“You can’t be a part-time Catholic when there is a full-time Satan.” (from Scott Hahn’s Facebook site)
I don’t recall where I got the term “living room Catholic” but it struck me when I heard it as “Catholic in name only” (CINO). Then I watched a conversion story on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) and the guest was describing his early life as a cradle Catholic who received the sacraments through Confirmation, attended Mass every Sunday but whose family neither prayed together nor undertook any real Catholic activities. He said his family did what they thought the Church required, but in the end they fell away from the faith and his parents ended up in divorce. This, I thought, described living room Catholics (LRCs).
In my view, LRCs are often good people who are doing the bare minimum to be considered active Catholics, but who are not merely in the world, but of the world. They haven’t yet heard or responded to Jesus calling them out of the world (John 15:19) nor have they any sense of humility (Philippians 2:3, et al). Their minds tell them that they are as good or better than the next their neighbors and do not really give thought to their eternal souls. They are lukewarm Catholics. “Lukewarm Catholicism and its various forms can be rooted in many things — no foundation in sound catechesis, weak faith, loss of faith, moral laxity, habitual sins, lack of prayer, pride, material prosperity and the laxity that comes with it, spiritual sloth, sheer laziness, and worldliness.” (Fr. William Casey, You Shall Stand Firm: Preserving the Faith in an Age of Apostasy) They have not concept of spiritual warfare.
“Spiritual warfare is a commitment for every day and for every hour. Fr. Livio Fanzaga, The Deceiver, p. 76.
LRCs don’t understand spiritual warfare. Many probably believe that hell is empty. That kind of thinking means you don’t believe Jesus as he spoke frequently of hell and that it was the terminus for the unrighteous. “So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, and throw them into the furnace of fire …” (Mt 13:47-50)
“You ought to say plainly that you do not believe in the gospel of Christ. For to believe what you please, is to believe yourselves, and not the gospel.” St. Augustine, Contra Faustum, 17:3
I fell into the Living Room Catholic mode as a teenager, and it declined from there. LRCs tend to be lukewarm and lukewarm Catholicism leads to fallen away Catholics. The problem was, I had gotten all of the sacraments and thought, “I’m done, what else do I have to do?” After college I ended up spending fourteen years away from the Church, and, more importantly, away from Jesus. Then I hit a low point in my life and the emptiness hit me at midnight mass alone in the church where I grew up. I had been living a life thinking only of pleasure and myself. Then, about to sink lower, I asked God for help. I recognized that I was on a downward path and couldn’t pull myself out without help, God’s help. And he answered by sending me someone who challenged my way of life and my faith (or lack thereof). When this woman asked me, I think I told her, “I used to be Catholic.”
“Many call themselves Christian, but they certainly are not! They are not what their title signifies – not in their life, not in their morals, not in their faith, not in their hope, not in their charity.” St. Augustine, Sermon on 1 Jn 4:4
Within a week I had gone back to confession for the first time in fourteen or more years. I asked the Catholic lay leader on the ship I was on for a bible and any literature that he had that could help me. We were starting a six-month deployment so, although we were always busy, I still had plenty of time to read. I was stunned by what I didn’t know.
I was still firmly entrenched in the world. Like St. Augustine, I could see the path I needed to take but I didn’t want God to put me on it just then. “You can’t be a part of Satan’s kingdom and God’s kingdom at the same time.” (Mother Angelica, Private and Pithy Lessons from the Scriptures, p. 159. That’s what a LRC is, someone who wants God’s kingdom but can’t give up the world and its temptations of pleasure, greed, and power. These were the temptations Satan tried on our Lord and failed. This is why we fail. We need the Lord. “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
“Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, P. 56)
Complacency is the kiss of death for faith. If you aren’t advancing in your faith the devil is making inroads. “No one today is the same as he was a year ago. Either we are better, or we are worse. If we are the same, we are worse – because we have life in us, and we were made to grow.” (Sheen, On the Demonic)
Fortunately God didn’t give up on me. He doesn’t give up on anyone; he’s always waiting, knocking. We just need to open that door. Did I become worldly rich and famous after returning to the Church Jesus founded? No, but my life became immensely better. Now there is joy and hope. And even when times are difficult the days are always brighter. I know Jesus loves me.
The sad part is that so many don’t see the light of Jesus. “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (Jn 8:12) What will happen to them is their choice.
“God is thinning our ranks, and we are preparing for a stronger and more holy Church. God does not expressly say to the Church, ‘Tell your cowards to leave.’ They just leave.” Sheen, On the Demonic, Fr. Dave Tomaszycki (ed.)., p. 47. “The souls that are falling away have just failed the test.” (p. 46) “As others are leaving, we will be stronger. In a crisis, the Lord wants only the true, the faithful, and the strong.” (p. 48)
Are you staying or a leaving?
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