One of St. Augustine’s most oft-quoted writings, “…our hearts are restless until they can find rest in you.”, was penned after more than a decade of the great saints personal wrestlings, as he looked for meaning in his life. Those words are profoundly important, echoing the long teaching of the Church. The human ‘heart’, which carries the very imprint of God, is only at rest when it finds itself in communion with God. Apart from Him, we are restless, wandering searchers.
The Catechism sheds light on Augustine’s comment, telling us “the heart is the dwelling-place where I am, where I live… The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. The heart is the place of decision… It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant.” CCC 2563
A Broken-Hearted People?
As I ponder Augustine’s statement, and the Catechism’s profound teaching, I’m left wondering, “Why are so many Catholics leaving the Church?” And, “Why are so many Catholics staying, yet barely practicing?” I wonder these things, because these very facts are in evidence. More than 80% of those receiving Confirmation leave the Church by their 23rd birthday. Few ever return. Of the 25 million people who have left the Church in recent decades, over 17 million of them state that the Church did not meet their spiritual needs.
These two realities seem to be incompatible at face value, that the heart is restless until if finds God, and that people are exiting the Church (and active participation) in record numbers. The conclusion is almost inescapable, and quite sobering. Apparently, something of western Christianity, and more particularly American Catholicism, is wanting. Something of this particular representation of the Church, instead of drawing the restless heart of searchers “in” from the garbage dump of a secular culture, would appear to be pushing people “out”.
As I listen to people who have left the Church, or the frustration of those in the Church, this is what I routinely experience- “their broken hearts”. The deep longings of their heart, of which the Catechism speaks so intimately, have gone unmet within the walls of the local church. They yearn for a real and intimate relationship with the living God. They hope, maybe only in the deepest places within them, to actually encounter and know the God of the scriptures, the One who heals the sick, raises people from the dead, and walks on water.
Simply put, our hearts are broken because we do not know Jesus. On far more than one occasion, I have had a priest tell me, “My people don’t even know Jesus!” Fr. Larry Richards, speaking at the North Texas Catholic Mens Conference last year, stated flatly, “Most of you don’t know Jesus, you just don’t…” He wasn’t joking…
A Poor Substitute
If we aren’t introducing people to relationship with Jesus, and bringing them into intimate encounter with him, what exactly is it that we are offering them? You might be thinking, “Come on, Ken, we offer people the Sacraments. That’s what we offer. And, that’s AWESOME!” Well, yes, sort of, that is true.
We certainly HAVE the Sacraments, but how are we bringing them into the PRACTICE of the Sacraments. What does a broken-hearted world see? In Confirmation, do they witness the power of Pentecost come upon our youth, or do they witness the confirmation of “don’t expect to experience anything when the bishop anoints you.” Does mass look like the book of Acts, where the people worship with one heart and mind? Or, does it seem more to be a collection of people, who may or may not know each other, practicing a tradition of their family and church? When was the last time you saw somebody receive healing? Have their life transformed by an encounter with God? Bishop Barron recently stated that a church that is divorced from the supernatural is a dying church. He went on to state that the western church, instead of miracles, encounters with the divine, and the power of the living God, often offers social justice, service to the poor and environmentalism- activities any good atheist could do.
Rabbits Foot Christianity
The Church has a word for this type of Christian expression. It’s called “Superstition”. The Catechism states, “Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes… To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.” (CCC 2111)
To say it plainly, to expect our religious practice to be fulfilling (efficacious) when our hearts are not disposed toward God, is to practice superstition. Without a heart disposed toward God, we might just as well rub a rabbits foot, expecting some magical outcome. Fr. Marko Rupnik, in his book ‘Discernment, Acquiring the Heart of God’, offers a profoundly sobering insight. The enemy attempts to separate the content of faith (sacraments, devotions, ritual) from the person of Jesus. He asserts that this separation essentially makes one an “unbeliever”.
The Beautiful Antidote
The late great John Paul II understood this problem, and he consistently proclaimed the antidote to this illness in the Church. The answer is a singular word- Jesus. He understood, along with Augustine (and the entire teaching of the Church, that Jesus is the answer. Personal, intimate and powerful relationship with Jesus. He is the answer to our restless hearts, and He is the antidote to superstition. It is Jesus who is the life of the Sacraments. Encounter Him and you will find the resting place for your restless heart. John Paul summed it up with these words…
“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted;… it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices… It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal…”
3 thoughts on “Wrestling with the Restless Heart”
Ken-This is very thought provoking. Many thanks. James: “supports the possibility”? When you answer the question “Creed or Chaos?” [a la Dorothy Sayers] with “the gospels support the possibility,” you get the chaos of over 20,000 denominations who “found it a hard saying” and walked away, after they discovered e.g. the possibility of sola fide, everyone an ordained priest, etc in the gospels. It is simple-No dogma, no one, true, Catholic, Apostolic church. The OTCA Church is the Mystical Body Of Jesus Christ-and this does NOT change over the centuries or accomodate dogma to what some folks would like to do. James-What restrictions, if any, do you propose for your “gospels support the possility” theory? Do you realize the “parade of horribles” we can come up with that will be justified by your new theory? Give me a few minutes and I will have your theory hermeneutically and theologically, as well as historically, justifying polyamory, magic, and sniffing hallucenogenic mushrooms. Guy McClung, San Antonio TX ps: Ken, a comment from “James” proves QED that what you said is thought provoking.
What’s wrong with 20 K denominations ? In the US many became one but kept their identity and vote. In the CC one became 20K because their identity was squashed into something that over time did not fit or sit right. The author is asking ‘what happened’ and I, with 12 years of Catholic education and 7 as an altar boy, showed him one facet of ‘why’ And … ah … how do I say this … you don’t sniff them..
” Of the 25 million people who have left the Church in recent decades, over 17 million of them state that the Church did not meet their spiritual needs.”
Actually, I think for many the church did not meet their intellectual needs. The one glaring example is
equating missing mass with murder, in so far as getting hit by a bus right after the sin and both going
to hell. This is the actual teaching (theory) of the church, all nuances withstanding. And most all people
know that as serious as divorce is, leaving a marriage for sound reasons and marrying another isn’t the legal and logical description of adultery The mind is much more judicious in its treatment of what is right and wrong, mortal and venial; than an institution with a history of fear and control.ever wanted it to be. Our church needs to wrest itself into the 21st century if it wants to recover the intellectual respect that eschews the error of Limbo and has the latitude to blend like concepts – purgatory / reincarnation – with an open mind especially when gospels support the possibility. In other words: it’s the dogma, sir.