Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli

In the DNA of the American soul is a rugged individualism. We differ from our European friends whose history stretches centuries into the past and whose close borders touch one another. Our country is relatively young and vast. Our predecessors who first tamed the wilderness and planted cities from the Atlantic to the Pacific had to grapple with a vast expanse of land. They were self-reliant, creative, energetic and purpose-driven.

This individualism encouraged inventors and engineers, by rewarding their efforts with more wealth. Thus, it ignited a strong desire for private enterprise and, in no small way, contributed to improving living conditions. Because of the freedom of individuals to use their gifts and develop their potential, we now live in a time where necessities and luxuries compete for our attention. We always have a better product, a more useful tool or more enjoyable entertainment.

Nonetheless, there is a downside to individualism when individuals behave as if what matters most is their ability to squeeze for themselves as much enjoyment from life as possible. How many of us use our money to buy non-essential items without thinking how that same money may help someone else buy a necessity? How many of us waste food and water, squandering our natural resources? How many parents encourage their children to pursue a higher education not so that they can be formed as thoughtful, compassionate and generous citizens, but rather that they make more money to live a high lifestyle? Where this type of excessive individualism reigns, the happiness of the individual far outweighs a concern for the good of others. (cf. “The Problem of Hyper-individualism and its Impact on American Life,” Oct. 28, 2016)

In the last century, those who have attacked America have targeted our rugged individualism. The communists, the Nazis, the radical Islamist all hate the individualism of the West. They see it as the root of selfishness and alienation. In itself, the emphasis on the rights of individuals does have value. But an extreme individualism does not. It views people as autonomous and self-contained. It places priority on independence and uniqueness. In the end, an excessively individualistic culture ultimately fragments people. And, if espoused as the prevalent philosophical underpinning of a society, it ultimately leaves it a heap of charred embers.

Tragically, today’s apotheosis of individualism has made acceptable the idea that individuals have the absolute right to do with their lives as they please, with no concern for others. The breakdown in family life, the decrease in population growth, the mad insistence of a mother’s right to kill her own child, the devaluation of life as something that can be ended at an individual’s will, the loss of the meaning of marriage, and the decline in Church attendance: all these things have come about because individuals see themselves as the center of the universe.

No more evident is the overemphasis on individualism in religion than in those who limit Church attendance to a private affair. As a result, if something more important, like a sports event is happening, going to Mass is tossed aside. The same overemphasis on individualism rears itself in the behavior of those who bring their young for instruction for First Holy Communion but do not bring them to Sunday Mass. It is also evidenced in the young people who attend preparation for Confirmation but do not attend Sunday Eucharist. In each of these cases, it is what the individual decides, not what God has given us for our salvation.

God has created us as members of the human family and calls us to be living members of his family, the Church. We do not enter life on our own. We come into being by way of a father and a mother. We are born into a family. We are made to live in community, caring and loving each other. And the reason? God, eternally happy in himself, is a communion of life, Father, Son and Holy Spirit giving and receiving all that they are to each other. Thus, made in his image and likeness, we are persons inasmuch as we live in communion with each other and, in so doing, find lasting happiness.

To help us achieve the happiness for which we are made, God has not left a single one of us adrift and alone without his help. God has given us the Church, and most especially the Eucharist, as the sign and sacrament of salvation. As Pope Benedict XVI once said, “In an increasingly individualistic culture, which is the one in which we are immersed in Western societies, and which tends to spread around the world, the Eucharist constitutes a form of ‘antidote’ that works on the minds and hearts of believers and continuously sows the logic of the communion, service, sharing, i.e. the logic of the Gospel” (Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus, June 26, 2011).

Going to Sunday Mass is not just about praying on our own. It is not ultimately a matter of how beautiful the songs are, how great the homily is or how hospitable the community is. All these things matter. But the Liturgy is ultimately not what we are doing, but what God is doing for us in Christ. “The Eucharist…transforms a human community into a mystery of communion, capable of bringing God to the world and the world to God. The Holy Spirit, which transforms bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, transforms all those who receive it with faith into members of the body of Christ, so that the Church is really a sacrament of unity of men with God and among themselves” (Pope Benedict XVI, ibid.).

The Mass is the action of God accomplishing our salvation. It is the very sacrifice of Christ on the Cross made present in our midst. It is God saving us, uniting us to Christ and making us his people. It is God offering us the happiness that the world cannot give. In 304 A.D., the Emperor Diocletian put to death 49 Christians for celebrating Sunday Eucharist at Abitinae, a town in the Roman province of Africa. At their martyrdom, they proclaimed, ‘Sine Dominico non possumus’, without the Sunday Eucharist we cannot live. Would that all of us would say the same!