Catholic Robots

At Mass we sit, stand, genuflect, kneel, and verbally respond- if we do this without anything going on in our head or our heart, we are acting like robots.

Every Catholic is guilty of acting like a robot from time to time because we are not perfect. Our God on the other hand is perfect, He loves us, and wants more for us than we sometimes allow into our lives.

A trend among Catholics that has grown over time is to trivialize what is too "deep" or hard to understand. This began in the pre-Vatican II world. Before Vatican II by and large, youth faith formation pretty much sucked. Everyone was expected to form their own relationship with our Lord and figure out everything on their own without much guidance or direction. Because so many Catholics were not taught the goal of the Church or how to understand and live their faith, many Catholics trivialize it instead of diving deeper. Because of this we have to have cultural Catholics, we have confused Catholics, and we have Catholic robots.

Catholic robots are not just people who were raised in a shallow environment, but any Catholic who gets complacent can act like a robot. It truly takes effort and perseverance to dive deep into every Mass. It takes intellect to ask deep questions and it takes apostolic passion and love to pursue the answers. We ALL have that intellect and the ability to love. The problem is so many Catholics in every generation don't want to ask questions that will help them grow in their faith, such as:

What am I supposed to learn from the Gospel?

How is God present in my life? How do I know Him?

How does my life affect God and His kingdom?

There are different types of Catholics in today's world because everyone is in a different place in their own faith journey. There are amazing people whose hearts have been won by Jesus Christ. The Church has given us amazing examples of faith and role models (saints) from the most unexpected places throughout her history. Unfortunately, there are still some Catholics who struggle and often fall away from the Church for lack of fulfilment. There are groups of Catholics who can be described as "cultural Catholics" or "obligatory Catholics", meaning that their relationship with Holy mother Church is an just an obligation or part of their family heritage. If the Church is only a tradition or an activity to someone, then how can that person come to know and be a part of the Body of Christ?

Cultural Catholics act like robots. Why? Because their understanding of the Church and the goal of the Church is incomplete. You can go to Mass every Sunday, 'say' all the prayers, and go through all the motions, but doing that will have as much effect on your salvation as what is in your heart. Many people are cultural Catholics because they are raised that way, taught by word and example that Church is a requirement or a social event and not taught to understand the goal of the Church or even how and why Jesus is relevant to their lives.

Here's an example: I teach Confirmation class and I had a girl who always goes to Mass and went to Catholic school her whole life. She could not explain to me what the Holy Spirit is. Even if you didn't go to Catholic school, if you go to Mass every Sunday you should know some things about the Holy Spirit because you say all the fundamental facts about the Holy Spirit in the creed every Mass! "I believe in the Holy Spirit, The Lord the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets." Unless you are robotically rattling off these words without even listening to what you're saying, you should know a LOT about the Holy Spirit. Come on!

You are not going to have the same experience at every Mass. Similarly you're not always going to have the same emotions when you pray. It's okay not to feel like you are getting everything you think you should be getting out of Mass. It's normal. What matters is your perseverance and your open heart. Jesus your savior who died for you and loves you so very much, will take care of the rest. Trust yourself, trust Him and just focus intently on what you're doing, don't be a robot.

When we don't try to dive deeper with our minds and ask ourselves what we are doing and why, we fall into a cycle of robotically repeating actions once or twice a week to feel good about ourselves. This cycle is missing the relationship that we (The Church, the Bride of Christ!) strives to have with our Savior Jesus. We rob ourselves and Jesus of the relationship that we were created for and we rob the whole world of the people that we could be.