ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Friends,

I am very pleased to participate with you in the 2010 Defending the Faith Conference sponsored by Franciscan University of Steubenville. Together, we mark the 35th anniversary of Steubenville Conferences and their contribution to the mission of evangelization. I express deep gratitude to Father Terence Henry, TOR, the President of Franciscan University, for his invitation, and I congratulate him and the whole Franciscan University community on this great milestone.

I wish likewise to express my greetings to the co-hosts of this Conference, Professor Scott Hahn and Professor Alan Schreck.  I appreciate the presence of the priests, religious, seminarians, married couples and single persons.  I thank all of you for your clear support for the mission of the Church.

Conversation often begins ordinarily enough. We may be at the supermarket, in the car pool on the way to work, on the sidewalk in our neighborhood, in the airport waiting for a flight, at the ball field watching a son or daughter, niece or nephew’s game or practice, or, perhaps we are in the office or in the lunch room at work. In common conversation, colleagues or friends ask us about what we may be reading lately, or perhaps they ask where our children go to school or about our own background, schooling or education.

We see the topic emerging as we respond: “I’ve been reading about the theology of the body.” “I’ve been reading Pope Benedict’s book on Jesus of Nazareth.” “My children attend Immaculate Heart of Mary School.” “My son graduated from Holy Savior School.” “I am on my way to a parish council meeting tonight.” “We’ll be late for the gathering because we are attending the 12:30 Mass.”

Then comes the puzzled look.  The prudent and polite pause.  The lull in the conversation.  And many of us could fill in the words for what comes next.

In their response to us, the next sentence perhaps begins: “Well do you really …?  Well …how can you …?  Do you really …  believe all that?!” By now, those who are standing around turn to listen more closely. They weren’t eavesdropping. They were just listening! And now they are really listening!  What is our response?

The topic of faith and religion emerges. We may be asked what we believe about God, about the moral teaching of the Church or even about the reasons behind our faith practice.

When they ask us if we “really believe all that,” and we respond, “Yes, I do,” a new moment and an original moment is born. Our “yes” might not convince our friends, neighbors or family members of all the truths of faith, at first. It might not move them to change their opinions, ideas or positions. But our “yes” accomplishes something in the heart of those who hear us. They can no longer remain where they were prior to our conversation. Their heart has been touched. It has been moved simply by their experience of our response. They no longer have the option or the luxury of remaining where they were a moment before. They have been moved. They may, of course, write us off for a time. They may dismiss us, avoid us, think us naïve and remain at a distance, unconvinced. But they are moved.

Our “yes” inherits all of the grace of every “yes” uttered throughout salvation history. Our “yes” is not unconnected with every prior “yes,” because it exists always and permanently as a witness to the truth. Our “yes” unites with the “yes” of Abraham. Our “yes” unites with the “yes” of the Patriarchs and Prophets. Our “yes” unites with the most perfect “yes” of our Blessed Mother Mary, her fiat. Our “yes” unites with the “yes” of the apostles and martyrs. Our “yes” is an echo of the fidelity of the faithful men and women of every time and place. In our “yes” we are never alone. Our “yes” is part of a larger chorus, a witness that points to Besus Christ, the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, the Son of the Eternal Father, the Son of the Virgin Mary, the Redeemer of the world, the great lover and defender of humanity. Our listeners hear the Word of truth reflected in our voice, and as the author of the Letter to Hebrews tells us, "… the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart" (Heb 4:12). Our listeners cannot remain where they were prior to our response.

I would like to offer for reflection today three core principles that must form our response, our defense of the faith in the twenty-first century. First, underneath all of the surface opinions and perhaps even protestations to the contrary, people are hungry for faith. Second, their hunger is of such considerable proportions that our presentation of the faith, the evangelization and the catechesis of the Church, must address both the heart and the head together. Third, and most importantly, Jesus Christ alone fully satisfies the human heart.

I. People are hungry for faith

First, the people we meet are truly hungry for faith. At times, our friends, neighbors, and sometimes our own family express confusion, questions, or even dismay and bewilderment at our faith and practice. Sometimes, there is even disagreement and distance.

The people who question us about our faith, and even those who may disagree with us, sometimes perhaps vehemently, are not for that reason less worthy of our attention, interest and respect. So often they have disengaged from the practice of their faith due to overwhelming pressure to conform to a worldly mindset. Some have been battered by an unrelenting de-formation that conditions them to disregard and dismiss their own deep yearning for God. Some are registered in their parish, participate as best they can, but they have grown cold due to the numbing gale-force insistence of the world. How easy it is to be overpowered by the world with all of its labels and prejudices, and simply to give in, to give up. Those who are pressured and cast about by the world have a special friend in our Blessed Mother. The Blessed Virgin Mary is always eager to guide those who wander, so that their hearts may be transformed from places of worry and pressure into hearts that treasure the things of God.

The skepticism we face today differs from that of yesterday. The skepticism of the previous generation arose as the residue of a pragmatic atheism in the academy. It rarely trickled down to the person on the street. The skepticism of today is different. It arises out of a lost sense of meaning. Our friends, neighbors and family are told repeatedly that the undeniable religious yearning we all feel in the depths of our heart is only a superficial, sentimental affect, an individualist search for an emotional high, the quest for inner serenity and harmony so that they can feel calm in the midst of a busy world filled with demanding activities and hectic schedules. Over time, unaddressed, this skepticism erodes the foundations of faith and metastasizes into an understated yet practical atheism. We find that sometimes our friends, co-workers, family, fellow students, and even our fellow parishioners, may look on us as out of step with the times and on a different wave-length. And, of course, we are and pray to remain there.

The subtle atheism of today seeks not so much to deny the existence of God as to inhibit, prevent, redirect and, if necessary, refuse the acknowledgement and exercise of the deep hunger for God that slumbers in every heart. The atheism of today does not arise from the academy alone. It arises within the practical and daily attempts, even within proposed civil legislation and judicial activism, of the denial of religious liberty and freedom of conscience that our culture and society have from the very beginning acknowledged as the bedrock of the common good and the rights of the human person. Pope Benedict XVI, in his most recent Encyclical Letter, Caritas in Veritate, emphasizes: “When the State promotes, teaches, or actually imposes forms of practical atheism, it deprives its citizens of the moral and spiritual strength that is indispensable for attaining integral human development and it impedes them from moving forward with renewed dynamism as they strive to offer a more generous human response to divine love” (no. 29).   The Holy Father concluded, “A humanism which excludes God is an inhuman humanism” (no. 78).

The exercise of religion is more and more being treated as an exclusively private attitude that ought not to extend beyond the property-line of the Church. We simply cannot confine ourselves to a strategy of neutrality in the face of the recent erosion of religious freedom. The skepticism we face does not simply disagree with Christians; it is hostile to Christians and resentful of the Good News of Jesus Christ. It seeks to relegate Christians to the sidelines of society. Pope Benedict XVI, in his Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi, called attention to this troubling phenomenon: “… ‘redemption’ … is no longer expected from faith, but from the newly discovered link between science and praxis. It is not that faith is simply denied; rather it is displaced onto another level—that of purely private and other-worldly affairs—and at the same time it becomes somehow irrelevant for the world. This programmatic vision has determined the trajectory of modern times and it also shapes the present-day crisis of faith ... " (no. 17).

The theme of this year’s Conference, “Be Transformed by the Renewal of Your Mind,” is an urgent call to faithful citizens and all people of good will to embrace the persistent and fundamental calling of the human person to respond to a deep yearning for God, especially through religious freedom and the free exercise of religion. The atheism of today infects not only the head, but the heart. This leads us to our second principle: The remedy we offer must speak not to the head alone, but to the heart and the head together. The words of St. Paul call us to a new commitment: "Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect" (Rom 12:2).

II. We must address both the head and the heart

To address both the head and the heart, we step forward with courage. Courage, after all, is the path to nobility. As we step forward, at first, we may fall into the trap of trying to construct the silver bullet, that all-embracing phrase or line of argumentation that effectively refutes every argument and convinces the skeptic to believe the truth of faith. Certainly, we need the familiarity and well-tuned expression that arises from immersing ourselves in research on the truths of faith. We benefit greatly from honing the technical skills of informed study and debate. These skills help us to express reasonable, logical, linear reasoning of faith through affable, yet vigorous, discussion. This point-for-point dialogue is invigorating and crucial to our witness.

Divine Revelation does not contradict right reason. Rather, Divine Revelation illumines human reason and invites it to new heights. The light of Divine Revelation, expressed in Sacred Scripture and the living apostolic Tradition of the Church and authentically interpreted in the Church’s living Magisterium, is a gift to man, to lead him to penetrate the mystery of human existence.

This generation must be well prepared to demonstrate in common and accessible language that the prevalent body-soul dualism which informs so much of secular thinking and education is woefully inadequate and destructive of the common good. We must be prepared to demonstrate that proportionalism is an unacceptable moral methodology. This August marks seventeen years since the Venerable Servant of God Pope John Paul II published Veritatis Splendor, his Encyclical Letter on certain fundamental questions of the Church’s moral teaching. Yet so many of us still very much need to receive fully this crucial teaching as the center of gravity in our moral analysis and everyday experience.

 The critical examination and reasoning so crucial to apologetics is not meant, in its first instance, to show that we are correct, but to show that we love one another. Our reasoning ought never to sink to intense polemics. We must never turn to cynicism or contempt in our effort to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If we discover ourselves becoming frequently frustrated in our efforts to defend the faith, this may be a sign that we need to calibrate our approach to include greater emphasis on the beauty and invitation of faith. The reasoning we propose in witness to our faith is not meant to end all arguments, but to begin a new search in the lives of those with whom we speak. Our reasoning is not meant to be the last word, but the first word, the invitation, the doorway to a quest, a journey into the truths of faith, into the life of God. We do not simply refute arguments, we invite people. The keynote of apologetics in every age of the Church is the way we live our lives. The world must see the honesty in our eyes long before it hears the conviction in our voice. And science is always on our side: The modern ultra sound picture of the child in the womb proves the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. There are two central threads of the Culture of Life. The first is to protect the inviolable dignity of all human life from the moment of conception to natural death, especially of those most in danger, namely, the child in the womb and persons who are approaching the end of life. And the other central thread of the Culture of Life is the protection and promotion of marriage as the permanent, faithful, fruitful bond of one man and one woman.

So many of the people we meet are wounded, even though they appear healthy and successful by worldly standards. The voice deep in their heart, which cries out for meaning, has been marginalized and exiled. They have been hurt by so many others who say one thing and do another. They have been scarred by attempts to maximize control, by constant image-driven preoccupation with status, by the narrow understanding of life which the world never ceases to impose. They may often feel as if they are simply going through the motions. They seek escape from the tensions and are burdened by resistance and reluctance to reach out to the God who is calling them. Too many of our friends, our colleagues, our brothers and sisters are experiencing a secret despair in life which they have kept hidden for far too long.

God sends us to those who are suffering to announce again that only Jesus Christ can totally satisfy the deepest hunger of the human heart. This is our third and final principle.

III. Jesus Christ alone uncovers the meaning of human existence and fully      satisfies the hunger of the human heart.

Human existence has meaning, and it is not found in money, fashion or pleasure. The flavor of these passing pursuits always runs out. These do not move the depths of our being, and they never explain the meaning of our existence. They never even scrape the surface of our deep and abiding hunger for God. We must build on this yearning and rediscover beauty, surrender to beauty, and awaken again to the meaning of human existence. The loss of meaning can only be fully restored by the experience of beauty. And nothing is more beautiful than the countenance of God the Father shining on the face of Jesus Christ. As Pope John Paul II said in Veritatis Splendor: “The light of God's face shines in all its beauty on the countenance of Jesus Christ”  (no. 2).

One of the great tasks, if not the principal task, of evangelization and catechesis in this moment is their mobilization on the local level. The central work within the New Evangelization is the formation and expression of a robust Christian anthropology. The renewal of anthropology was the landmark and hallmark of the teaching of Pope John Paul II. As Pope John Paul II reminded us so often, and the teaching of the Second Vatican Council made clear: "The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light ... Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear" (Gaudium et Spes, 22). And the Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ, revealed to us the ultimate meaning of human existence in His Passion, Death and glorious Resurrection. Once again, in the words of Vatican II: “… man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself" (Gaudium et Spes, 24). The sincere gift of self is not only good advice, a good idea or simply polite manners, it is the path of human existence. The total gift of self in love is not activism, but the action at the heart of all that we do. It is the heart of the meaning of human identity. If we are not making a gift of ourselves, then we will not be able to find ourselves. We learn to make the gift of self not on the basis of our own efforts or good intentions. The gift of self in love is the centerpiece of Christian anthropology that provides the basis by which we can form complete responses to the stormy questions of the day. The Cross of Jesus Christ alone gives us courage to offer ourselves as a gift even in the face of confrontation and contradiction.

The task of the Christian in the twenty-first century is, simply stated, to be an instrument of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit seeks to awaken the people around us to a beauty in Christ and therefore to a meaning in their own existence that they never suspected to find. We encounter His beauty in and through the Church. In the Church we sense an immediacy of beauty that arouses and shapes the persistent hunger of the human heart. In the Church, as we partake of the Sacraments, our life is transformed by the superabundant grace of Jesus Christ.

There is no room in the New Evangelization for empty words. Every time we utter “yes,” the missionary summons of our “yes” becomes a spark that can enkindle and ignite a hardened heart. The only way to move a generation is to ignite hearts. As Pope Benedict explained in Spe Salvi: “… the holy power of [Christ’s] love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God” (no. 47).  This holy fire alone is the catalyst by which the words of St. Paul are fulfilled: "Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect" (Rom 12:2). Only hearts on fire have the power and courage to dismantle the ideologies of the Culture of Death and embrace the Culture of Life and the call to holiness.

People today need Christians to coax them back from the edge, to remind them how much the world matters to God. We fulfill this role not by diluting the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but by living it to the full and sharing it with others. People are indeed hungry for faith in Jesus Christ.

The next time you are at the supermarket, on a soccer field or sidewalk, or in a gathering and someone asks you: “Do you really believe all that?” you can respond: “Yes, I do!”  But perhaps somewhere in your conversation and your personal exchange you can also use the Word that denotes the Person who unites us all and with whom we are united through faith, the Word that fills hearts and minds, the only Word that fully satisfies the hunger of the human heart, the Word uttered by the Father before all ages, the Word who became incarnate and was born of the Virgin Mary.  His name is Jesus Christ!  He is the Savior of the world and the greatest treasure of all humanity.  He is the one whose Gospel we want to share with all our fellow human beings because for all of us He is the way, the truth and the life.  Dear friends:  Jesus Christ, whom we know through faith is the greatest gift we can offer to all who willingly accept to know Him and His message of eternal life.  Hence, let us say, for all to hear:  “Blessed be the name of Jesus!”