Tradition Among the Youth by Josh Sukie

Tradition Among the Youth

By Josh Sukie

 A Sanctum Catholicam Conference Presenter

  In the midst of Church crisis, while Mass attendance shrivels, churches close, seminaries dry up, and true faith seems to be dying, traditional communities flourish. These communities, small though they may be, are fervent groups of truly faithful Catholics centered on one point: an unapologetic belief in the full Catholic faith and the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass. And while one may expect these communities to be composed of aged individuals, attached to the practice of their youth, the extraordinary life of these groups finds its origin in the great numbers of young people drawn to the experience of almost 20 centuries of unbroken Catholic life.

  Modern culture is focused on control, feelings, and pleasure among other things. The modern practice of the faith attempts to engage this modern culture by reflecting it in a spiritual manner. The Mass celebrated is spoken in a language able to be understood by the faithful, it emphasizes individual “active participation” and therefore individual importance, and it attempts to engage the young with modern entertainment such as contemporary music. Why, then, would young people be attracted to a religious service conducted in a language most cannot understand, a service that represents a faith that leads to intense hardship in this life, a service that does not entertain but calls the faithful to place themselves aside and focus on God?

  As a young man, myself attached to this traditional expression of the Catholic faith, I am able to explain this seemingly surprising phenomenon. The answer is actually quite simple. The reason that so many young people are attracted to the traditional practices of the Church is precisely because they not only do not reflect but even oppose modern culture. You see, if a young person wants contemporary music he will go to modern artists. If he wants a friendly meeting he will go join a social group. The young person will go where he finds that which he seeks expressed best. What the Catholic Church expresses best is not modern culture, but the timeless truth of the faith.

  Rather than being turned off by the challenges of practicing traditional Catholicism, the Catholic youth are attracted to them. Anybody truly religious, truly in love with our Lord, does not want an ordinary life. The youth are attracted to ideals; they do not merely want to be good enough, they want to be extraordinary. Therefore, one already in love with Christ does not run to the easier path but rather embraces the challenge of sanctity. The youth also look to heroes, and aspire to imitate them. In the spiritual realm, the saints are the greatest heroes in history. The young, even those not particularly religious, admire the virtue of the saints in some way or another. And the holiness so inspiring to the young, who thirst for heroic virtue, is embodied in and radiated by the mystery and transcendence of the traditional rite of the Mass, the fount from which countless saints were refreshed by even more countless graces.

  Modern culture offers a multitude of pleasures, whether it be physical, social, intellectual, or emotional pleasures. While the youth are very much drawn in by the allure of these delights, the modern Church makes a grave error in attempting to use these things of the world to draw young people to the faith. The Catholic Faith is attractive precisely because it opposes modern trends. God is the divine, not the human; grace is the supernatural, not the natural; the faith is the transcendent, not the common. This is the draw of the Faith, the promise of a way not of the world but high above the world, outside human understanding and comprehending. This, therefore, is also the draw of the traditional rite of the Mass: a Mass not commonplace, but so far beyond our comprehension that to enter into this is to enter in someway into Heaven itself.