To the issues of today, we seek to speak a word, a word not our own, but a Word that has been pronounced to us, the Word of revelation, the Word of God. Given that it is not a Word that is simply derivative of personal experience, and determined by how we feel, it is a word that is foreign in our culture . . . . .
Another paragraph that resonates with many who have moved away from the practice of their faith in this rather long article . . . . .
“What we can forget, however, is that the way of thinking that saturates the popular imagination is very recent, the product of philosophical currents into which we have been swept only in the last decades. They may be recent, but they are embedded now into our consciousness, such that it is very difficult to argue a position that is not in accord with them. For this reason, it is a very difficult time to be Christian, and not only Christian, but someone who draws meaning from an ancient Catholic Tradition. For us in the West, to talk of persecution of Christians is to over-reach. However, it is a stressful time to be Christian. The times are not for us.
Unlike only a few decades ago, we now find ourselves in a culture that does not offer us the framework of support for what we have inherited and seek to develop. We can appreciate just how difficult it is, especially, for our young people to declare themselves as Christian, or as Catholic, as they seek to make their way into the world.
Perhaps it is a little easier for us who are older, and making our way out of the world! However, to be Christian – not just in feeling, in the way that I feel (which many mistake as what makes them Christian), but as someone immersed and accountable to the full Christian Tradition – means being different, standing apart, being alone. And this is a price too high for many to bear.”
by David Ransom, and published on the Diocese of Broken Bay web page.