Back to Normal?

Dana Petricka, director of Youth Ministry and Faith Formation, dpetricka@dowr.org

From the outside in, it appears like the world is a vastly different place now than it was immediately before the COVID-19 pandemic hit a year and a half ago. Divisions seem deeper than ever, one crisis after another overwhelms the news and our world, and many of the very structures we have come to depend on have been upended in an instant. I have heard many times (and find myself uttering) things like, “I can’t wait for things to get back to normal.” But was normal really better?

When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, it was like a band aid was ripped off a festering wound. Many of the issues we are experiencing now have been around for years, but we have been ignoring them. The same can be said in regards to our faith and how we teach and witness to youth. Was what we were doing before working? Should we “return to normalcy” in children and youth ministry? Or is this an opportunity to examine deeply how we are doing in transmitting our faith and a living relationship with Jesus Christ to the next generation?

This isn’t to say that everything from the past was not working. There have been structures and models that have stood the test of COVID-19, one of them being a small group approach. As we found ourselves limited to the number of people who could be present in person (and perhaps still are), small groups were able to thrive. Many parishes reached out to families and youth beyond the traditional faith formation-like communication, creating stronger bonds of friendship and care. A statistic I recently stumbled upon stated that only 1 out of 10 adolescents said someone from their church reached out to them or their family during the 2020 pandemic. When I read that statistic I was heartbroken, but I also wondered to myself which churches they were surveying kids from. Many of the Catholic churches in our diocese did not stop reaching out, but instead reached out more (especially at the beginning of the pandemic) creating a community of support in a time when many young people saw their former support systems crumbling. One young woman from the parish I previously worked at begged her mother to let her come in person to her Confirmation small group last year. Why should that be a unique experience?

What if we were able to create a community of support in our parishes that goes beyond necessity during a pandemic or other crisis? What if young people always begged their parents to take them to a Confirmation small group? What would it take for us to get to this place?

First, let’s get serious about forming disciples in our parishes. We cannot afford any more excuses such as finances, lack of staff availability, or the other repercussions from the pandemic to prevent us from moving forward. Our young people desire so much more than to be educated in their faith - they desire a real relationship with Jesus Christ. In fact, that’s what all people desire, whether they know it or not. When the topic of discipleship comes up in parishes, I often hear things like, “our definitions of discipleship are just different,” which causes any efforts to educate ourselves on how to create disciples to come to a halt. Discipleship is all about conforming our hearts and minds to doing God’s will, not our own - if we are not praying for the Holy Spirit to guide our efforts in understanding God’s definition of discipleship, then we are seeking our will and not God’s will.

A discipleship-focused parish doesn’t mean having the highest number of young people in our programs, the most dollars coming in through stewardship, or even the highest number of engaged parishioners in various ministries. A discipleship-focused parish looks at each individual with love and walks with them toward a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. That is exactly how Jesus worked: he invested His three years of public ministry in walking with 12 men, and through discipling 12 men He reached the entire world. To think we can usurp the model of Jesus Christ Himself and neglect walking with individuals is to operate directly against the model that Jesus Christ laid out for us. He says, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations...” (Matthew 18:19).

If discipleship hinges on a relationship with Jesus Christ, what does a relationship with Jesus look like? When we are in a relationship with someone, we desire to be with them and to know them better. How do we spend time with Jesus and get to know more about Him? Jesus is still truly present to us today in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. During the early days of the pandemic, many of us suffered through that disconnection from the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Now that we have access to this beautiful Sacrament again, the source and summit of our faith, do we take it for granted?

Jesus Christ speaks to us through Scripture, specifically in the Gospels. How often do we “take and read” (Confessions Ch. 6, St. Augustine) the words that Jesus has left us? Reading Scripture also provides an open door for dialogue with Christ, otherwise known as prayer. St. Therese of Lisieux once said that prayer is simply a conversation with God. A conversation involves both listening and talking; we listen to Jesus through silence and through His Word. Many of us (myself included) are really good at talking to God, perhaps primarily through prayers of petition (which can oftentimes be borderline complaints), but how often do we allow ourselves to stop and listen? How often do we offer prayers of thanksgiving for God’s many blessings, even in the midst of the storm?

As we find ourselves bracing for another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, let us take courage and see the signs of the times. Perhaps God is trying to wake us up from our slumber. In the Old Testament, God uses pestilence, disaster, exile, and anything He possibly can to wake up His people and turn their hearts back to Him in order to save their souls. The God of the Old Testament is the same God of today. I pray that we, as a diocese, truly pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we continue the mission Jesus entrusted to us to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,” starting first with our own.