Mediocrity... The New American Epidemic

It seems like yesterday since my wife and my newly converted selves were on fire for the Truth we had just received. Our conversion wasn't the typical run of the mill conversion. It seemed like a prodigal son type story. We were so overwhelmed with Jesus that we were tingling from our heads to our toes.

That was a time that we were living a life of mediocrity and sin. We only had each other and our eldest son at that time. I'll spare the details, but what I must say is the Lord Jesus really did a number in our lives. I devoured any type of spiritual reading at the time and read the Bible very fervently. I listened to any talks I could and attended any conferences that came into town.

Here we are now, six years and three children later with a stable, grace-filled life. We have formed life-long friendships with numerous people within the Church. We have since become godparents, parents and somewhat models of the Christian faith. We are open to life and love the traditional liturgical rubrics of old. We love the incense, chants and rock-solid homilies.

Through it all, we have been blessed to know so many wonderful people that have deeply enriched our lives. We have been involved with numerous ministries and have witness so many awe-filled conversions.

With all these wonderful happenings, I sometimes wonder why there is still so much madness. These days, I witness divorce, sin, unhappiness, lack of faith, impurity, depression and the like. It's sometimes like if these conversions have never happened at all. I can only pray and ask our Lord... “WHY?”

Through reading about the days of old, the early Church was really different than now. You had rock-solid, generous communities that held their faith at the center of their lives. They expressed faith as it was intended. It wasn't some fuzzy feeling that inclined them to “trust” in God, but the true gift instilled in them at the time of their baptism. A faith that lead them into a lived experience of the Triune God. Faith that was outside of them, a faith that was given to them and shared with the other people of God.

This faith of the early Church led them into a completely integrated life with Jesus and His Church at the middle. As we study the Acts of Apostles, we can see how that early Church lived. They shared everything, living humble and generous lives. Now, we look at the present day... greed, selfishness and ego. What's so different between the two eras? There was another quality of the early Church that made it so successful. The quality I'm referencing is “boldness”, which was a big grace of the Holy Spirit.

All throughout the pages of the Acts of the Apostles you read about how Peter, John, Paul and rest of the gang really proclaimed the Gospel of Christ through thick and thin. They weren't afraid of getting locked up for the faith, they weren't afraid of getting stoned to death for teaching “blasphemy”. They weren't even afraid of getting crucified or beheaded. They knew that this life on earth was of no importance without carrying out the Gospel of Christ.

The apostles had already witnessed so much, with the culmination for them being at the Feast of Pentecost. At this time, they had been Confirmed and sent out on their earthly mission – to preach the Word of God at all costs. The apostles worked wonders, casted out demons, healed the sick, raised the dead and brought large multitudes into the Catholic faith in the name of Jesus.

I guess the image that I'm trying to portray is that these guys were no wimps or pushovers! They prayed, loved, cried and were tender-hearted when it was necessary, but when it came time to man-up, it was “GO TIME!” Again, let's look at today. The Church Militant (the official name of the body of the Church here on earth – yes, that's what it is – the Church Militant), is not militant at all. What do we see? We see a bunch of passive-aggressive, self-conscious, indifferent, overly-sensitive, lukewarm wusses.

You may think, “Dang, he's really insensitive!”. Well, I am very passionate about this because I see all the madness staring us in the face without hardly anyone standing up for what is right. Why is it that in the same towns with plethoras of Churches, we see strip clubs, abortion clinics and porno shops? Are we really that indifferent to these things that we allow them to move into town and flourish? Come on people!

Think about it. If we really understood what lie in the sacrament of Confirmation, then we wouldn't stand for any of this. The sacrament of Confirmation was left to us to enkindle the Spirit which was implanted in us at the moment of Baptism. We are then to be sent out to live out our mission to live out and proclaim the Gospel while sanctifying the temporal order.

I really think the underlying issue is the fact that somewhere along the way the Church has lost its ability to teach this. All to often we have become the Church of convenience. Whatever happened to radically living out our Catholic faith? When Pope Pius VI in 1972 stated that the smoke of satan has crept into the cracks of the Church, I believe this came partly by way of compromise and mediocrity. It's almost like we've settled for what sounds good and what's acceptable to everybody.

Mediocrity is something we all have to deal with in this day and age, but I believe with an authentic devotion to the Holy Spirit we can battle this state of mind. The way to battle this, I believe, is to 1. Pray for the acceptance of the Will of God and for the ability to witness to the world an authentic, serious Catholic spirituality, 2. have the total distaste for what is evil by recognizing what sin truly is, 3. Pray for the Spirit of boldness as mentioned in 2 Timothy 1:7, and 4. Know your faith - study Sacred Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church to know what the Church teaches in light of the Scriptures and Sacred Tradition.

Let me set one thing straight: I am not by any means advocating pride or careless anger. I am advocating the Spirit of boldness in humility. This is possible! Contemplate Jesus when He entered the Temple only to see money changers and vendors profaning the Temple of God by making it a “den of thieves”. Jesus spoke with fullness of force and turned the tables of the money changers over while driving them out with a whip of cords. Look at this scene, there is nothing wrong with anger for a righteous cause. In retrospect, we do have to pray for the gift of total humility anytime we have to approach a situation that requires much boldness.

When we yield to the promptings of the Holy Spirit we have to be willing to speak up when it's necessary (He'll let us know). We have to rise above our mediocrity and complacency. When the Spirit of God truly convicts us to say something, we have to do it! It doesn't matter if we are martyred for this, we have to stand up for what is right and just!

Come on Church, let's stand up and make our voice be heard. Let's recognize and speak out about the injustices of this present darkness. We need to return to our forefathers of Faith and look upon their examples. Until we do this, we will continue to reap the rewards of lukewarmness, complacency and mediocrity.

Come Spirit of God, Come!