Bring ‘Em Back! Part 15

This is the final article in a series of articles aimed at helping you to get your lapsed Catholic loved one going to Church again and once again becoming a practicing Catholic. 

Hell is Real

One of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit we receive at Baptism, which is increased and sealed in us at Confirmation, is Fear of the Lord.

The good Franciscan Sisters at the grade school I attended explained Fear of the Lord as being in awe of God’s greatness and goodness while having a correct and proper disdain for sin.  A correct and proper disdain for sin is needed because while God is great, all loving, and merciful, He is also just.

Following Vatican II, however, more emphasis was being placed on God’s love and mercy than His justice.  Sin got downplayed.

Since Vatican II, two basic theological schools of thought on Doctrine have existed: a conservative/traditional school and a progressive/liberal school.  Conservative theologians say doctrine is doctrine and Jesus’ teachings are very clear.  Doctrine cannot change. Progressive theologians, however, say Catholic teachings need to take into account current beliefs and attitudes ‘of the culture’ and priests need to be more pastoral.

The result of these two schools of thought has been 50 years of confusion.

Right now, as theologian, professor, and author Dr. Tracey Rowland points out in the forward of her book Catholic Theology,

“The whole territory of Catholic theology is highly fragmented and there is little agreement about methodological principles and issues that are classified as central to the subject of ‘Fundamental Theology.’  The conflict at the Synods on the Family (2014 and 2015) was symptomatic of this.  Foundational fault lines include the understanding of the relationship between nature and grace, faith and reason, history and dogma, logos and ethos and the correct principles to be applied to biblical hermeneutics.”

Fear of the Lord

Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI tried to clear up the confusion.  But between the progressive theologians, bishops and priests, and the cultural changes taking place, it was kind of like trying to get toothpaste back into a tube and herding cats both at the same time.

Today we have a couple generations of Catholics walking around thinking, more like Protestants than Catholics.  There seems to be no Fear of the Lord anymore.

Also, since Vatican II, we’ve heard that “salvation is communitarian.”  While there is some truth in this, it does not negate the fact every adult is solely responsible for his or her own actions and behaviors.  And too many adults are just not acting like responsible adults.

The devil is real and he wants our souls with him in hell when we die.  And he seems to have been putting in a lot of overtime for the last 100 years.

He has been, and still is, whispering in a lot of adult ears, telling people they do not really need God in their lives and that they don’t have to go to Mass.  And too many adults are listening to him.

But the Four Last Things have not changed:  Death, Judgement, Heaven, or Hell.

Hell is Real

Jesus talks about hell in Matthew 8:12 and in Matthew 25:41.  Peter also talks about hell (2 Peter 2:4) and so does Paul (2 Thessalonians 1:9).  And Revelations 14:9-11 paints a pretty grim picture of hell.

The vision of hell Sr. Lucia received from the Blessed Virgin in 1917 at Fatima is also pretty scary.

“Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear.

“The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.”

Our lapsed Catholic friends and loved ones need to be reminded that while God is loving and merciful, He is also just.

A 15-Part Guidebook

As Jesus told the Pharisees, the Greatest Commandment is “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  The first three Commandments all flow from this.  Nothing in our lives should be more important than God.  Going to Mass on Saturday evening or Sunday is quite simply the most important thing any one of us will do each and every week.

The 20,000 or so words in this 15-part series cannot cover every nuance of every conversation you may have with your lapsed Catholic loved one about the importance of going to Mass.  But this series can serve as a pretty good guide in regard to how to have the conversations.

Remember Fr. Vandenakker’s advice in Part 3 along with the 5 P’s – Patience, Prayer, Perseverance, Politeness, and Preparedness.  Don’t be confrontational, ask questions, and be prepared to listen.  Don’t lecture.  Your goal is to bring them back, not drive them further away.

Have the Conversation

Jesus tells us in John 15:5:

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.”

We cannot remain in Him and Him in us unless we receive him in the Eucharist at Mass.

As Fr. Richard M. Heilman, author and founder of the website Roman Catholic Man, has stated:

“When we deny His divinity – and our actions can point to that – we are cut off from that supernatural power to bear the fruit of becoming great disciples, great husbands and wives, great parents, and great citizens. Without that divine life – state of grace – we are left to become base and savage … merely [H]omo sapiens … just another species, satisfying our base desires. THAT is why our world is the way it is today!”

It can be difficult having a conversation with someone you love about going to Mass again and once again seriously practicing his or her faith.  But it’s a conversation worth having.  You might save a soul.

Part 1 is here; Part 2 here; Part 3 here; Part 4 here; Part 5 here; Part 6 here; Part 7 here; Part 8 here; Part 9 here; Part 10 here; Part 11 here; Part 12 here; Part 13 here; Part 14 here.