ccompaniment is a term very much en vogue these days in the Church. We hear about it constantly, especially in relation to the Synod on Synodality. Often times, however, this term is a cover for heterodoxy and laxity. It takes the Cross out of our Crucified Faith. Without the Cross there is no Resurrection. Without entering into the Cross with the people the Lord sends into our lives there is no real accompaniment.
This life is a way of the cross for every one of us. The Lord promises us repeatedly that we will have difficulties and that we must pick up our cross and follow Him. In many ways, the Church has jettisoned the Cross in the last 60 years. I grew up in the felt crafts era when making banners and singing banal songs was catechesis. This has led to the poor catechesis and shallow formation of countless souls over multiple generations. It should not be surprising that nearly 70% of Catholics don’t believe in the Real Presence. The Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist makes no sense without the Cross.
What many of our parishes live currently is not this call to the way of the Cross. Instead, we are spoon fed a mix of moralistic therapeutic deism, social justice, and prosperity gospel with a smattering of Catholic theology. Many priests who seek to preach boldly are doing so in the face of years of the lay faithful having been taught wrongly—or not at all—which poses immense challenges for new priests on fire with the Holy Spirit. This will vary by diocese because some are in better shape than others across the West. If one were to poll the average Catholic, however, they would quickly discover a wide disconnect between the example of Christ Crucified, the saints, and the current belief that we only need to be a “good” person and hell is only for people like Hitler.
It is also during this time that the accompaniment we so often hear about started to take off and is now reaching its apex. The laity of my parents’ generation were often told in confession to ignore the Church’s teaching on things like contraception. The Church’s teachings—which are Christ’s teachings—were “too lofty an ideal” for the average Catholic. Everything became about making it “easier” to be Catholic. This false form of accompaniment puts souls in great danger.
Predictably, the results have been catastrophic for the Church. The easier we make things, the more irrelevant they become. The spiritual life is not supposed to be easy because we need to be refined in the purifying fires of God’s love. It is a brutal process. We are sinful, selfish, weak, addicted, worldly, and easily duped by the devil. The Lord came to save us because we are in need of saving. We are made very good, but the Fall has wounded us deeply. Authentic accompaniment helps us answer the universal call to holiness, which is the path where we find healing and freedom in Christ.
In order to truly accompany people, we ourselves must first undergo an even more radical conversion. We must come to see and accept that this life is not about ‘living our best life.’ It is about growing in holiness and about being conformed to Christ. The guides we have been given to accompany us are the saints. They did not take the easy route and they did not countenance sin. They weren’t telling people that God wants them to have a good life of comfort; something I have unfortunately heard from far too many priests. The Lord wants us to be saints, which means embracing the Cross, which leads to true freedom.
In the last year, as I worked as a Director of Faith Formation, I witnessed the wasteland that has been catechesis in the last few decades. I also saw first hand the immense brokenness of our culture. I met with every single family coming to the parish for baptism. Most of them were not coming in order to practice the Faith regularly. They were checking a box. Thankfully, by spending more time with them, many of them did start practicing the Faith.
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Swimming the Depths 