For at least the last half century, the Catholic Church, although charged with boldly proclaiming the Truth to the world, has been suffering from sloth, complacency, fear of ridicule by secular agents, and fear of appearing apathetic toward people’s sinful conduct. Many of the Church’s clergy have elected to take the path of least resistance on controversial issues. They rarely speak against the sins that are killing our secular and church cultures and almost never encourage the laity to battle sin and temptation.
Rather, they incessantly speak about God’s love and mercy without mentioning the conversion of heart and mind that is a condition for receiving mercy. They preach about grace without telling us how grace is received and rejected. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), a German Lutheran pastor and theologian, aptly described this indolent approach to pastoring as “cheap grace”. This article will briefly discuss cheap grace and will outline a call to action.
Before that discussion, we should understand the nature of true grace. Our Catechism notes: “The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it” (CCC, 1999). As such, grace is free because it is given to us without individual cost, but it becomes cheap when we behave as if there is no necessary response to it.
Cheap Grace vs. Costly Grace
In his book, The Cost of Discipleship (1937), Bonhoeffer wrote, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” On the other hand, “Costly grace,” Bonhoeffer continued,
is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.
For Bonhoeffer, grace is cheapened by the clergy’s refusal to communicate our necessary response to unmerited grace. The Old Covenant Jews faced a similar problem with their priests, and God had a message for them. Hosea wrote, “Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest…. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me” (Hosea 6:4,6).
The trouble with priests who cheapen grace is threefold:
They set themselves against God and His desire that all people be saved by knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:3-4); they do a great disservice to the people they are charged with serving (Luke 22:26); and they not only neglect to proclaim the Church’s constant moral teachings, they set themselves in opposition to the many priests who love God and care enough to preach about sin, thereby causing confusion among the laity.
How many times have you heard a Catholic say: I thought the Church changed its teaching on contraception, homosexual behavior, IVF, etc.? This confusion would not exist if all priests preached against the multitude of sins that are destroying our world.
Bonhoeffer understood that grace is free but not cheap. Thus, he wrote, “Costly grace…calls us to follow.” Costly grace has infinite value because it is distributed to us by the infinite God whose Son paid the infinite price for our eternal salvation. Although we could never pay Him back for His priceless sacrifice, we are obliged to do good works and to reject all forms of sin. In other words, we are called to a holy life that in no way cheapens the grace we have received through no merit of our own.
Our Response to Grace
All people are called by grace to Christ and His Catholic Church, and all Catholics are called to a sacramental life with Christ. We are called to Baptism in which our sins are washed away and through which we enter the Body of Christ, His Church. If we mortally sin after being washed, we are called to contrition and auricular confession, which not only results in our forgiveness, but strengthens us in our walk with Christ, so that we may not continue in our sins.
We are called to Communion in which we receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Savior. This is true food for our earthly journey and our ongoing battle against the principalities, powers, world rulers of this present darkness, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).
Rather than cheap grace, which results in slothful mindsets and behavior, we receive grace that strengthens us to inquire, learn, adhere, fight, purify, love, share, and help. Bear in mind that grace is not cheap because of its nature but because of our unwillingness to do the good we are obliged to do.
Jesus tells us to “be perfect…as [our] Heavenly Father is perfect,” (Matthew 5:48) and He would not have given us such a command without the grace to live it. Unfortunately, many in our Church have not heard this message, or they have not heard it since their Confirmation classes years ago.
Negligent Pastors
All of this leads to a brief story. The pastor, the only priest at the parish, never (not hyperbole) preaches about any of the moral issues (e.g. abortion, contraception, euthanasia, pornography, masturbation, adultery, fornication, homosexual behavior, drug/alcohol abuse, gluttony, etc.) that plague our culture. I have respectfully asked him twice to preach on these issues. He refused my requests both times citing his discomfort in upsetting parishioners. I advised him that these parishioners were probably the ones who needed to hear this message the most and that, as a priest, he has a God-given mandate to preach the entire gospel.
If this priest had been preaching the entire gospel during his years as pastor, he would not have such a concern. Either these foolish parishioners would have left the parish long ago or they would have had a conversion of heart, mind, and soul because of the preaching.
Priests have a moral responsibility to preach the entire gospel message, not just the lovey-dovey parts, and parishioners have a right to hold their priests accountable to that fundamental aspect of the priestly vocation. Hearing the same message repeatedly causes its intellectual appeal to be lost, but a well-formed homily on sin is inspirational.
The laity have a duty to advise our priests when they are being negligent with the gospel message. Why should a priest or any Catholic stand before God with the blood of countless aborted babies on their hands or with a multitude of other sins on their souls because priests were too afraid to speak against sin?
Call to Action
I know the “cheap grace” problem affects many parishes, and the laity, who are members of the royal priesthood of the faithful (1 Peter 2:9), are responsible for bringing this problem to their priests’ attention. Therefore, if you are at a parish in which moral issues are rarely or never preached at the Mass, say something to your priest and find others who will do the same; hold him accountable. Write a letter to your priest expressing your concerns and dissatisfaction. Feel free to use a letter template I wrote for this very purpose.
Get to know your priest and be a volunteer at your parish. In other words, be a part of the solution. Read the bible and the Catechism to build up your knowledge of Church teachings. Read Vatican II’s Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity. Talk to your deacon or associate priest and ask them to discuss this matter with the pastor. Pray and fast for your priest.
God knows the reason for a priest’s reluctance to preach about sin, and only He can remove the barriers. Finally, be prepared to find another parish but exercise prudence before doing so. Above all, be firm in Christ and the truths He preaches through his Holy Spirit-led Church.
Unfortunately, cheap grace has become an all too common “ideal” in many of our parishes. So, please work with your pastor to restore costly grace. Our culture and countless souls cannot wait for the lethargic Church hierarchy to admonish dissenting or negligent priests. Lethargy breeds lethargy and only prayer, charitable actions, and fraternal correction will help our Church return to its proper role as moral teacher to a world full of cheap grace.
8 thoughts on “Cheap Grace and Negligent Clergy”
Nate, I will gently disagree with you, that according to my reasoning following it to its logical conclusion, preaching about sin on more general terms is preaching to the choir. Humans are sinners, and we know this. So preaching about sins and ways to be more Christ-like is not a waste of time or preaching to the choir for the priest. We always need gentle reminders of the right path to take. I may not need the priest to tell me not to have an abortion or not to help my sick grandma die, but I might need him to help me remember to be more forgiving toward my fellow man, or more giving, for these stem from sins too. Our priests do talk about specific sins each week, they just aren’t major mortal sins. They are smaller sins that we can think about and try to incorporate into our lives to make us better people, and slightly more Crist-like. Perhaps some weeks, the message doesn’t resonate as well as others, and some priests do a better job than others at getting messages across to parishioners, but they are only human after all too.
I have never been a member of a parish with that large of a congregation, or had a priest who was a super dynamic speaker, both of which would most likely be necessary for the kind of evangelization which took place at your previous parish apparently. And a standing ovation would be contrary to what a priest would want I would expect. I would hope their words would bring about solemn contemplation more than loud personal accolades.
Dear Nancy,
You said, “I may not need the priest to tell me not to have an abortion or not to help my sick grandma die, but I might need him to help me remember to be more forgiving toward my fellow man, or more giving, for these stem from sins too.” This argument is very Nancy-centric and excludes the need for others to hear the whole truth. There are many more people than you who attend Mass. Whether YOU need to hear about mortal sins (your pushback indicates that you need to hear about them) or not has nothing to do with my article. Priests have a moral responsibility per Christ’s command to teach all nations the whole Christian truth, not just part of it. Perhaps reading the Bible and the Catechism will help you better understand this. And again, I encourage you to read what the USCCB has written about homilies. Thanks!
Hello, Nate and Nancy,
I would like to add this truth- many, many of the people in the pews need the homilies that speak to specific sins. They have either been poorly catechized or have reject those truths as out of date. Many do not know what the Church teaches on moral issues. Christ was very specific in naming sins and.preaching against them. I pray for the Priests who do, and all those who don’t. Both will be held accountable for how faithfully they have or have not taught their flock. As a member of that flock I thank God and my Priests who, over the years, have preached on Church teaching. The Apostles and their successors did not just pray in general intentions about sin. They saw the need for Church teaching on it. I believe that is where we are today, and I thank God for those Priests who recognize it and address it. I fear for those who don’t. They can’t be preaching to the choir- look up the stats on the percentage of Catholics who do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. God bless and protect you.
Thanks Katrine! I completely agree. I believe parishes in which priests have homilies on the moral issues are parishes that are much more active. When people hear the full truth, they either turn toward it or away from it. When they turn toward it, they become more active in the good works to which God has called them.
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Hi Nate. Another interesting article.
For something like the past four of five weeks we have been listening to readings about being “ready”; not knowing when the call would come for us to enter into His kingdom. I believe these have been directly talking about our sinfulness and not waiting to repent until some later time. Am I mistaken? Our priests talk to us about our moral issues in general terms because probably, they have to create a talk that will “fit” for all masses’ demographics, one that will speak to everyone; the old and young alike. If he is too specific, there’s a very good chance that most if not all of the people at the mass will be thinking that he is just preaching to the choir, so to speak. So I would rethink your stance on your priest “never” preaching on those moral issues. He just doesn’t perhaps preach it as specifically as you would prefer it to be done.
You also wrote that negligent clergy (as you elude that your priest is), “neglects to proclaim the Church’s constant moral teachings…”.But you seem to want them to constantly proclaim the Church’s moral teachings. I know that many churches include prayers against abortion, violence, euthanasia, etc. throughout the year in their prayers of the faithful – I know my church does. Does this not count as a proclamation of sorts – having the entire congregation praying for the action to cease? It does not seem negligent to me (although granted I am not the expert) to include those morality issues here and not specifically in the homily.
This way, the priest in question can prepare a sermon that can follow the gospel and still leave his congregation feeling uplifted and knowing the God loves each and every one of His children, instead of harangued and that His love is conditional upon being sin free (from confession). This would only serve to drive people away from the Catholic Church in droves.
I know I wouldn’t want to go to that church.
Hello Nancy! Thanks for reading my article and for your reply! First, regarding the readings about being ready, I haven’t read them and, therefore, cannot specifically comment about their intended purpose/s. In general, being “ready” for heaven means being sorry for our sinful acts, seeking forgiveness, and living a life according to the nature with which God made us.
Second, you said, “Our priests talk to us about our moral issues in general terms because…if he is too specific, there’s a very good chance that most if not all of the people at the Mass will be thinking that he is just preaching to the choir, so to speak.” However, if we follow this reasoning to its logical end, we would have to say that speaking about sin in general terms is preaching to the choir as well. After all, if the “choir” knows about specific sins, wouldn’t they know about sin in general? Furthermore, doesn’t the “choir” know about God’s love and mercy. Thus, this is a faulty argument. Additionally, sin is “fit” for all Masses because we are all born into a fallen human nature. Now, that doesn’t mean the priest has to describe all the gory details about sin, especially the sexual ones, but he can provide a logical and loving homily on why specific sins must be avoided. Jesus, Peter, Paul, and John did it. I’m sure the priest can do it too.
Third, I do not want priests to constantly preach on the Church’s moral teachings. There’s much more to Christian doctrine than its moral teachings. In fact, in my article, I wrote, “Hearing the same message repeatedly causes its intellectual appeal to be lost….” This would be true about any subject.
Fourth, regarding your last paragraph, all four gospels and most of the epistles talk about sin. So, I agree with you. The priest in question can indeed prepare a sermon that follows the gospel and, by proclaiming God’s mercy after preaching about a specific sin, can still give an uplifting message. Quick anecdote – At my previous parish, my priest talked about specific sins once every four to six weeks. About 2000 people showed up for each Mass. When the priest finished his homilies on a specific sin (and this is not exaggeration) the entire congregation gave him a standing ovation. And it was one of the most active parishes I have ever seen. When was the last time you saw this at your parish? I venture to say never. How active is your parish? I venture to say not very. Courageous priests build courageous parishes.
Finally, do you think priests should preach on specific sins at Mass? If so, then we are probably on the same page as to the reasons why. If not, then why not? What’s the problem with a priest occasionally preaching about specific sins? No need to respond to these questions on such a public forum. I’m just throwing them out there for your own contemplation. Thanks again, Nancy! I hope you and your family have a relaxing weekend.
One more thing, read my letter to a priest. It synopsizes the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ guidelines for homilies. Thanks!