Fr. Jerry Hardy

At the Religious Education Forum last weekend Fr. Mark Link, S.J., touched on a lot of adolescent attitudes. In one of his talks, he was speaking of the quest for instant gratification. That struck a cord in me, because it resonated with some of the vibrations I had been picking up from the vocation team’s swing through the high schools. At the end of Link’s talk I was thinking about his and it seemed that some of this quest for instant gratification was coloring the attitudes reflected by some of the students sort of a “what have you done for me lately?” kind of posture.

The problem as I see it is to change that attitude into something similar to one of the local bank’s slogans, “What can we do for you?” I’m not suggesting that younger people today are less generous than they were earlier. As a matter of fact I think they are more generous but they have to work harder to be so.

The way all this touches the subject of vocations to the priesthood or religious life is simply that both of those represent not instantly gratifying experiences but long term, growth type of investments. Even the periods of formation are long, though essentially no longer than what is required of a medical or law student.

More important, young people seem to look at the situation of the Church in general as being that of “non-instant gratifier,” to coin a phrase. The turmoil and change, the presence of things they disagree with, the overly idealistic frame in which they picture it, all add up to what appears to be a long haul toward partial fulfillment for the man or woman choosing to work in it.

There are two aspects of this that I wanted to touch on. First it seems to me that we have to counter that kind of attitude by: (a) indicating that almost any human organization(and the Church is one to the extent that the Church is us) suffers from similar if not identical problems of structure, communication, authority and flexibility. (b) Pointing out that the height of satisfaction for man lies not in the moment of triumph or reward but in the realization that his efforts through the long hard process have paid off. In fact it is precisely WITHIN THE PROCESS that we derive our most significant satisfactions whether it’s within the process of playing a game of ball where plays and moves unfold with smoothness, or going through a discussion or disagreement where understanding develops, or becoming friends with someone where a familiarity and warmth gradually replace our mutual aloneness. None of that is instant. (c) As a matter of fact, none of what parents have achieved thus far, either in terms of what you have or who you are together and individually, was a matter of instant gratification or achievement. You worked at it, sweated over it, bled for it, and laughed and danced at what you eventually achieved. But you did all that because you loved–each other and life.

It is here that the critical point surfaces. We have to appeal to what I believe is the innate goodness and generosity of younger people and stir them to love of the Church, so that they will see it and its ministry as worth the investment of their lives.

Parents ought to be the ones most effective here, because in addition to pointing out that the Church’s problems are not that peculiar, you can also offer some unsolicited support for and endorsement of the contribution made by men and women who dedicate themselves solely to the service of the people who are the Church. I’m talking about the support of your own enthusiasm and conviction that what they are doing with their lives has value and in fact counts for you. You do that by the way you talk about a priest or sister’s work. You do it by the way you support and involve yourself in their work. You do it by reflecting to younger people your own love for the Church and what it has made available to you of the message of Jesus, the values of Jesus, the person of Jesus. The process of making available all of that was not an instantaneous one.

We can’t live our lives, or even part of them, simply on the basis of instant replay, instant credit, instant coffee, or instant anything. The values and satisfactions a man or woman live by take more time than that.