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A trend in some popular apologetics/retreat talks really bothers me, and this evening I realized part of the reason why.
The trend: The false humility that jokes "Oh, don't worry, we're all sinners!" instead of trusting God's grace to actually transform us.
The trend: The false humility that jokes "Oh, don't worry, we're all sinners!" instead of trusting God's grace to actually transform us.
There's a lot of different versions of this, but it boils down to a lack of trust in the power of God's mercy. We are not irredeemable. We are not lost causes. We are not fated to fall to the same sins until we die, barely making it to confession at the last minute.
I think the error comes from misguided good intentions. We worry that, if we boldly call people to holiness through our ministry, that people will turn away. We worry that we can't actually call people to holiness if we don't feel like we can live up to it ourselves.
But Christ came into the world to save sinners, and to give us life: life to the full. God's mercy does not return to him void - rather, it bears the fruit of repentance, conversion, and works of charity in holiness.
If we preach a Catholicism complacent with sins and mediocrity, where the Sacraments can't radically change our lives for the better, what the heck are we doing and why? There's no point to Catholicism if Christ can't actually save me from my sins through the Church.
So, how can we do this better?
First, we have to pray for hope. The reason we make awkward, self-deprecating jokes about our own sinfulness as an excuse for mediocrity is because we don't trust God to actually change us. He can. Pray for hope!
First, we have to pray for hope. The reason we make awkward, self-deprecating jokes about our own sinfulness as an excuse for mediocrity is because we don't trust God to actually change us. He can. Pray for hope!
We try and try, but fail, and when our human strength to attempt conversion runs out, we settle for a comfortable Catholicism-lite. But we aren't meant to run on merely human strength. We can't will ourselves to holiness. Hope doesn't come from us, so ask it from God in prayer!
Second, I think people get into ministry before they're ready, and thus don't have the experience to testify to God's transforming grace. They joke about being a club of sinners because they haven't had the time to do the homework and learn real virtue through his mercy.
This is part of why people should not take up public ministry in the Church if they haven't overcome (by God's grace!) habitual mortal sins.
Third, we have to talk about mercy so much more than we talk about sin. Our sins are not an obstacle to God's plan or the working of his mercy in our soul! Who do you think you are that you could sin more powerfully than God could forgive?
Apologetics, spiritual talks, formation, homilies -have- to overflow with praises for the power of God's mercy. It does actually change lives. I've seen Him work salvation and freedom. I've seen people approach moral perfection even in this life. God is so good!
(In this vein, classifying people by the sins they commit is nonsensical. The idea that someone could be excluded because they've committed a particular kind of sin radically misunderstands God's mercy and the makeup of the Body of Christ.)
To wrap up, let's look to the example of the Apostles: Peter didn't joke about still denying Christ every now and then, and Paul didn't performatively "struggle" with an ongoing addiction to persecuting Christians.
They died to themselves - including dying to their fear of their own sinfulness. Instead of talking about what their sins had made in them, they talked about who God had made them to be by his mercy - Apostles and witnesses to the power of the risen Christ.
