When Culture Lives or Dies – After-Show #27

00:04 – CA (Host)
Yes, welcome to the After Show, the Catholic Experience. After Show after episode. I think that was 27. I can never remember those damn numbers. I think it was after episode 27. Thank you for joining me.

00:19
I am your humble host, the Catholic Adventurer, in case you didn’t know. So this is the after show to the Importance of Tradition. Just did a show, the Importance of Tradition. In the episode before that I talked about the trouble with tradition. I’m not going to rehash all of that. You’ve either listened to those episodes or you will or you won’t. This is the one you’re listening to now.

00:47
So when I was planning out these episodes, one of the things that stood out to me was the Catholic culture. Planning those episodes made me think more, I guess more deeply, more critically, about the Catholic culture and over the past couple of weeks I’ve been noticing and observing current and modern Catholic culture in my personal experience going to Mass and interfacing with Catholics and stuff like that. There’s one thing I wanted to share with you. It’s a thought that I’m going to set up with, I guess, a narrative, more than a story, or less than a story, it’s just a narrative At my home parish. The people there are really really very good people, nice people, good Catholics, pretty old school, very old school people in fact, and I’ve said this in past episodes, but I’ll say it again A little custom that I do. One of my own personal traditions is just before Mass starts, right when we’re told you know, welcome to, you know, such and such parish, our celebrant tonight will be, or today will be so, and father so and so. So this is just before the entrance procession, and when that moment starts, I look around.

02:07
I like to look around and look at the people who are there in the church with me, in the pews behind me, in the pews to the left. I like to scan the whole church and look at the people who are there, because I like to look. I like to see my brothers and sisters, I like to see who’s here with me, who am I here with, you know, if I can make eye contact, that’s even better, but I don’t want to spook people, so I try not to stare, but I just like to stay in the room. I want to see my brothers and sisters who are there with me. I want to see the brothers and sisters who I’m there with, and I’ve made some acquaintances and friends at the parish and I started to notice many of the acquaintances and friends I’ve made are all people older than I am. They could be my parents or grandparents. Are all people older than I am they could be my parents or grandparents which connected to something that I noticed as I scanned as I had been scanning the church there’s a lot of gray hair in the pews and I’ve got my share, believe me, but this is even grayer than mine.

03:19
There’s a lot of gray hair in the pews. You’re going to say, yeah, you know, older people go to mass, younger people don’t. We know that. Yeah, but the danger of that is sort of emphasized when you realize what we’re losing. There’s a lot of gray hair in the pews. I talk with most of the people under those gray hairs. I talk to a lot of them. We talk about family hey, how you doing this and that Nothing very deep, just friendly.

03:49
You know they talk about their kids or their grandkids and things that they’re doing. All very old school customs, traditions, activity, phrases that they use, ways they have of understanding things, all very old school. So now, when I look at the parish, at all of the gray hair, what I’m seeing is what I’m seeing is sparks this question what happens when they’re all gone? What happens to this beautiful parish when all of those gray-haired people are gone? I hear it again and again my kids don’t come to church, my kids don’t come to church, my kids don’t bring my grandkids to church, this and that.

04:32
What happens when these gray-haired people are all gone and the culture dies with them? Will the parish die? Will it remain open or will it be closed because nobody goes to mass anymore? Well, here’s my concern Even if the parish remains open, the parish will die. Now this parish has gone through some tough times. Tough times with the school, with finances, obviously, mass attendance. Covid didn’t do it any favors, but the parish has survived and come back and come back and come back. It’s unbelievable. But what would ultimately kill the parish? Even if the parish remains open, you know what will ultimately kill that parish? The loss of the culture, when the people who sustain and live that culture have died.

05:24
Are these people handing their culture down to their children? Probably, to some extent they have, even if their children aren’t at Mass. Their children probably know the right thing to do. Whether or not they do it is another issue, it’s another question, but they probably go on Easter and Christmas. They probably know to genuflect when they cross a tabernacle. They probably know to bless themselves with holy water. Maybe they’ve even taught their kids to say prayers before bed. But they’re probably their children, the children of the parishioners, are probably putting less of the culture into practice than their parents do, probably putting less into practice than what they have been taught to do. Now what about the grandchildren of these parishioners? They’re probably getting less from their parents than their parents got from their parents. So, as it passes generation to generation, as people stop putting the traditions and customs into practice, as people let a little more and a little more of the culture die, eventually you have no culture left.

06:35
As I said in the episode, in the absence of customs, in the absence of tradition, culture begins to atrophy, leaving room for a counterculture. Is it any wonder why 10-year-olds are considering atheism? 10-year-olds, 10-year-olds? Is it any wonder that 12 and 13-year-olds are flirting with ultimately, I was going to say communism, but no, it’s worse they’re actually flirting with Freemasonry. They just don’t know that the ideas and philosophies they espouse and are considering and find valuable and intriguing, at the end of the day, you can call it socialism. You can call it leftism, you can call it communism, but at the end of the day it’s Freemasonry. And these are very young kids. These are very young kids. Why? Because the culture died or the culture atrophied, leaving room for a counterculture, and now the counterculture is taking root. So I share that with you.

07:41
To make this point, sharing the culture of Catholicism is a matter of life and death. The church will never die. The church will never die. The faith will never go away, ever, ever. That’s for sure. That doesn’t mean a parish won’t die. It doesn’t mean a parish community won’t die. It doesn’t mean a dioces parish won’t die. It doesn’t mean a parish community won’t die. It doesn’t mean a diocese won’t die.

08:06
And I’ll tell you, the faith will live forever, even if there’s one Catholic in the whole world. The faith will live forever. I mean the faith started with 12 Catholics. The faith will live forever, but it could live forever with 12 people, one person. And then what happens to the world? What happens to the world when the faith, but it could live forever with 12 people, one person. And then what happens to the world? What happens to the world when the faith still alive, is carried by fewer and fewer and fewer and fewer people who do not carry it because it was not given to them or it was not sustained in them, because the culture died, because tradition died.

08:46
So handing down the traditions of the faith and the culture I mean lowercase t tradition handing down the traditions of the faith and the culture of the Catholic faith really is a matter of life and death when you think about it. So consider that you might not have children, you might not have grandchildren, or you might be, you know, you might be the living Brady Bunch, I don’t know. Even if you have no children and no grandchildren, you can still hand down the culture of the Catholic faith. You can still pass on the traditions of the Catholic faith. Sometimes all you have to do to do that is to live it openly and proudly. It doesn’t have to be pushed in anybody’s face to live it openly and proudly, but live it openly and proudly. That is probably, probably not just the ordinary but the most significant way of handing down the culture. It’s the ordinary way and it’s probably the most significant way when people see it in being practiced by others.

09:48
I remember one time I was passing a church, I was going for a walk. It was a very, very busy place and a very busy street and I was going for a walk and as I passed the church, I made the sign of the cross. That is a tradition, that is a custom. It may not exist everywhere in the church, but it exists where I came from. And in the crowd of people going this way and that way, passing the church, I’m the only one well, I was the, I thought I was the only one blessing, blessing myself, still carrying this tradition. But then I saw a woman walking in the opposite direction, so she was passing me and, without having seen me do it, she started to make the sign of the cross too. And in the middle of each of us making the sign of the cross, we made eye contact with each other and that was it. That was the moment. It was a fleeting moment. I and that was it, that was the moment, it was a fleeting moment. I kept walking, she kept walking. It wasn’t a big deal, but we saw she saw that I’m a Catholic. She saw that there’s another Catholic in this madhouse, and I saw that there’s another Catholic in this madhouse. Oh, look over there, there’s another Catholic carrying on the tradition, and that was really meaningful for me and I’m sure it was meaningful for her In that moment. By living the tradition, I made a moment of it for her and I know she noticed I mean for sure she noticed and I’m confident that that made her think, that gave her some reassurance, that gave her some hope, not because it was me who did it, just because it was someone else who did it, who made the sign of the cross as we were passing the church. So that’s the most significant way that I think that you can pass on the culture is by living it.

11:34
I wear my cross outside of my shirt, I don’t hide it and I don’t let my kids hide theirs. Someone I won’t name names, but someone once told them you shouldn’t wear your cross. A relative, you shouldn’t wear your cross out because some people might get offended. And one of my kids tucked their cross in. I said ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, no, no, no, no. My kids do not hide their crosses, my kids don’t hide them and if someone gets offended, that’s their problem. That is their problem. Someone might get offended. I keep my cross out. It would.

12:14
It might almost seem like pride some of the things that I do the blessing myself in the open, saying grace before meals, even if we’re out eating in public, things like that. I also wear my cross out, though not just as or not even not just, just, not at all, not out of pride at all, but because I’m not ashamed of my faith. I want people to know that I’m not ashamed of my faith, not because I want them to think I’m a saint. It’s because I want people to know I’m not ashamed of my faith, not because I want them to think I’m a saint. It’s because I want people to know whether they’re faithful or not. I want people to know that there are people in the world who love their faith and who aren’t ashamed of it. But here’s the other thing. Here’s the other reason why I wear it out, and you might remember in the episode I talked about how I used to wear my rosary on my belt loop might remember in the episode I talked about how I used to wear my rosary on my belt loop. One of the reasons I did that was to make a statement to others out in the outside world that Catholics are here, we’re alive, we’re real and we are practicing our faith and we are unashamed and unafraid, not pridefully, but just as a sign of hope and the edification of my neighbor. Well, that’s another reason why I wear my cross out, which I still do I don’t do it with my rosary anymore, but I still do it with my cross and also because I want to inspire others. I want to be able to. I want that demonstration, that display, to give hope to others who maybe need it.

13:43
And people more than a handful of people over the years have stopped me and said that seeing that really helped them. That’s the best way I can explain that. They’ve stopped me and said you know, thank you for wearing that. I really needed to see that. Thank you for wearing that. That’s a really lovely medal. I used to have one like that when I was little. I haven’t been to church in a very long time. I really should get back back to going to church, things like that.

14:16
There was one woman once I was on vacation and she was going through a hard time I don’t remember exactly what it was. I think like her mother had died or something, someone close to her had died and she saw my cross and miraculous metal at just the moment that she needed to see that, you see, and she had told me the whole story and she was kind of teary and stuff. And there was one woman who stopped me and asked me to pray with her because she’s going through X and Y and Z. She says I saw your cross and I see that you’re a Christian and can you pray with me because you had to? Oh my God, did she have a sob story. I mean not like a real one, a real one, not like a ridiculous one. So I stopped and prayed with her and look, and they may forget me, I don’t care, I don’t want to be recognized, I don’t want to be remembered, that’s fine. But they’ll remember the cross, they’ll remember that they ran into a Christian and it’ll get them thinking.

15:21
So the most significant way you can share the culture of the faith is by living it. Another way, obviously, is by talking about it, for instance. This may work against you, but I always make very clear when I’m doing something faith-related. First, because it’s just normal to me hey, you want to? I don’t know. I don’t really have a lot of friends, I don’t have people banging down my door asking me to hang out, but let’s just pretend. Hey, you want to hang out? No, I can’t, because I have to go do Holy Hour. I have to go to Holy Hour, these things are just normal to me. No, I have to go to confession. No, I have to go to. These are just normal to me.

15:58
So if that’s where I’m really going, I’m not going to hide it by saying, no, I have something to do, because to me it’s not something to be ashamed of. So, whatever I have to go to do, if it’s religious, I’m going to say that. But one of the other reasons why I don’t hide it apart from the fact that I’m not ashamed of it and it’s just normal one of the reasons I don’t hide it is because by hearing what I’m up to in terms of my religious practice, it may nudge others to get with it themselves. You see and again I kind of made a half point there the point I was trying to make was one of the most significant ways you can share the culture is by talking about it, even if it’s in very brief statements or in more extended ways. Talking about it, even if it’s in very brief statements or in more extended ways. Talking about it, talking about what happened to you at Mass, talking about you know, oh my God, last time I went to an Ash Wednesday Mass, or I went to Ash on Ash, last time I went to Mass on Ash Wednesday, this funny thing happened to me. Now that might be a story that’s worth keeping to yourself because it’s funny, but it’s not like a big deal. Well, tell it anyway, because it gets you talking about Mass without actually talking about Mass. You see, hand the culture down, show it to others, share it to others or with others. There are a few more examples I can make, but I think I’ve made that point.

17:27
In closing, I want to repeat it’s a real risk and it’s very frightening that when the culture dies, it dies. And who passes it on if they haven’t received it? And who passes it on if they haven’t received it? Who keeps it alive if they haven’t received it? To put it into practice, you know the parishioners at my home parish. I mean they’re just beautiful, beautiful people. They’re really beautiful people, very old school, old school people like old school American culture and old school Catholics, and they’re just very real and very normal. And they’re just beautiful, real and very normal and they’re just beautiful people, you know, and it makes me very sad, I mean it, it makes me very sad the thought that in, let’s say, 20 years, most of these people might be gone, 30 or 40 years, most of them will be gone for sure. Probably all of them by then might be gone. 30 or 40 years. Most of them will be gone for sure. Probably all of them by then will be gone. And these beautiful things that they bring to the parish, their humanity.

18:43
Remember I said in the Trouble with Tradition. I said that culture comes from a collective of human persons and God made human persons. So every cultural product finds the hand of God in it, because culture comes from persons. Persons were made by God, right. So what the people at the parish bring to the parish is a culture. It’s a culture of, it’s a human culture and it’s a Catholic culture. It’s a culture and it’s beautiful and it is an endangered species. What happens when the people who live it, who sustain it, are gone? I’ll leave that for you to think over and to pray about.

19:41
Please share the Catholic. Listen, my Catholic culture is going to be probably in some ways unique and different from yours. I don’t know if Catholics all over the world bless themselves when they pass a church, for instance. I don’t know that might be foreign to you. I don’t know that might be foreign to you, I don’t know. You don’t have to do what I do. Do what you do, that’s okay. And if you want to make some extra stuff up, you know some new cultures, or rather some new traditions to add to your culture, your personal culture or your local culture then do that. You don’t have to do what I do. Do what you do, but do it well. Do it well and do it fearlessly.

20:20
Live the culture of the faith that’s been handed down to you by your parents, your grandparents, the church. Maybe you come from a nominally Catholic background. It’s very sad to me, but I know many people who are like that. Their parents were Catholic, but there was not a lick of Catholic culture in their upbringing. Nothing, they don’t even know to bless themselves, nothing, absolutely nothing. They don’t even know the words of the Our Father. Maybe that’s your background and you’re a Catholic convert, or, I don’t know, a baptized Catholic who never prayed, never saw the inside of the church, because that’s just not how you were raised. So, even though you’re so, technically you’re a revert, even though you never were practicing the faith, but you’re a baptized Catholic, right. Anyway, maybe you come from a different kind of Catholic background. Okay, you can still build and develop your personal set of traditions, customs and personal culture by seeing what inspires you, by seeing what fits your disciplines and put those into practice.

21:27
It does not mean you have to do 50 rosaries a day. It doesn’t mean you have to do every prayer devotion under the sun, because that’s what traditional Catholics do Nonsense, nonsense. Of course, be prayerful, but prayer is very personal. Personal culture is very personal. No one really has a prescription or recipe. Culture is built organically, not by a prescription. Culture is built organically, but all you have to do really is provide it with soil, provide it with sunshine, provide it with water, and it will grow and it’ll become what it’s supposed to become by God’s providence.

22:09
So find the elements that inspire you. Right, you might like the tradition of I don’t know blessing yourself as you pass the church. Maybe you never grew up with that, but you might like that. That might inspire you. Do that then. So my point is if you haven’t grown up with much Catholic culture, well, you can make it up as you go, because traditions don’t comprise a religion. Traditions only sustain culture. So you can make it up as you go, if you have to Find the traditional things that inspire you, that truly inspire you, that really connect with you and practice those.

22:50
Add them to your own personal culture, to the culture of your household, to the culture of your community and so on and whatever, because Catholicism will never die. But if the Catholic culture dies, if the Catholic culture dies, the faith will live forever. But you’ll be damn hard-pressed to find it anywhere, because while the faith will live forever, just like the atmosphere will live forever, the atmosphere is everywhere, but you never see it. It’s there, but you never see it. That’ll be the Catholic faith. It’ll be there, but you’ll just never see it. If the culture atrophies, it leaves room for a counterculture. The counterculture will grow like a cancer and it will kill Catholic culture. And the faith will live on, but you won’t see it anywhere.

23:40
That’s all I got for you today. That’s going to be the after show. I don’t think that’s the song that I wanted, was it this one? No, damn it. Oh well, whatever, folks, thanks for joining me on my locals channel.

23:58
This is being made available, in case you haven’t figured it out, to both paid and free members, but future after shows will be for paid members only and they will probably be video, not just audio, but for paid members only. Listen, no pressure. I’m really thankful that you joined me, even if you have a free membership. I am so thankful, I really appreciate it. I’m so glad to have you here joining me and having fun with me. I’m not sure if you can actually make posts as a free member, but if you can then do that, drop a post somewhere. If you’re a paid member, you can definitely leave posts. You don’t have to just wait for me. You can leave posts and interact with people, have fun and thank you so much once again for joining me. Please say Hail Mary for me and my family. God bless you. God be with you all. Talk to you at the next show. Bye-bye.