Winter-Time of the Faith

As Boston College moves into spring, it is appropriate for members of the Church to meditate on whether or not they are achieving Pope John Paul II’s vision for a new, youthful springtime of the faith. One of the best examples of the springtime of the faith in Boston is the rejuvenated seminary on the Brighton campus. St. John’s Seminary, which has gone from just a small handful of seminarians to almost one hundred men looking to serve God, has been one of the main beneficiaries of the springtime of faith in the archdiocese.

One of the most quoted lines in the Gospels is Matthew 7:16 (“by their fruits you shall know them”). In this day and age, whenever a young man has the courage to put on the white cloth of martyrdom in favor of serving Christ, something has gone very, very right in his spiritual life. Talking to the seminarians, it is clear what attracts them to the Church; God, the Eucharist, and the strong emphasis the seminary places on the intellectual priest. Even beyond St. John’s there are similar examples of these three aspects bringing people to Christ.

Think about the traditional Catholic groups on campus and the surge in attendance they have seen over the past two or three years. The St. Thomas More Society and the Sons of Saint Patrick have all dramatically increased their numbers. Even the number of students writing for The Observer has quadrupled over the past four years. Over the same period, less and less men and women have been attracted to the religious life by the liberalizing of the Church, theologies which place an emphasis on the temporal world, and relativist philosophies which hold that each person has their own truth.

The Jesuit order, thankfully, has perhaps been most touched by the springtime of faith. It’s no secret, even though rarely does someone mention this point in public, that younger priests, Jesuits included, are more orthodox than their older counterparts, sparking jokes in the younger Catholic population such as “gray, stay away.”

Even Senator Rick Santorum, on his visit to campus last year, remarked about the difference between the younger and older Jesuits.

This raises an interesting question. Is there a type of spirituality that is more successful at gaining vocations, and better “fruits,” than the modernist, “feel good” method which seems to be a favorite of certain groups on campus? It seems that way. Maybe after all this time it’s not always about making the Mass more “youth-friendly” or even about singing Hootie and the Blowfish songs pretending that they constitute worship. Maybe it even doesn’t always matter what you “feel,” because quite honestly, it’s not all about you.

Getting back to the basics, which seems to be bringing in the next crop of priests, should be the primary focus of spirituality groups moving forward. Instead of worshiping in a way where the primary concern is to make us “feel good” (and then consequently taking that good feeling and calling it “prayer”), we should recognize that prayer is a relationship which should espouse our love for God, and like all relationships, we need to be concerned for the other party involved, not just ourselves. It is entirely possible that the reason certain Catholic practices, such as adoration, memorized prayer, and orthodox Masses have continually been in existence for such a long time. They are very effective at bringing people to Christ. It’s time we recognize that these types of prayer care for the individual by engaging them in a true relationship with God, not simply by making them “feel good.”

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