannot help but be concerned. Most of these young (and not so young) people happen to be parents who seem to have a lukewarm attitude towards the Church. It is symptomatic of the times we are living in and of course they are not immune to influences they are exposed to which foster a detachmnent from the Church.
Children grow up in these families hardly ever hearing a good word about the Church for it seems to be fashionable to deride the Church for the wrongdoings of some of its members. They find it convenient to attack the Church for it assuages some of their guilt feelings when they themselves are not living according to the teaching of the Church.
They attack the Church by saying that it is a man-made institution which imposes restrictions laid down by Church Fathers who claim that they have been enlightened. They are sceptical about the teaching of the Church and consequently they opt out of any activity that has to do with the Church.
Some of them might claim that they believe in God and are even moved to pray when they are going through bad phases in life.
That is heartening in itself but how can one sustain a belief in God if one does not make it a point to draw close to God through the sacraments?
A relationship with God cannot be reduced to the occasional contact when we are in need of a special grace.
My mother used to say “Alla m’hux waiter! Tfaqqalhu subajk u jgiblek li trid. Alla hu missier li jhobbok u jaghtik dak li hu tajjeb ghalik. Il-missier irid ihossu mahbub minn-uliedu il-hin kollu u m’hux meta ghandna bzonnhu. ”