Old Vid, Just for Laughs
January 19, 2011 by admin
Filed under Blog, Faith, Just For Laughs
Just for laughs…
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The De-Deification of the American Faithscape | ||||
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A Fireside "Discussion"
Last night I was up in the mountains with a great group of young Catholics. We had a great little (easy) hike into a waterfall, played some horseshoes (in the dark) and had a nice meal cooked by our priest. Somehow [I’m still not certain how exactly] we began discussing the topic of women as altar servers. I have some pretty firm beliefs on the subject, and stemming from those beliefs, we began to discuss the current state of the Church – all from an opinion/experience standpoint.
I firmly believe that the modern, American Catholic Church is, as I’ve put it before, “by women, for women”. Yes, the “leaders” are Bishops, Priests and Deacons, but my point is that the lay-portion of the Church is the “for women” part. This caught some of the young women off guard and immediately put them on the defensive. This was NOT my intention. I intended to explain that the problem is not what the women are doing, or their involvement or their faithfulness or anything of the sort… I intended to explain that in order to fix the problem, men must step up and fulfill the call from God to be protectors, defenders, leaders and TrueMen!
Allow me to explain the statement “by women, for women”. If you look at a typical Catholic parish in America, 80%+ participation and involvement is middle-aged and older women, as well as children. The liturgies are filled with female volunteers, the events are orchestrated and attended by females and the typical style of worship is geared toward female spirituality – rightly so, since 80%+ in attendance are female. The problem with this is multi-faceted: First (and FOREMOST) MEN ARE NOT PRESENT. Men are slacking on their responsibilities and are failing to fulfill their calling as men. Secondly, when men fail to fulfill their role, women tend to step in and attempt to fulfill the men’s role for them. This doesn’t work because the male role(s) are meant to be fulfilled by men, and women simply can’t fulfill (rightly) a man’s role. In the same way, a man cannot successfully fulfill a woman’s role. If this occurs, the relationships and the fulfillment of the responsibilities are skewed, or disordered.
Another part to the problem is the idea of, an oxymoron, “The Fatherless Family”. If men are non-existent in the Church, the Church (which is similar to a family unit) will suffer greatly. This, in my opinion, is the current state of affairs. The solution to these problems is men stepping up, leading and fulfilling their responsibilities. As God commanded Adam in the garden, modern men must “shamar” the garden – they must protect, defend and cultivate their world. My hope is that men begin to learn what it means to live a truly manly lifestyle, within the context of the Life of Faith, as fathers, husbands, sons and friends and that the Church can return to a well-ordered way of operating. More to come on this.
Disclaimer: This is a generalization. There are many men, in many parishes, in many dioceses, that are fulfilling their responsibilities and are living well-ordered lives. There, the Church is strong. There, the Church is thriving.
Man up!
