Living The Worthy Life: Heaven Can Wait?

What is something we all want to go to? 

We are not in a hurry to get there? 

And we do not like to talk a great deal about it? 

This is the 900-pound gorilla in the room.   It is heaven. 

This, however, will not be about heaven or maybe it really is?  I will let you discover this one on your own.  

The Catholic Church must adopt new approaches to evangelization in a post-Christian West, Pope Francis said in a Christmas message to Vatican officials. 

“This is the choice before us: either try to revolutionize the world and break under it or revolutionize ourselves and remake the world.” Bishop Fulton Sheen  

The new age of Evangelism.  What does this mean?  Are we truly called to be disciples and witnesses for Christ? 

The term “The New Evangelization” is thrown around in many Catholics circles today, but what exactly does it mean? 

It is believed that Saint John Paul II first used the term in 1983 in an address to Latin American Bishops. He would later bring this term to the attention of the entire Church. So, what is the new evangelization?  

1.  John Paul II describes a situation between the first two options “where entire groups of the baptized have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church, and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel. In this case, what is needed is a ‘new evangelization’ or a ‘re-evangelization.’” 

The new evangelization pertains to a very specific group of people: fallen-away Christians. For most Catholics in the western world, we see the need for this type of evangelization all around us. Everyone knows someone who was once baptized but who no longer practices the faith. Blessed John Paul II wanted the faithful to clearly recognize this problem and then try to solve it. Statistics show that just 15% of Catholics aged 18-25 attend Church on a weekly basis.  

Now to give you an idea of how low this figure is, let us compare this same age group of people to use of daily social media.  Facebook and YouTube dominate this landscape, as notable majorities of U.S. adults use each of these sites. At the same time, younger Americans (especially those ages 18 to 24) stand out for embracing a variety of platforms and using them frequently. Some 78% of 18- to 24-year-olds use Snapchat, and a sizeable majority of these users (71%) visit the platform multiple times per day. Similarly, 71% of Americans in this age group now use Instagram and close to half (45%) are Twitter users. If we compare the two- social media is used multiple times a day by over 90% of the 18-25 years whereas only 15% of them are going to attend the Catholic Church once a week.  

#Share it 

#Read it 

#Like It 

These hashtags have more influence on a daily basis than the priest.  

In 2010, Pope Emeritus Benedict established The Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. In 2012, there was Bishops’ Synod to discuss the New Evangelization. In the readings tonight we learn what it means to be a disciple.  

This lesson should teach us that we too have a mission here on the earth- spreading the Gospel to our co-workers, friends, neighbors, and relatives.  All the people we come into contact on a regular basis.  

The decline in Sunday Mass attendance is best described as a very steep decline or plummet. Seventy-five percent of Catholics went to Mass weekly in 1955 Gallup reported. That dropped to about 39 percent according to data collected between 2014 and 2017; which was down from 45 percent between 2005 and 2008. 

We have to do something about this.  This essentially means you have to do something about this. Why? Because 45% of U.S. adults have one of four types of connections to Catholicism: 

• 20% are Catholic: One-in-five Americans say that their current religious affiliation is with the Roman Catholic Church and attend Church regularly. 
• 9% are “cultural Catholics”: Nearly one-in-ten U.S. adults say that their religion is not Catholic (most are Protestants or are unaffiliated with any religion), but also say they consider themselves Catholic or partially Catholic in some other way. These cultural Catholics most often say they were raised Catholic or had a Catholic parent and still think of themselves as Catholic in terms of ancestry or family tradition. 
• 9% are “ex-Catholics”: These are people who were raised Catholic, but who no longer describe themselves as Catholic (by religion or otherwise). Like cultural Catholics, ex-Catholics also are now largely divided between people who are now Protestant and those who are religiously unaffiliated. 
• 8% have other connections to Catholicism: Some respondents do not fit into one of the above categories but nonetheless have a meaningful connection to the  Catholic Church. This could be through a Catholic parent or spouse, or through occasional attendance at Catholic Mass. 

GK Chesterton said it best when he said, ¨ Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.¨ 

Brothers and Sisters, Bishop Fulton Sheen said it this way, “This is the choice before us: either try to revolutionize the world and break under it or revolutionize ourselves and remake the world.” 

This is why we are here, this is the reason we exist and this is a call to arms.  I want you to rise and join me in offering up this petition to our heavenly father, "Dear most Gracious Heavenly Father, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Help us to know thy will, help us to put into practice what you would like us to do, and help us begin a new evangelization program here at our Church to bring back everyone who has in past attended here, to come back in getting involved once again.  We can not do this alone and this must be done now.  The future of the Church and Parish rests on this project.  We ask these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.   Amen 

I started by telling you this was not about heaven and I will end with asking you, ¨It is about Heaven is it not?¨ 

With the support of God and your Church Community, you can make a difference in your family both in this world and the next.