Asbury thoughts: What would a Catholic ‘revival’ look like? (Column)

“The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (Jn 3:8).

The Asbury University Revival — a phenomenal, organic outpouring of faith that occurred from Feb. 8-23 in Wilmore, Kentucky — intrigued some and made others uncomfortable. Thousands showing up for an unplanned, ongoing prayer vigil is something we Catholics tend to view with suspicion and, I suspect, even fear. Perhaps it’s because we are so bound to the liturgy that we cannot imagine an extemporaneous outpouring of prayer. Or maybe it’s that we consider worship a duty and can’t imagine people willingly being there?

Americans associate the word “revival” with tents and evangelical preachers in places like Alabama or West Virginia; it doesn’t fit comfortably into Catholic ideas of place or expression. But a fresh outpouring of the Spirit, accompanied by deep conviction and renewed religious fervor, isn’t really foreign to Catholics at all.

Revival is what early monasticism was. Revival later emerged in the reform movements of mendicants like Francis and Dominic, contemplatives like Teresa and John of the Cross, missionaries like Ignatius and Peter Claver, theologians like Francis De Sales and John Henry Newman, and spiritual masters of everyday sanctity like Thérèse of Lisieux and Josemaría Escrivá. More recently, revival has been enfleshed in lay movements like Focolare, the Neocatechumenal Way, Cursillo and the Charismatic Renewal.

The spiritual event at Asbury did make me feel a little envious of the outpouring, though, and got me wondering what a Catholic revival might look like in the 21st century.

If past revivals involved new forms of prayer and community life, a Catholic revival in our times — so divided and distanced, monitored and lived screen-by-screen — might necessarily look like the one Jesus led. And it will begin with the same message John the Baptizer brought: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand … prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths” (Mt 3:2-3).

In other words: Repentance must be the foundation of revival. A Catholic revival would start with lines at the confessionals like those we’ve seen at World Youth Days — but with even our bishops and clergy in those lines, waiting for their turns.

We can prepare ourselves for revival, but we cannot organize it. We can foster renewal and help facilitate divine encounter, but true revival is not a program or an initiative. It is a movement of God’s Holy Spirit among his people, according to his will, not ours, no matter how well we’ve planned.

The church was formed around Christ in both his living and Eucharistic presence. A Catholic revival will therefore be eucharistic by nature — and it will change us and how we live. That’s because nothing fuels genuine love and unity better than communion with the living God.

But we must expect pushback. Revival always attracts opponents and opportunists. Humanity is reliably contrary and skeptical. There are always people who fear (or will not tolerate) change; people who feel threatened by what they cannot control — and the Holy Spirit cannot be manipulated. And there will always be hucksters in the wings seeking to exploit a spiritual movement for their own advantage. A Catholic revival will face those challenges too.

Is a Catholic revival possible today? Of course. And in fact, a Catholic revival will come when we have asked God for it. It may come within the national Eucharistic Revival, perhaps next year at the Eucharistic Congress gathering in Indianapolis. Or, it may not come for many years. We may feel like the ancient Jews praying for the Messiah and waiting for what seems like forever.

But revival will come — if we ask for it — in God’s good time and in his way. And we will absolutely want to be there.

This column was written by Jaymie Stuart Wolfe, a sinner, Catholic convert, freelance writer and editor, musician, speaker, pet-aholic, wife and mom of eight grown children, loving life in New Orleans.