You are not alone
Revival in a secularized culture
Tears welled in my eyes as I sat in Lucas Oil Stadium on day two of the National Eucharistic Congress. Since I’d left a Pentecostal church more than 30 years ago, I’d steadfastly avoided what I considered religious emotionalism.
And yet, here I was, sitting in a stadium, gazing at a 30,000-strong crowd of Catholics while battling the very thing I steadfastly avoid – religious emotion. It wasn’t sadness, but something closer to awe or wonder.
Perhaps I was moved by the diversity of people. I saw religious brothers and sisters, seminarians, priests, and bishops. Milling about were people of many races, languages, and ages, as well as crowds of young adults and gray-haired folks like me.
I live in Indianapolis, so I’m no stranger to heart-stopping athletic action at Lucas Oil Stadium. Even when my beloved Butler Bulldogs lost to Duke in the final seconds of the 2010 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, I was not brought to tears. Yet this National Eucharistic Congress was different.
As I gazed around the stadium, four words came to mind: “You are not alone.”
Loneliness in America
Loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection is an emerging public health crisis impacting half of U.S. adults. Our nation’s Surgeon General concluded this crisis fundamentally affects our mental, physical, and societal health.[i]
I would argue it impacts our spiritual health as well. And it seems to at least correlate with the secularization of our culture, impacting both Christians and non-believers.
Today, fewer people identify as Christians than a generation ago, and far fewer of those regularly attend church. In the 1970s, around 40 percent of American Christians attended church weekly. Today, that’s closer to 25 percent.
About 28 percent of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated, describing themselves as atheists, agnostics, or “nothing in particular,” according to the Pew Research Center.[ii] In 1990, the number of religiously unaffiliated was just 7 percent.[iii] In addition, Pew found that just two-thirds of Americans identified as Christian in 2020, compared with 90 percent in 1972[iv].
While we may think of secularization as an issue outside Christian society, it’s clear to me it sometimes has a profound influence within the faith. For those of us encountering secularization within the Catholic Church, it can be profoundly isolating. And, just as revival begins within me, I have to ask to what extent I’ve been part of secularizing Christianity.
For me, isolation comes easily. I go to work five days a week, attend Mass each Sunday, and listen to Catholic podcasts, radio, and music. Yet I can still feel alone. Passing the peace to strangers at Mass does nothing to relieve that isolation. After all, being physically near others is not the same as engaging in meaningful relationships. That’s why we can feel lonely while caught in a traffic jam.
Too often these days, we’re shunning long-term commitments to real, in-person communities. Social media can give us interaction but not true community, leading us deeper into isolation. And ideological polarization has taken many down the same lonely path.
From where will my help come?
Let’s face it; if the Surgeon General has to tell us there’s a crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection, you know Americans are crying out for help.
As a Christian, I believe we can find healing through God’s invitation to share in his own blessed life. I do believe we’re not alone: God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.[v]
It’s clear to me that God did not create us as solitary beings able to thrive well when alone. In that regard, we’re more like dogs than goldfish. In the Bible, we’re often compared to sheep. Those caring for sheep know that separation from the flock causes them great stress and panic.[vi]
Perhaps that is why Hebrew Christians were encouraged not to isolate themselves: “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another …” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Note that “encouraging one another” implies building relationships, not simply being physically present at Mass.
A Eucharistic revival
The intent of the National Eucharistic Revival is to “renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.” In Protestant churches, many use the word “communion” to describe a commemoration of the Lord’s Supper with bread and wine or grape juice. The Catholic Church has a profoundly different belief and uses the term “Eucharist” which originates from the Greek word eucharistia, meaning thanksgiving. “At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ’s Body and Blood,” according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (CCC 1333)
In the Bible, Jesus promises, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35). Too often, we – you and me – look to our isolating culture to ease the hunger and loneliness we carry inside. As sheep, we won’t find it there. We need our Shepherd. And, where do we encounter Him? At Mass, in the Eucharist. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, claimed, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:51). This is how God draws close to humanity and how we can draw close to one another, away from personal isolation and separation from our Creator.
As the name National Eucharistic Revival implies, each of us can find healing through God’s son, Jesus, who is present in the Eucharist. Believing and rejoicing in the mind-blowing idea described in John 6:47–58: “My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”
If you’re not a Christian or Catholic, that may be a challenging idea to swallow… no pun intended. Learn more.
Whether you’re Catholic, Christian or religiously unaffiliated, perhaps its time to explore your loneliness. Consider the idea that we are not alone; that there’s something living, far greater than we are, that can bring us together in a loneliness-busting community.
The National Eucharistic Congress is not an end but a beginning. I’m convinced I was among 60,000 Christians – pilgrims – who were blessed to encounter an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. For me, it was totally unexpected. It was not the religious emotionalism of my youth, but it certainly rekindled a dynamic connection.
I must nurture that seed of revival planted on Day Two in Indianapolis. But, I now know I should not try it alone, but as part of a flock following its Shepherd.
We are not alone.
Revival Resources
- Visit your local parish:
- Talk to a priest.
- Connect with others, face-to-face.
- Pray
- Find Eucharistic Adoration in your community
- Find Eucharistic Adoration in your community
- Connect
- Learn
- Support for the Journey
End Notes
[i] New Surgeon General Advisory Raises Alarm about the Devastating Impact of the Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation in the United States. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (May 3, 2023) https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/05/03/new-surgeon-general-advisory-raises-alarm-about-devastating-impact-epidemic-loneliness-isolation-united-states.html, Retrieved: 8/1/2024
[ii] Religious ‘Nones’ in America: Who They Are and What They Believe, Pew Research Center, (January 24, 2024), https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/01/24/religious-nones-in-america-who-they-are-and-what-they-believe/, Retrieved: 8/1/2024
[iii] Hout, Michael; Smith, Tom (March 2015). “Fewer Americans Affiliate with Organized Religions, Belief and Practice Unchanged: Key Findings from the 2014 General Social Survey” (PDF). General Social Survey. NORC. http://www.norc.org/PDFs/GSS%20Reports/GSS_Religion_2014.pdf, Retrieved: 8/1/2024
[iv] Modeling the Future of Religion in America. Pew Research Center. September 13, 2022. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/modeling-the-future-of-religion-in-america/. Retrieved: 8/1/2024
[v] The Catechism of the Catholic, Second edition, Church http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/prologue.htm#1 Retrieved: 8/11/2024)
[vi] Social Behavior of Sheep, Merck Veterinary Manual, (May 2014), https://www.merckvetmanual.com/behavior/normal-social-behavior-and-behavioral-problems-of-domestic-animals/social-behavior-of-sheep, Retrieved: 8/2/2024
