Scott Hahn - Catholic for a Reason: Scripture and the Mystery of the Family of God

A colleague recently suggested that someday, when I retire, I might want to teach a course in Church management. It would only take one session, and the content would be simple: (1) have fewer staff meetings, and (2) make the meetings brief. He was being humorous, of course. Some meetings are important. And without the many good people who work on our parish and diocesan support staffs, not much would be accomplished.

Nevertheless, at least some of the practical problems afflicting the Church since Vatican II might be cured if we simply limited all meetings to sixtyor even thirtyminutes. One of the very few things we actually own in life is our time. Unfortunately, as Catholics, we have probably spent too much of our precious time over the past thirty-five years meeting and planningand too little preaching Jesus Christ and bringing the world to conversion. Now we must deal with the consequences. We're losing souls.

Nowhere is this more urgently clear than in Latin America, where Fundamentalist Christian sects have made deep inroads into traditionally Catholic cultures. It's tempting to write off their success to unfair U.S. Protestant financial backing. But that's too easy. The fact is, their enthusiasm for Jesus is contagious. No matter how incomplete their message, these Fundamentalists believe. Their faith has power. Their witness offers hope. Their message responds to the deepest hungers of the heart. The irony is, they're succeeding with only a portion of the truthsuch is the power of the Gospel!while many Catholics, who've been granted the fullness of God's truth, too often fail to share it with the zeal and joy it deserves.

That is why the Holy Father's 1997 Special Assembly for America, which brought together bishops from all over Latin and North America, called again for a new evangelization, and also a new apologetics. Catholicsand by Catholics I mean each and every one of us, especially lay personsneed to rediscover their missionary fire. They also need the tools to explain their faith positively and persuasively when challenged by others. The new apologetics must serve the new evangelization and, in fact, be its foundation; in other words, its goal must be to win souls, not merely defeat opponents in theological debate.

From where will the new apologetics come? Well, happily for you, you're holding an excellent example in your hands. Catholic for a Reason has all the marks of an apologetics classic: conciliatory in tone; rooted in Scripture; very readable in presentation; and persuasive in its explanations. Or, to put it another way, it reaches both the heart and head. The chapters by Timothy Gray on Mary, Sean Innerst on Liturgy, and Edward Sri on the Eucharist go to the heart of the differences between Catholics and Protestants in a particularly effective way. But every contributor takes the same insightful approach.

Toward the end of his chapter, Sean Innerst observes, Without memories, minds, and hearts full of the whole family history of the People of God... we condemn ourselves to an amnesia of the soul. Lacking those memories, we have no individual or corporate identity. Without an identity, I would add, we have no purpose or future, and this certainly isn't what Jesus intended when He told us to go therefore and make disciples of all nations (Mt. 28:19).

For three decades, too many Catholics have suffered amnesia about the urgency of sharing their faith for the salvation of the world. To be better evangelizers, Catholics must first be better rememberers. The core memories of the Christian faith include not only sacred Scripture, but also the lived experience and learned wisdom of the believing communitywhich we call Tradition. We will do a much better job of preaching Jesus Christ to the world when we wake up as believers and remember who we are; why and what we believe; how we got here; and from Whom our Catholic faith comes.

This book, as you will discover, is an ideal place to start.

CHARLES J. CHAPUT, O.F.M. CAP., D.D.
ARCHBISHOP OF DENVER