Compromise

By Steven Polley

Director, Office of Youth Ministry

I am sure that many of you who read this column have seen the movie, “Saving Private Ryan”, which came out in 1998. Not a movie for everyone as it does contain a lot of violence and language. But recently, I have been thinking about the ending of the movie. Toward the end, as they were near the point of saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks tells him to “earn this”. The next scene shows Private Ryan as an elderly person standing over the grave of Tom Hanks, and he says to his wife, “Tell me I’ve lived a good life”. His wife quickly tells him that he has. Over all of the years, he held those words in his heart and mind, “earn this”.

Last Sunday as I waited in the gathering space prior to Mass, a young man now living in Emporia came by and we spoke for a few minutes. While he was in high school he was very involved in many of our diocesan youth events, especially TEC. But one other thing that I remember about this young man is his gift of courage, and his commitment to his baptism and the Body of Christ. As a senior, he made the choice to miss the state championship football game to travel to NCYC. I remember talking to him at that time and he shared with me all of the hateful things the coach said to him -- and said about Catholics. But even with that he did not waiver. He was unwilling to compromise a deep faith and strong commitment to his faith for anything. As I spoke with him before Mass, I quickly was able to see that nothing has changed eight years later.

As I write this column, I think of many young people in high school now who have that same commitment and strong faith. This has been something they have seen witnessed to them over the years, thus becoming something they know, believe, and can take ownership in themselves. Parents and grandparents throughout the diocese, religious formation directors, catechists, principals, teachers and youth ministers too, have all walked this journey of faith with our young people, helping them form in their hearts and minds a commitment to our Catholic faith and beliefs.

But we also know that as our young people grow and mature, they are faced with many major decisions. And many times decisions can be made, and are made, not on necessity, but on desire and want. I can be the first to attest to this. We do things and make choices that we think will make us happier.

I wonder then how many of our young people will compromise their faith and beliefs by making decisions that are not good truly good for them, decisions that go against our Catholic teachings? As wonderful as our young people are, I know that sometimes decisions are being made based on what they think will make them happy, and through this, they are compromising many things.

As I continue to ponder this, I feel that this gives us a great opportunity, but a challenge as well. I see the opportunity for us to take the time to speak with our young people about decisions, inviting them to not compromise a solid faith foundation for the sake of short term gratification. The challenge however, might be getting them to step away long enough to listen to us. My hope would be that we find those times, as short as they may be, and invite our young people to ponder the question, what am I compromising?

Thank you for your continued support and may God continue to guide and bless you in all things.