Our religious heritage includes a spiritual heritage at its source: faith in God the merciful Creator, revealed through the living Jesus Christ. This is not a visible fact, but is more than anything else a personal adventure, lived out in the heart of each person. It's not an object or an idea but a profound attitude, expressed in the choices and decisions people make. Faith is an act of trust, of putting oneself in the hands of the Other.
by Daniel Cadrin

Faith is the personal experience of a human being. Faith, however, which lives within and which vivifies humans, can be seen in its fruit: a sense of service, concern for others, inner peace, joy that energizes, thanksgiving for all that is beautiful and good, compassion for those who suffer, hope for tomorrow… These fruits all ultimately depend on the mystery of the grace of God and on human freedom, through their broken and renewed alliances. Thus, when we consider the question of the future of Christian faith, no certain answer is possible. It is based on what can be seen here and now, all around us, from far away right down to the depth within ourselves.

Will our spiritual heritage have inheritors? I have no grand declarations to make on the future of the Christian faith in Quebec, but I would like to share with you the realities I see, realities which raise certain questions, but which also open up ways for the future.

OBSTACLES IN OUR CULTURE

We see around us what looks like the progressive disappearance of Christian faith. In Quebec, this distance and this rejection of the Church and of Christian faith seem to go even further. We are a distinct society in many ways, one of them surely being the shameful memory of our Catholic past and in a tendency to saddle the Church with the burden of all our difficulties. And so our present context is not particularly favourable or receptive to Christian faith. This is something we must clearly recognize. We might even ask ourselves, at least as far as the future of the Catholic Church is concerned, if it won't turn out to be more anglophone or allophone, and be more present in the rest of Canada than in Quebec, a process which is already underway.

To get out of our closed ways of thinking, we will have to learn to see our ancestors simply as we see ourselves, as human beings who, in their own search for meaning, have left us a heritage of courage, audacity and inspiration, and as such, are more a source of life and light than of darkness. The mass media influence us, format us, and create a minimum of social consensus. They are today's opiate of the people, in the sense that they entertain and delude, but also tranquilize troubled consciences. This is not to say that wonderful things can't be found in the media, but as a culture, Christian faith and all religious traditions are spontaneously viewed negatively and with mistrust. Yet so be it! Faith will have a future here if people remain free and critical towards this influence and set up alternative forms of media on their own.

A great challenge in the current context is also the weakening of all sorts of ways of belonging, whether it be the family, neighbourhood, parish, or workplace. Christian faith can't be lived in isolation; it doesn't flourish on its own, and always needs interaction, support from others, and mutuality.

Another obstacle is the fact that we live our lives more immediately, in periods of short duration. The past is absent, the future scarcely present, and death has been banished. As a society, we have trouble developing common projects. And we're always on the go, without knowing where we came from or where we're headed. Faith situates us differently in time, with a genesis and an ultimate end in view: the Kingdom of God. This perspective gives a horizon to human existence, which is the role of faith, and a taste of the future, since history is long and God is our traveling companion.

OPENINGS IN OUR CULTURE

These are some of the obstacles that we see in our culture. But I also see openings for Christian faith in the current culture of Quebec. Here are a few.

The baby-boom generation, still in a state of reaction, is the generation that has been the most anti-Church and anti-Christian. It freed itself of what it perceived and experienced as being a prison. Many will not revisit the religious question at all, while others are already doing so through approaches tied to a quest for spirituality or a search for durable values. What value does my life have? What makes it worth living? What things really matter? And, without the force of convictions, where is our culture headed if not towards irrelevance and slow dissolution? These questions can lead people to re-examine in a different way the tradition of Jesus' disciples and to become open to the Scriptures.

If previous solidarities are weakening, others are forming around common interests, leisure activities, volunteer work, concerns about a particular milieu or cause, the quest for a simpler lifestyle, preoccupations with the environment, and so on. These new solidarities build a sense of belonging that is essential for the social fabric, but which is also necessary for the experience of faith. Generation X-ers (aged 25 to 40) live in the context of precarious relationships in their couples, at work, and in so many other areas; I see their sense of friendship as a fundamental value in life. This is central to living simply, but also to understanding something about the Gospel, since Jesus invites us to a sort of universal friendship and He calls us his friends (Jn 15:15). Christian faith can't be separated from this trust in other human beings.

The plurality of moral and religious options clearly shows that being Christian means becoming Christian; it means making a personal choice, taking an option. This is even clearer when several choices are possible, as is true in our case. In our current culture, as long as there are Samaritans in search of living water who see hurting people along the roadside and reach out to take care of them, Christian faith is possible.

SIGNS IN THE CHURCH

If there are obstacles and openings in our present cultural context, there are within the Church itself what I see as more explicit signs of living Christian faith. At the Taizé gathering in Montreal, more than a thousand young people from all over Canada and even from Quebec participated! The young people discussed, prayed at length, and created fraternal bonds. They were able to catch a glimpse of the light and the source of life that can be found in the living Christ and in his Gospel.

At the Pastoral Institute (PI), a training centre in pastoral theology, I have noticed over the past few years a greater diversity in the people who are seeking training. People of all ages now want to give themselves a basis on which to engage in service or to explore the Bible. A few years ago, one might have thought that this PI training had a bleak future, but that's hardly the case!

At PI, we see all the efforts that have been made over the years in the areas of Christian life education, catechesis and in the many projects launched in the dioceses and parishes, including child, youth, and adult ministries.

In the university student community, every year we have baptisms of young adults. They're making a real commitment, for Christian faith is a treasure for them, a heritage of which they have now become the inheritors. The catechumenate (adult baptism, confirmation and Eucharist) is more alive in Quebec than before.

There are also those who discreetly become disciples of Jesus once again; they are known as restarters, those who want to re-adopt the Christian faith anew. There are also centres like Chemin de vie, in Longueil, for those in search of spirituality. Every year, at "Le Pèlerin Centre" several people register for a training course oriented toward spiritual accompaniment for both individuals and groups. The program extends over a period of four years. Well prepared, these adults then offer spiritual guidance to individuals or groups of people from various centres, houses, organizations, and movements.

Another reality is that of groups of associated lay people, or those associated with religious communities. They offer an attachment to a particular spiritual tradition at the same time as membership in fraternal groups and within a broader family. These groups are currently growing.

I have mentioned these experiences because for me it's the best way to think about the future of the Christian faith. Many of these realities are new and none is making much noise; you won't see them on popular TV talk shows. But all of this is as real as the seeds of good news that Jesus talked about: they don't look like much, but they produce fruits and become trees (Mk 4: 30-32). He would say: The future is already here; don't you see it?

The future of Christian faith is a gift that goes beyond our predictions, our fears and our hopes!

About the author : Daniel Cadrin, of the Dominican Order, was assistant Master of the Order from 1992 to 1999. Bible specialist, professor and director of the Dominican Pastoral Institute in Montreal, he is the author of numerous books and articles.