Pastor’s Corner — December 17th, 2023
Parish Penance Service Saturday Dec 16th at 10am
For those who read this bulletin before the weekend, this is just a reminder that this Saturday Dec 16th at 10am we’ll be hosting our Advent Penance Service in our Deanery. We should have six priests available. In light of the penance service at St Mary Magdalen on Tuesday at 7pm, we will not be offering Tuesday evening confessions that we sometimes add the Tuesdays before Christmas. If you haven’t been able to come to the sacrament of reconciliation to prepare for Christmas, please consider coming.
A Snapshot As to Where Americans Are: “Spirituality” Among Americans
A new Pew Research Center survey has been released about the question of spirituality among Americans. It’s worth quoting the beginning of the survey:
“In recent decades, Americans have become less likely to identify with an organized religion. Yet a new Pew Research Center survey shows that belief in spirits or a spiritual realm beyond this world is widespread, even among those who don’t consider themselves religious. The survey finds that:
• 83% of all U.S. adults believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body.
• 81% say there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it.
• 74% say there are some things that science cannot possibly explain.
• 45% say they have had a sudden feeling of connection with something from beyond this world.
• 38% say they have had a strong feeling that someone who has passed away was communicating with them from beyond this world.
• 30% say they have personally encountered a spirit or unseen spiritual force.
Overall, 70% of U.S. adults can be considered “spiritual” in some way, because they think of themselves as spiritual people or say spirituality is very important in their lives.
The usefulness of this data depends on how questions are asked and how we come to understand their meaning in light of our cultural context today. There are two points I’d wish to draw from these recent numbers:
• While secularization (attempting to explain reality and/or live without reference to God) is increasing in our culture, Americans are decidedly not secular when you scratch beneath the surface. This is actually to be expected because of the sheer incoherence of materialistic atheism as a worldview and because nature abhors a vacuum. When people reject traditional religions (such as Christianity), they don’t end up with a blank slate or no religion; other gods/religious/spiritual beliefs/superstitions rush into the vacuum to take their place. Even atheists have their gods that they serve who also help them make sense of their world, even if they don’t see them as such. Succinctly put, when spirituality replaces “religion” other rival spiritual truth claims take their place. All of this is important when we think of people in culture who don’t worship with us on Sunday. Contrary to the widespread theoretical secularization in large swaths of our culture, people are deeply spiritual even when they reject traditional religions. Either such “spiritual” people don’t know Jesus and his love (which is common) and/or they are rejecting it for a “spirituality” that doesn’t demand love from them like Jesus does (which seems common too). This is why our Christian witness is so important.
• There has been a notable increase of people who say, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” (22% of the American population). People who use such a phrase are either skeptical of the claims of organized religions and/or they are using different meanings of these words that we as Christians do. For example, the word “religion” seems to be used in widely different ways, even among Christians and non-Christians. For some non-Catholic Christians they understand the word ‘religion’ as a pejorative term to denote a works/performance-based faith that rejects a graced relationship with Jesus. Of course, as Catholics we’d outright reject such a characterization of the word “religion.” After all St James uses it in the New Testament in a positive way that Catholics understand. (cf. James 1:27)
To the Christian it might seem bizarre for people to claim that they are “spiritual but not religious” because the word religion generally indicates our relationship with God by which we are bound and spirituality indicates how we live out that relationship. But for those who deny God in the traditional sense, they might mean different things by the words. So when people say they are spiritual and not religious, we should ask them what they, in fact, believe and why. What do you mean that you’re spiritual and not religious? What’s the difference between religion and spirituality? What are you rejecting in religion that you’re finding in spirituality? In your spirituality, who determines the truth and what is good and how do you know how you are to live? In your spirituality, how do you understand evil in the world and goodness in the world? In your spirituality, what is the meaning of life and what happens to you after you die? Such questions are very serious. I would venture to guess that while some people who claim to be “spiritual and not religious” have indeed strived to answered these questions, I think most people who claim this don’t have concrete answers to these questions at all. They might even be holding onto to contradictory claims. I say all of this because it’s to people living in this kind of uncertainty, unbelief or even apathy that we’re called to joyfully witness to the truth of our loving God who has come to save us.
Mass Times for 4th Sunday of Advent and Christmas
Just a reminder there are two obligations for next weekend: One for the 4th Sunday of Advent and the other for Christmas. We need to attend two separate Masses. Please see our schedule for more details.
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias