Whilst the film "Goodbye Charlie Bright" is not a major screen production, nonetheless, it presents the simple outline of the culture of death as it currently present in all our cities and large towns. I watched the film the other day and was inspired in my own mind to ask again the pressing question: how can we evangelise young people who are trapped in the culture of death?In the film, of the three young friends, one gets out by joining the army, one gets out by being driven off, hand-cuffed, by the police, and the third, miraculously, decides himself to leave the place where he has grown up and start afresh elsewhere (which is where the film ends).
I don't have the answer to my question; I don't know how you would even begin to evangelise such people, but I do know that the culture in which they are immersed should never have been allowed to develop. These young people have been let down by us.
4 comments:
I don`t think the young people trapped in the culture of death are in as much trouble as we might think. Waiting to be rescued is not as serious as being the people in the lifeboats who sail on by, continuing the party. They`re in much worse trouble.
How can we help.. loads of ways. Simple to Hard options in ascending order:
1. every-time you pass a young person, pray for him/her. Ask God to abundantly bless them in their lives, and pray expectantly that that person will become an example of God's saving power for many other young people. Especially when you pass a young man, pray " Lord, touch that young mans heart today to turn his life over to you completely, in whatever form that call may take. If you want him for one of your priests , Lord, I pray he responds right now, this minute. Amen" and then add an Our Father, Haily Mary and Glory Be.
2. Learn to love the young people you find it difficult to love. and ask for the grace to learn to love them. If you have teenagers at home, this might be a good place to start.. the love, of course might take the form of a bit of srious disiclining, e.g.: "sorry, but you ARE coming to Mass with us, as it`s what we do on a Sunday, being Catholics..." It`s too easy to despair of our young poeple's lack of faith, which leads us to.....
3.When was the last time WE (adults) fasted/spent an hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament for our young people. Just start simply with your own family and maybe their friends, the youngsters in the parish....
4.Once this habit of praying for them starts, endless opportunities present themselves to speak and witness to youngsters about our faith. It does have to start with our own young people. Often they have had an appalling example of "faith".
5. Let the young people you meet, evangelize YOU. I`ve been challenged so many times by not particularly religious young people who have more understanding of spirituality than I do. I have to keep coming up with better, tougher more realistic reasons for the hope I have...
6.God their Father loves them far more than you do. Don't pussy foot around them. They are not interested in liberal, wishy washy Jesus wants you for a Sunbeam stuff. That's why they`re in this mess. Spell it out good and hard.
Your commenst Bernadette are worthy of an entire Blog in themselves. Thanks for putting this into the public forum; I hope that loads of people see this. I once had a parish with a similar culture to that in the film "Charlie Bright", and I was concerned for the young people at a human level and at the level of evangelisation (which starts at the human level). They were not being prepared in either way, and I was on my own in trying to start the ball rolling. Your message needs to get out far and wide, for I think that our young people are being left unheeded.
I'm not an expert, Fr Richard, but what most young people do not want is more of the same tasteless, unsatisfying, deceitful, half-baked gloop. They`ve tried it. It`s making them ill. And they are spitting it out, like God in Revelation with those of lukewarm faith. And so they should. They want to hear and see proper truth and beauty, people totally giving themselves over to His kingdom. When you see that, it`s very seductive... and you end up following. Keep up the good work yourself.
PS 'fraid no-one was flogging a transmitter frequency on e-bay. We could just drive round in a van with a loud-hailer like they do in elections.
I know.
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