Telling the truth using humor and even sarcasm

With a deep diaconal bow to my friend Paul Z., who blogs over at Communio, I offer this humorous take on youth ministry. As a former Youth Minister and current Director of Religious Education, I appreciate the humor and sarcasm in this video. Sadly, what he describes is too true too often. It is even true with adults. After all, one cannot deny the vital link between orthodoxy and orthopraxis. Nonetheless, we often do.

I could do one of these on preaching, especially on the perceived need to dumb it down. Very often how effectively the readings can be dumbed down for the congregation is the sole criterion by which preaching is judged. When it comes to the mysterium tremendum we have to face up to a certain irreducible complexity, which can only be worked out, that is, verified through my experience, through my endeavor to live, my acceptance of the Lord's invitation, given to each one of us: "Come and you will see" (John 1:39)