Preaching the Mystery of Faith

people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord, and capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without end.” 14 More than ever, therefore, an increasingly important objective of the Sunday homily in our day is to stir the hearts of our people, to deepen their knowledge of the faith, and to renew their living the faith in the world and participation in the Church and her sacraments. Indeed, the Church in the United States faces a number of challenges that compel us to call for a renewed consideration of the Church’s mission to proclaim God’s word. We know, for example, that through immigration the Catholic population is increasingly diverse in its cultural and ethnic makeup, and this diversity is found in many parishes, particularly those in urban areas. This diversity is a great blessing for our Church and our country, but it also raises new challenges for those who preach in such settings. Likewise, recent studies have shown that many Catholics, for a variety of reasons, seem either indifferent to or disaffected with the Church and her teaching: • We know that the general social context in the United States has a strong emphasis on the individual and individual choice, which often eclipses the sense of community or of the common good that is essential to Christian life. • Sadly, too, we must confess that the sexual abuse crisis has wounded the Church, and this scandal has led some Catholics to lose heart and leave the Church. • While our society is dynamic and our country blessed with many resources and opportunities, there are sharp polarities in our political life today and, on the part of many, an undertow of uncertainty about our future. • Pope Benedict XVI has frequently lamented the spirit of relativism that dominates the perspectives of many in our modern Western world, where absolute truth or enduring values are considered illusory—making the preaching of the eternal truth of the Gospel all the more difficult. • While many people in the United States still enjoy the bounty of this land, there is also a feverish sense of consumerism and a focus on material satisfaction to the detriment of spiritual values.

14 Pope Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei ( www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/motu_proprio/documents/ hf_ben-xvi_motu-proprio_20111011_porta-fidei_en.html ), no. 15.

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