“One day I stood for the very first time with a knife in my hand beside a naked corpse on a marble slab. My first dissection. Opposite me stood a Christian girl, also a medical student. We both took very deep breaths in spite of the slight odor, and our eyes were wide and staring. I touched the cold skin covering the body and drew back my hand, gripping my scalpel more firmly. I looked at my partner’s frightened brown eyes. ‘D’you want to have a go first?’ I asked unchivalrously. ‘No, you first,’ she breathed. Yet within two weeks it was all old hat. We could even… joke about matters which would make other people’s hair stand on end.”

Here, John White describes how, as a medical student, he was quickly desensitized.

What happens to us is that we become desensitized like John White. It’s not a fault thing really. It’s a natural human reaction. Perhaps it is the way our bodies and minds are made in order to protect us.

It happens in marriages, relationships, at work, with our hobbies, the shows and music we like. The honeymoon ends and the first spark dies. We get bored and want to liven things up a bit.

How long have you been going to church? 5 years, since birth, I was recently converted, for 80 years, all my life.

This happens to our faith as well. People complain. I’m not getting anything out of church. There is nothing new. I don’t feel anything. We don’t have the spirit here. I’m numb.

It’s really pretty sad to hear this. It’s especially sad when you’re in love. If you and I are in love with Christ, if we come every Sunday to worship Him, then the focus of our questions and longings is really wrong. It is not what I am getting. The question we should ask ourselves is, “What am I giving?”

John Piper in his book “Desiring God” captures this by saying “If you come to God dutifully offering him the reward of your fellowship instead of thirsting after the reward of his fellowship, then you exalt yourself above God as his benefactor and belittle him as a needy beneficiary – and that is evil.”

The PNCC is a catholic church. It’s not only our heritage but it is our faith. Salvation comes through the transformation of the person by their commitment and faith in Jesus Christ, their willingness to live as Christians with all that goes along with that commitment, and all of this made real, present, and alive through our central, primary, and renewing focus being the Holy Mass and the sacraments.

We are entrusted with preaching the Word of God. Our church believes that the proclamation and preaching of the Word of God is a sacrament. You and I are all entrusted with this and have an equally important mission. Our mission involves:

• Living and preaching Christ – if you want personal and church renewal this is what you must do – what you must give.
• Exercising your faith – primarily through Holy Mass and the sacraments – and not just on Sunday, and also through prayer. By this exercise you will be strengthened and renewed.
• Drawing others to Christ and the Church – through your actions, words, and life. At home, at work, everywhere.
• No compromise – in your faith in Jesus Christ, who is the only begotten son of the Father, who is co-eternal, who was born, lived, was crucified, died, was buried, and who rose from the dead. And… no compromise in the morality taught by the Church. No backsliding, no it’s OK.

If we ask the right question, if our goal is the worship of God and His son Jesus Christ, if we fully accept and take up our cross and our mission, then we won’t have time to be desensitized but will be renewed daily. As Peter C. Moore, says in his book “Disarming the Secular Gods” “. . . the ultimate judgment of love apparently sets people free to be go-givers rather than go-getters.”