“You have come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What
would you do without freedom? Will you fight?” asked Father James R. Searby,
chaplain of George Mason University’s Catholic Campus Ministry in Fairfax,
quoting Sir William Wallace from the movie “Braveheart.”
Father Searby tried to rally 700 men with battle cries from
movies such as “Lord of the Rings,” “Henry V” and “Animal House”
in the opening talk at this year’s Men’s Conference, “Girding for Battle,” sponsored
by the Office for Family Life at St. Joseph Parish Hall in Herndon March 5. Authors
Ralph Martin and Scott Hahn, the other keynote speakers, heralded the message
of putting on “spiritual armor.”
“I want to become a better man,” said Jordan Callaway, a parishioner
of St. John the Beloved Church in McLean. Callaway and his friend Ethan Gross,
a parishioner of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Arlington, were drawn by the
conference’s poster that depicted a dark cathedral and bold text spelling the t’s
in “Girding for Battle” with swords.
“We chose the title, ‘Girding for Battle,’ because there is a need for a clairon call to all men, both married and single, to accept their role as defenders, and to seek truth in the face of a society that has been washed in relativism,” said Brendan Gotta, Young Adult Ministry coordinator.
The talks addressed the transition of secular culture in America from its Christian roots, and encouraged men to live out their discipleship to Christ as soldiers in the trenches.
In his homily, Arlington Bishop Michael F. Burbidge thanked the attendees for giving up their Saturday to be present.
“I love the theme of your conference,” said the bishop. “There is a battle to be fought.”
Father James R. Searby (left), chaplain of George Mason University’s Catholic Campus Ministry in Fairfax, speaks during a panel discussion with authors Scott Hahn (center) and Ralph Martin at the 2017 Men’s Conference at St. Joseph Parish Hall in Herndon March 4. CONNOR BERGERON | CATHOLIC HERALD
The bishop listed attacks on human life at all stages,
irreverence for the sanctity of marriage and the rejection of Christian values
as examples of darkness.
“Indeed there is darkness, but you see we do not despair,” he
said. “Where do we find the power … to gird for battle? We rejoice in knowing
the truth.”
Bishop Burbidge said battles cannot be won alone, but in
fellowship — such as attending the Men’s Conference — battles are victorious.
“There’s a fear in each one of us — that I may not live up to the
fight, that they may find out I’m inadequate,” said Father Searby.
He said fear can even enter our prayer lives and create a “false”
prayer. Instead of accepting the love of God, he said, men can fall into the
temptation of praying to God by listing their achievements hoping to earn his
love.
“We don’t have to win it, it’s given,” he said.
Martin, a visiting professor at Franciscan University and
president of Renewal Ministries, an organization dedicated to Catholic
evangelization, was the second speaker at the conference. He gave an analogy of
Bedouins preparing for a sandstorm to show how to dismiss sin. He said Bedouins
assemble a tent before an approaching sandstorm, while their camels sit
outside. Often, the camel will stick its head into the tent and consume the
tent, leaving the Bedouins outside in the sandstorm.
“At the first sign of the camel’s nose — kick it,” he said. “The
very first moment of temptation label it. The more we delay it, the harder it
is to stop.”
Father James R. Searby (left), chaplain of George Mason University’s Catholic Campus Ministry in Fairfax, speaks during a panel discussion with authors Scott Hahn (center) and Ralph Martin at the 2017 Men’s Conference at St. Joseph Parish Hall in Herndon March 4. CONNOR BERGERON | CATHOLIC HERALD
“We have many lessons to learn from the old evangelization,” said
Hahn.
Hahn, a Catholic convert, professor at Franciscan University in
Steubenville and best-selling author, connected the responsibility of
fatherhood to the New Evangelization. He cited a statistic from Focus on the
Family Publishing to articulate the importance fathers play in the development
of faith formation in families.
“If a child is the first person in a household to become a Christian,
there is a 3.5 percent probability everyone else in the household will follow,”
he said. “If a mother is the first to become a Christian, there is a 17 percent
probability everyone else in the household will flow. But if the father is the
first, there is a 93 percent probability everyone else in the household will
follow.”
“In many ways the New Evangelization depends on us — men of God,”
he said.
Hahn said fathers need to know God as Father and pray the Lord’s
Prayer to understand the “sonship of God.”
Rick Lauber, a parishioner of St. Joseph Church, brought his sons
Dylan and Lucas to the conference.
“I thought it’d be good to invite the future patriarchs,” he
said.
