Fr. Mark Leondis

Youth living in today’s American culture are like no other young people in history. While we were all once their age, we never experienced the kinds of difficulties and pressures that they experience in contemporary society. To name a few of these difficulties, our young people face violence and shootings in schools, easy access to narcotics, and graphic sexual images on billboards, magazine covers, and internet sites. This is truly a complicated and challenging time for young people to develop and grow into healthy Christians.

To gain a better understanding of how our youth are being raised, we must examine the societal realities that affect them.  More than ever before, there is tremendous pressure placed on our children.  Many of our children grow up in single parent homes; many begin working when they reach their teen years. They must make difficult moral choices and experience more societal pressures than we ever imagined.  Looking at the larger picture, we see that our children are in a position to choose from many varying ideologies and subcultures.  In some cases, they seem to be creating their own sub-cultures, seeking to break away and destroy the dominant mainstream culture. 

When looking into and trying to understand the various cultures of youth, we must look at the youth themselves: their talk, their dress, their magazines, their music, and their actions.  Youth culture is a living phenomenon that is constantly changing.  At a time in their lives when young people need stability, continuity, and structure, youth culture rarely remains consistent. The sad reality is that much of today’s youth culture is not designed by young people themselves, but by marketing professionals looking to create a new trend, fashion, or fad for the sake of profit. They perceive our children as customers, not as a people. Our youth today are the most targeted group of teens and young adults in the history of commerce. However, these young people are not aware that they are the target of Madison Avenue’s best marketing efforts.

In a day and age when young people are experiencing overwhelming feelings of loneliness and are searching for acceptance, the Orthodox Church must become a major force in their lives. The Church must offer today’s young people a better way, a change from the norm.  The Church must offer today’s young people a better choice, Jesus Christ.  Today a young boy would go so far as to make a kill for acceptance into a gang; the Church can offer acceptance in the person of Jesus Christ who went to the Cross and endured pain and humiliation for our salvation.  In a suburban high school, boys etched marks in their belt tallying points for how many times they had sexual contact with a girl; the Church can offer dignity and self-respect in purity.  A young girl contemplates suicide because she is not pleased with her physical appearance; the Church can offer her the beauty and sanctity of human life through the knowledge of being created in God’s image and likeness.

Young people are being challenged in their everyday lives by the media, peers, and school. They are challenged to go beyond their own personal and familial boundaries. They need to be grounded and committed to their faith in order to be better equipped to respond to difficult decisions. Modern technology and advancement has given us invaluable tools for communication: cell phones, pagers, computers, e-mail, instant messaging, and text messaging, all for the purpose of improving our communication. Often, parents are quick to supply their children with these communication tools of our modern age, but in reality, the average parent spends less than fifteen minutes a day speaking one-on-one with his or her child.

While our young people are constantly challenged in their everyday lives, how often do we as Orthodox leaders challenge them in their faith? How often do we charge them to be “defenders of the Faith”? How much do we expect from the young people of our parishes?

Our Lord chooses each of us to do His will; to follow the “way, the truth and the life”; to “go and bear fruit.” Yes, even teenagers! God does not hesitate to challenge all people to live a life in Him. We read in the Gospel of Luke the story of the Annunciation (Luke 1:26–38). Our Lord sent the Archangel Gabriel to invite and challenge Mary to become the “God-bearer,” the Theotokos. The most profound request in human history was made of a teenager, to bring salvation to the world. She was chosen by God, and she accepted his invitation.

It is clear that young people are capable of tremendous accomplishments, if given the opportunity. Too often we relegate young people to the partial participation of parish life and do not allow them to fully develop to their potential in the faith.  Too often we think the role a young person plays in the life of the parish is secondary. While as a Church we consider them full members of the body of Christ by virtue of their baptism and chrismation, we often times do not treat them as such. We need to stop asking our young people what we can do for them and begin asking and inviting them to offer their God-given talents and gifts for the glory of God.

Rather than just talking about the issues they are facing daily—sexual purity, substance abuse, violence and the pressures of their culture—allow them to experience

their faith and thus find their answers within the context of the faith community, the body of Christ. Challenge them to make the Orthodox faith primary in their lives; it is easy to be a Christian on Sunday morning, but what about the rest of the week?Encourage them to fully participate in the sacramental life of the Church. Invite them to chant in the choir for the divine services; not just to be passive bystanders. Support them to become active members and leaders.

Because today’s young people are dealing with the stress, pressures, and realities that no other generation has had to address, their faith must become a living reality in their lives. They will rise to the occasion; they will acknowledge our Lord’s invitation; they will accept His challenge and become more successful than imaginable. Remember, young people are capable of tremendous feats, if given the opportunity. Every human being, young and old, is called by our Lord to accept His challenge. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide in my name, he may give it to you.”