Spark – Beginnings of Renewal

Freely You Have Received

Like many converts, discovering the faith felt like opening a treasure chest for the first time. I was overwhelmed taking in the immense beauty of it all. The more you experience it, the more you realize just how wonderful and deep it all is. I realized how much possessing it would radically change my life.

Slowly a core conviction was formed: I had to share the beauty of that treasure with as many people as possible. It took me so long to find it; I didn’t want others to not know this transforming gift was just within reach.

The Challenge

As I attempted to share it, I realized we the Church allowed a seemingly overwhelming number of problems to tarnish and hide its beauty. As its custodians we have an obligation to keep this treasure bright and beautiful so others can find it.

It is because I love the Church so much that I have to honestly recognize just how much we have failed. We aren’t dealing with minor challenges, but deep, systematic, catastrophic failures.

To name a few: the general state of catechesis; confusion from a lack of orthodoxy among clergy, bishops, and even cardinals (to the point of outright heresy); the status quo for liturgy in many parishes is dead and devoid of genuine beauty; our failure to lead most Catholics to an authentic, vibrant spiritual life; Vatican II, the richness of an entire Church council, rejected by both “progressives” that distort it and “conservatives” that renounce it in its various caricatures; our absolute loss of credibility from the shameful failure to protect vulnerable children; and so on.

It always surprises me that many Catholics don’t recognize these problems as the truly profound crisis they are (if they can even see them at all). It is less surprising that many people who do recognize them feel unable to do anything or understandably lack the courage to try. What can a single person accomplish that would fix such profound brokenness without some mandate or authority?

Even the chosen people of Israel, the spiritual precursor to the Church, was a continual story of radical failure to live up to their divine call. It is precisely a widespread feeling of complacency and inability to recognize this grave necessity that should shake us to the core and wake us up to God’s call for a profound renewal.

But Christ promised to preserve His Church! Just as we hope in our own resurrection, we don’t abandon the hard work of walking the narrow path. God Himself intervenes, calling holy men and women like St. Francis to rebuild the Church when “it is crumbling.”

In every age the Church cries out for renewal. It is her saints who answer that call.

Dry Kindling

For a while I thought, surely God would raise up men and women within the hierarchy to deal with this crisis: some bold, articulate bishop to champion the faith and take a stand against the politics? A fervent young priest or charismatic religious to call out or help the institutional Church address our shameful deficiencies?

No doubt, there are few strong voices and some wonderful people seeking to make a difference, but even more is needed given the truly terrible state of things and the fact that literal demonic powers continue to rage and battle against the work of the Church. Both theory and history teach 3 things:

  1. The Church is constantly in need of authentic reform (sometimes critically)
  2. It rarely comes from within the hierarchy
  3. The ONLY real weapon we have to face this kind of dire need is an even more urgent, absolute, radical holiness

The need for a new St. Catherine has been on my mind for a few years now. A single saint was often a catalyst for renewal, but it was not just Francis who was called to rebuild the Church, but his Franciscans. It was not Benedict alone who saved Western civilization, but the Benedictines. Ignatius, with all his gifts, was not the counter-reformation, but the Jesuits. In various moments God gave a particular gift, a mission that was shared. It was often inspired in a single, holy individual, but the gift was not for that one person. More importantly, holiness and sainthood was not just for a single individual either. What they had was not a lone, beautiful flame, but the start of a raging wildfire.

It may very well be a new reformer saint is the means God chooses to call the Church to renewal, but till then we cannot wait idly for someone else. The urgency and seriousness of this moment demands that, to the absolute best of our ability, we fan the flames of personal holiness into the renewal our Church so desperately needs.

Things Old and New

There are so many beautiful paths to holiness already proven and laid out for us. The Church has these treasures already packaged like gifts ready to be discovered. In my humble opinion, I think what the Church may need at this moment is a deep rediscovery of the incredible wealth it already has. At its core that’s just a rediscovery of the Gospel, but 2,000 years of pondering has found an incredible expression that only needs to be dusted off and re-proposed to an age fed up with empty “spirituality” and a meaningless existence.

And that is where I see our greatest deficiency. We have completely and totally failed the people of God in making this richness accessible to them. We have a feast at our fingertips and the famished masses at our doorstep. But the great scandal is not found in our inability to help the hardened sinners or infrequent Mass goers. The real scandal is our failure to reach the weekly Catholic. They are not just at the door, they are in our own home week after week and we have failed to feed them.

Another Way

With Christ all is not lost! Many parishes are still full… for now. Though, the decline in attendance is continuing to accelerate. I see the solution precisely in the area of our greatest failure: the parish. I propose a radical renewal and return to the parish. The average Catholic comes week after week and participates in the Mass, the very source and summit of Christian life. Fundamentally, the faith is formed in nearly every member of the body of Christ here, by the Sunday experience. The parish is ESSENTIAL.

But it can’t stop there. The Sunday experience must consistently lead people to authentic discipleship. This can happen through personal study and prayer, but most often genuine friendships and small groups are key to help people find personal growth rooted in an authentic spiritual life and a rediscovery of the tremendous riches of the faith.

To be clear, it isn’t enough for things to just be “better.” True renewal can only come when priests and lay leaders commit to seeking holiness, because radical renewal is only driven by a group of people living radical holiness. For this small flame to grow into a raging wildfire, an entirely new standard has to be set for what parish life can and should be.

Wildfire

To accomplish this, we propose Wildfire as a way of life that brings Catholics together to live the universal call to holiness, and through it renew the Church. It is a concrete means to live our faith and proposes nothing more than the Gospel. At its heart is the teaching of Vatican II: each of us has the same call to be a saint.

  • The center is a deep, personal encounter with the Lord in prayer. We discover our identity, hear His call, and respond with generosity.
  • That encounter leads to a profound, real, and lasting transformation in our lives.
  • Christ’s command of charity becomes the source of our unity and compels us to be apostles in the world.

Wildfire: Prayer and discernment, spiritual growth, striving for the perfection of charity in unity as apostles in the world.

If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze. – St. Catherine of Siena

Author: Nathan Hadsall

Author: Nathan Hadsall

Nathan was a seminarian for 8 years before discerning the call to lay life. He is married with 3 kids and runs Sprout Studio, a full service marketing and IT agency with a dedicated department, Catholic Support Services, to support Catholic organizations and ministries. His passion is helping his employees and clients discern, grow into, and follow God's direction for their lives or organization.