It's not just about going to Church...and yet it kinda' is!
Kevin Driscoll
November, 2008

When your high school English teacher tried to convince you that juxtaposition matters, you should have believed her. But you probably got that same glazed-over look, didn’t you? Or you said, “As long as people know what I’m talking about, why do I need to know all these silly rules?”

Because someday you might be burned in the local paper. Then you’ll understand!

In a feature that ran in Saturday’s Northwest Indiana Times Religion section (click here to read it in its entirety), I was quoted as saying, “If youth can find a way to experience a relationship with Christ they’re more likely to understand it’s just not about going to church.”

(Read the sentence again and you’ll find yourself putting the emphasis on not.)

“So what are you saying, Kev? As long as a teen has a relationship with Christ, he or she need not go to church?”

While I recognize that the feature was buried on page 56, section ZZ, and probably flew under the radar of most Regionites, you can see how dangerous a statement that is.

At a time when Mass attendance is at best holding steady and at worst leading to discussions of parish elimination or consolidation, the last thing you want is the director of youth ministry to rubber stamp an approach to Catholicism that accepts—encourages?!—personal spirituality without the Sunday communal, Eucharistic obligation.

To the author’s credit, she did an excellent job with the rest of the small feature story. It was a “Getting to Know” piece, a regular feature of the Times. Well, she did refer to our youth and young adult councils as “Counsels,” as if they were affiliated with our Tribunal, but the content was mostly dead-on.

What the quote should have read was, “If youth can find a way to experience a relationship with Christ they’re more likely to understand it’s not just about going to church.”

(Read the sentence again and you’ll find yourself putting the emphasis on just.)

And even that quote is somewhat incomplete.

If I recall, during this portion of the interview the above quote was in the context of evangelization. I went on to talk about how we advocate for an approach to youth ministry that inspires teens to take their faith into their everyday world: first experiencing Christ, then living their faith at home, in school, at parties, and in everything they do. In essence, while Sunday Mass is the summit of their faith, it is also the source (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, #10), and their Catholic faith cannot end when they return to the parking lot.

What a difference the juxtaposition of two words makes!

The art of theological reflection involves finding real, human connections to the Sacred. If the Spirit is ever-blowing in our midst, what have I learned from this crucial misalignment of two words in a paper most people didn’t read?

First, I need to be assured that anyone who knows me and the ministry of the Office for Youth & Young Adults, under the direction of Bishop Dale Melczek, would immediately know that the sentence was a misquote.

Second, if I truly believe in the severity of the issue—and I do—then I must shout from the rooftops that youth do indeed need to embrace the beauty, tradition, and importance of the Sunday Eucharistic celebration. And not because they have to—the concept of obligation just doesn’t fly with post-moderns—but because it is there where they get to truly touch the face of Christ, and where they consume so that they might be consumed...where they witness to the community present that they join in the communion of saints all along that mind-boggling time-space continuum that is salvation history!

“But Mass is boring.”

WHAT?!

The issue of youth and liturgy is a complex one, and one that generates a lot of passion among church leaders. What the recent Diocesan Youth Council Statement on Evangelization taught us is that teens have opinions, too. While there are many approaches, and while many will disagree on the best way to get teens to come to Mass or, dare I say, want to come to Mass, one thing unites us all: knowing how important it is that youth are present on Sunday.

I want to continue to explore the issue. We can plan great events, retreats, rallies, service trips, etc., but when you get right down to it, we as youth leaders have to remember that it is the True Presence alive in the Sunday celebration of Word and Eucharist that allows them, with fellow believers, to connect with the Divine in a way no youth ministry activity or catechetical session can. I know, easier said than done.

In the meantime, I want to refer you back to an article on youth and liturgy recommended by Bishop Melczek that I passed along last May, Liturgy as Lens for Postmodern Youth Ministry, by Michael N. Buckler, MDiv.

As a reminder that the Spirit is ever-blowing, Mr. Buckler found me at a conference at which I was speaking last summer. While I received permission from the magazine publisher to post the article online, Buckler was not aware that I had done so until he found his article at our website. He was humbled and honored, and we had a great conversation about the issue. It’s not everyday you encounter a youth minister with an MDiv., writing for a liturgical magazine. But even he is straddled with the same burdens we bear when it comes to getting youth to Mass.

His words give us hope that youth can make Sunday Mass the source and summit of their faith:

“...consider the young person who has gone to Mass every Sunday of his or her life and, at this point, is bored to tears. This person, who paid little attention to what was being said or done, has in fact already ascetically incorporated or assumed the grammar of God or Catholic culture, albeit subconsciously and incompletely. It is my theory that such youth already possess a foundation on which to build. The role of youth ministry is to make the connections, helping teens unpack the sacramental realities that lay behind the symbols they have so often encountered, and thus recognize the active presence of God in their lives.”

As always, I welcome your thoughts on this topic, so feel free to drop me a line!

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