Arthur Brooks is a Catholic professor who considers Harvard University his mission territory. But the bestselling author and Atlantic columnist doesn’t teach a class on religion.
His specialty is the science of happiness. Catholics have the secret to everlasting happiness, he said, but they don’t always know how to effectively share it with the secular world.
Brooks shared his three-step evangelization strategy with more than 400 young adults at the CALLED conference in Reston Sept. 21. Before the keynote address, the young adult conference, hosted by the diocesan Office of Youth, Campus, and Young Adult Ministry, started with afternoon coffee and socializing. In the evening, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge celebrated a vigil Mass. Later, young adults attended breakout sessions, had dinner and danced to the music of cover band Noble Soul.
Brooks believes that to bring people to Christ, young adults should live a Catholic life that’s public, natural and magnetic.
American Catholics can be afraid to openly share their faith, but in a way, the fear is all in their heads, he said. “Sometimes in this victimization, identity politics culture, we make this bogus argument that it’s so hard to be Catholic,” he said. “It’s not always comfortable, but being public (with our faith) is not a question of fighting against the culture where people are trying to oppress us, but fighting against our brains where we’re afraid to not fit in.”
There’s a part of the brain called the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and its whole job is to feel pain when we’re excluded from a group, said Brooks. “That happens to all of us, but now that you know it, you’re going to see it happening, and you can stand up to that dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. It takes knowledge and practice, and you can do it.”
In his own life, Brooks likes to make the sign of the cross before giving a speech, and he tells his students that he’s Catholic on the first day of class. “St. Josemaría Escrivá (said), ‘There is something holy, something divine hidden in the most ordinary situations.’ That’s what it means to be a public, excellent Catholic,” he said. “When you are doing something well and you are
doing something publicly, that’s apostolate.”
But once you openly share your Catholic identity, you need to strive for greatness in every area of your life, said Brooks. “Most people around you in the secular world don’t know any people who are really Catholic, and that means if you’re publicly Catholic, you’re 100 percent of the Catholics they know,” he said. “That’s a big responsibility. If you’re a gossip, Catholics are gossips. If you’re a drunk, Catholics are drunks.”
The next rule of evangelization is to not be weird about it, said Brooks. “There’s a few undergraduate kids who come to my university every year, and they’re determined to make sure that everybody knows (they’re Catholic) and it’s weird — you don’t need to wear a crucifix that’s that big,” he joked. Brooks then shared stories of diverse people, including a world-renowned physicist and middle-aged mom graduating from college, who were able to simply and sincerely share their faith. “If you just make it natural, then people will find it winning,” he said.
To magnetically share the Gospel, you can’t have disdain for those you’re trying to reach, said Brooks. “We’re trying to be recruited constantly by this contempt industrial complex — the media and politicians who want you to be conscripted into their culture war by hating as much as possible,” he said. “We have a responsibility to be conscientious objectors. We have it in black and white — ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ ”
The country’s unhappiness crisis is an opportunity to show people a more worthwhile way to live, said Brooks. “The world and Mother Nature put a false formula for happiness in your brain — love things, use people, worship yourself,” he said. “The right formula is — use things, love people, worship God. All of the science is in that in a nutshell.”
Bishop Burbidge’s homily continued the theme of seeking true fulfillment through the path of holiness. “In a world that teaches us to stay focused on what is in front of us, on the here and now, Jesus tells us to look above, to look at what truly matters,” he said. “In a world that tells you to do whatever is necessary to get ahead, to be counted among the greatest, Jesus says to put others before yourself. He says if you want to be first, you must be a servant of all.”
Attendee Andrew Oliveros, a parishioner of Blessed Sacrament Church in Alexandria, most enjoyed the homily and talks that the conference offered. “Anything that had to do with spreading the Gospel, it was good for my heart, good for my mind, good for my soul,” he said. He feels grateful for all the opportunities that the diocese has for Catholic young adults to meet one another and to grow in the faith, such as CALLED. “They really care about our formation, that’s why we’re super blessed,” he said. “This place is awesome.”
Domenique Arcobasso liked learning from the young adult leaders on how they run their young adult ministries, as she hopes to build up the ministry at her home parish, St. Raymond of Peñafort Church in Springfield. “I think we need to empower the young adult community to be more active,” she said. “I think that community really helps you to live out your faith in confidence.”
Maraist is a freelancer from Reston.
