Is it all pointless?

Last night on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Antonio Banderas was on and he was discussing how he had just gotten back from Spain. He was there during Holy Week because he belongs to one of the brotherhoods which carry big beautiful floats depicting the Passion of the Lord. He mentioned that the float they carried was about 6 1/2 tons! There was a number of men who come together to do this every year. It is a Spanish tradition which goes back over 500 years, beginning in 1462.

I do not mean to be judgmental, but my impression - and it may very well just be the impression given to me from watching the popular media reports I have been presented - of Antonio Banderas is that he is not the most practicing of Catholics. I seem to recall his having some movie roles that were not exactly edifying. Perhaps it is only my impression of him, or perhaps there is more to it than that. Either way, I guess what I am concerned with is the problem of cultural catholicism - which is a danger to all of us.

In the years in which my wife and I lived in Italy, it was interesting to know a young Italian man who, every Easter, allowed the local parish priest to come in and bless his house, even though he did not believe in either God or the Lord Jesus. This is an incredible reality. For him, it was what you did, it was part of the Italian culture.

In some ways, I think this is what Vatican II had hoped to fight against: people becoming so used to being Catholic that is was not actually a truly lived experience. For many, it was more of a part of your life - like paying taxes. It seems that Pope John XXIII had hoped to shake up the Catholic Church enough to get us layfolk and some priests too back in the active participation of Catholic Faith.

Unforunately, for many reasons, I don't think Vatican II solved this very human problem. I remember being in Santarem, Portugal, at a parish where a Eucharistic miracle had taken place and many of the men stood outside the Church smoking and chatting during the Holy Sacrifice of Mass. Meanwhile, mainly women were inside praying. I think this is too often the idea of many Catholics in some parts of the world, that praying is for women or the weak.

The reality is that our Catholic Faith must be engaged if we are to have a living relationship with Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We can never just belong to the Catholic Church, but not live the Faith. That would be like going to an American Thanksgiving Meal and just playing your handheld videogame (like a PSP or Gameboy, for those that get that reference) all throughout dinner. We have to experience the details and the meaning of the Traditions that are passed on to us in the Familial structure of the Catholic Liturgy. We have to know why the buns are passed a certain direction, why the gravy is always in a particular gravy boat, why uncle Joe always tells the same silly joke every year, and other details that only someone who belongs to the family can understand and enjoy.

What I think we Catholics, especially here at St. Jude, need to recapture is our patrimony, our belonging to the family of the Universal Church of Jesus Christ established on the Rock of St. Peter. When we begin to see that we are not just part of an institution, but really and truly part of a family, the family of Jesus Christ, then we can truly begin to take up and live our vocation as members of that family. We must realize the practice of the Catholic Faith is NOT pointless, it really can and must affect and effect every crevice of our being! Whaddya think?