The Lesson of the Almond Branch
The forgotten Key, Our Eucharistic Lord
Photo By: Flickr/Our Lady of Peace Geneva
How lovely on the mountains? Are the feet of him who brings good news,?Who announces peace?And brings good news of happiness,?Who announces salvation,?And says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Isaiah 52:7, (NASB.).
The mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel, the good news! The above word picture of a pedestrian delivering the good, while beautiful and evocative, has little in common with the "New Evangelization" so prominent in the Church today! The great irony, as I see it, is summed up in the word pedestrian!
It starts with the liturgy, we are, after all, a liturgical Church. The liturgy in the average parish is pedestrian at best, lacking any sense of the transcendent, or any element that actually lifts the soul to God, the insipid folk rock inspired music doesn't help, and, finally, rather than transmitting the power of the Gospel, the homily invariably ends up in a maudlin "love everyone because God is love" Jumble!
While much of this is recognized by the "New Evangelists," their answer fails to address any of it! The answer put forward is, it's up to the laity, discipleship, one to one evangelization, and parish programs! As a convert, I am more than familiar with this evangelical Protestant approach! The objective seems to be "butts in seats," as a Cardinal once cajoled, "Come on in!" This approach will bring people i,n but the lack luster, pedestrian, Catholicism so common today will not hold them!
To use this approach you have to have a "better product!" Evangelicals came up with theirs, the Prosperity Doctrine! And it packed their churches, still does. Until reality set in, that is. If we're just bringing people into a church with nothing to offer but programs they can find anywhere and an empty, pedestrian worship! They'll leave faster than they came! So what's the. Answer?
The Answer is simple, we Catholics have, have always had, the "better product,". The Eucharist! The key to the new evangelization isn't programs, missionary discipleship, outreach campaigns, or a multiplicity of apostolates! No! It's a person, Jesus Christ! We Catholics, lay and clergy alike, must determine, as did St. Paul, to know nothing but Christ Jesus, and Him crucified!!! That's what will fill the pews again! Nothing else!
Forget the recycled Protestant programs and make the words of Saint Paul the motto of the New Evangelization;
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:2, (NASB)
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About the Author
I am a convert to Holy Mother Church, and, as you may know, converts make the worst zealots!
It was the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculata, who brought, rather, dragged me, into the Church! I am her servant, her knight, her Miles Immaculata!
I believe, like the character, Curly, in "City Slickers;"
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean (a thing)
Mitch: But, what is the "one thing?"
Curly: That's what you have to find out.
For me, that is "Christ Jesus, and Him Crucified!"
