Wednesday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time at Mississippi Abbey

Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth?” (Lk 18:8). Consider the sacraments.  A research study found that 74% of U.S. Catholics under the age of 40 do not believe Jesus is truly present in the most Holy Eucharist. For them the Bread of Life is not “the source and summit of their Christian life.”

Many young Catholic couples no longer consider it necessary to be validly married before a priest in a Church.  Marriage on a beach or at a mountain resort is so much more appealing.

The sacrament of Reconciliation has fared even worse.  Scot Hahn writes, “Many Catholics have lost a sense of sin. If there is no sin, then the sacrament of reconciliation is a curious oddity.”  Who needs it?

The sacrament of Confirmation suffers from a different evil, the loss of a sense of the holy. We are strengthened by Confirmation with the power of the Holy Spirit to seek good and avoid evil, to be holy. The struggle is  beyond our strength.  But Confirmation is often ignored or received reluctantly by those in middle school

The most significant trend in religious practice during recent decades has been the growing shift away from formal religion. It even has a name, the None’s, those who check “no religious affiliation” on their profiles. In the late 1940s and 1950s only 3% of Americans said they had no formal religious identity. Today it is 30%.

So, when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth, or will he find all those evils that he said come from within, from the darkened heart?  Is it not our great task to provide faith and love in an unbelieving world?