Holiness Revolution

By Dan DeMatte

Will you join the revolution of holiness?

The world is in dire need of change. People are hurting. People are turning to empty promises searching for answers. All along, we have the answer: Jesus

In Holiness Revolution, your eyes will be awakened to the need for change in this world. You will be challenged to live a life of radical discipleship that brings that change. It's time to stop making excuses and start taking action.

"Only from God, only from the saints, does true revolution come."— Benedict XVI

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9781937509330

Dan DeMatte

Dan DeMatte is a Catholic speaker, retreat leader, and youth minister who founded and serves as executive director of the Damascus Catholic Mission Campus, the home of Catholic Youth Summer Camp where he previously served as director of evangelization. He earned a bachelor's degree in theology and philosophy from Ohio Dominican University and received a master’s degree in theology from Pontifical College Josephinum in 2015. From 2005 to 2011, DeMatte founded and was the program director of Jesus Jams, a monthly event for high school students. He also served as a DRE and youth minister for 10 years at the parish level. DeMatte was one of the stars of the 2006 A&E reality show God or the Girl, which followed his discernment to the priesthood or married life. He has appeared on EWTN, The Today Show, Larry King Live, and The View. He is the cohost of EWTN radio’s Encounter. DeMatte’s book Holiness Revolution is part of Matthew Kelly's Dynamic Catholic program. Dan lives with his wife Amber and their children in Columbus, Ohio.

Book preview

KINGDOM.

INTRODUCTION

A few months ago, I walked into a beat-up warehouse with a For Sale sign on it. I had been looking for a piece-of-junk building to do youth ministry out of and I was hopeful that the Lord would just give me this particular building. . . and so I entered. Inside I was greeted by a large beast of a man in his fifties. His dress was that of a dirty construction worker and hands were dried and cracked from a life of manual labor. In a deep, angry voice, he confronted me and asked me why I was there and what I was doing. I told him that I was a youth minister who was trying to start a revolution of holiness in the world and that I needed a building to gather the youth of Columbus, Ohio.

Well, do you have any money? he asked.

No, but God has plenty of it, so I’m not worried about that, I replied.

He ignored my reply and looked at me with condescending eyes, followed by condescending words: You’re young. I bet you think you can change the world, don’t you?

I laughed. No way! I don’t think I can change the world, but I know God can.

His reply failed to take into account my answer. Young kids always think they can change the world, he said. I used to try to help people, but then I found out that they just take advantage of your help. People have been trying to change the world for years and the world still sucks. If you ask me, it’s worse than ever.

Knowing he needed the hope of heaven, I responded to his pessimism: Yeah, the world’s pretty rough right now. Good thing we don’t live for this world; we live for heaven. We’re just here for a few passing years, but our ultimate hope is the hope of heaven.

Silence. Prompting him to reply, I asked, Right?

Lowering his head, he answered, I don’t know. All I know is that right now I’m just looking out for me. I’m losing my job today; tomorrow this warehouse will be closed and I and all the other employees are out of work.

I could say nothing more, and so I simply asked him if I could pray for him. I prayed with this man then and there, and I told him to trust in God no matter what.

What we all need right now is hope. In a world filled with empty promises that lead to despair and brokenness, we need to know that fulfillment can be found only in Jesus Christ. We need to place our hope and trust in Jesus and in his saving power. I want to see people who are alive in Christ — alive with his joy, alive with his zeal, alive with his mission of bringing all souls to the Father and ushering in the Kingdom of God. I want to see you living a life of passion and purpose, living the adventure that Christ is calling you to live!

We, the people of God in the third millennium, are living in an amazing time of salvation history. Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI have all prophetically spoken of a new Pentecost, a new evangelization, and a new springtime within the Church and throughout the world. They have all spoken and written words of hope and confidence in God. Now is the time for renewal! Now is the time for hope!

I don’t believe that the end of the world is as near as some radical Christians shout. I believe renewal is near and that more great saints and martyrs are to come. I believe that the Holy Spirit is stirring up a mighty revolution in the minds and hearts of Catholics everywhere — a revolution that will not and cannot be silenced. And most of all, I believe that this renewal will come from the young Church. It is the youth of the Church who will set the world ablaze with the fire of God’s love. We will not sit idle and watch this world reject Christ and the teachings of his Church. We will rise. Even if it is a small and weak group, we will rise. And we will rise triumphantly as Christ rose triumphant over sin and death more than two thousand years ago.

This book is meant to plant the seed of renewal within your heart. We have an amazing God who makes all things new (Revelation 21:5), and this amazing God wants to use you in his plan for renewal.

Even though he has the power to literally renew the face of the earth simply with the words from his mouth, he does not do so. Even though he has the power to renew the face of the earth with mighty winds and powerful forces, he does not do so. He chooses to use you and me — he wants to bring renewal in his people through his people.

So often I sit down with hopeless teenagers and hear them say that they don’t believe in God because of all the pain and suffering in the world. If there really was an all-loving God, then why wouldn’t he do something to stop all the hurt? The thing that these teenagers fail to see is that God is doing something about it. At every moment of every day, Jesus Christ is calling his disciples to be a light in the darkness, to be a source of renewal. He is doing something about the pain and the hurt — he is calling you, and he is calling you today.

The problem isn’t that God is distant. The problem isn’t that God fails to do anything to stop the pain and suffering in the world. The problem is that the people whom Christ calls are too busy with their own lives to answer his call. How can we focus on doing his will when we are so consumed with our own?

What will become of this world if the people of God do not answer his call?

What will become of this world if the people of God live in fear?

What will become of this world if the people of God sit around and do nothing?

You are the light of this world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. (Matthew 5:14–16)

Stop wasting your life.

Do something amazing for the Gospel.

All for Jesus. All for his kingdom.

1 PETER 2:9–12 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

1

THE WAR AT HAND

It is time, Father. We can wait no longer.

It’s foolishness! If you want to march out of this house to your death, and leave your mother without a son, then so be it; but mark my words, son, you will not receive my support.

This hurts me deeply, Father. You are the one who taught me God created all men free, with certain rights that no one can take away. You are the one who taught me to stand up for my beliefs, no matter what the cost.

But I also taught you how to think, and you aren’t using your head. The militia is outnumbered six to one. You are untrained. You lack the experience. You haven’t the right weapons for war.

But if I don’t fight, then who will?

Maybe this isn’t your battle to fight. Maybe the battle has already been won by the enemy. Maybe it is time to stop this revolution and simply live the way the British want us to live.

Or maybe it is time for young people like me to give their lives over to the cause of freedom so that this world can see a complete and radical change. And maybe, Father, just maybe, if enough of us give everything that we have, and enough of us quit counting the cost, then maybe the change isn’t that far off. I will fight. I will not shrink back in fear.

One word began to ring within the hearts and minds of the young people of the early American colonies: revolution. England had crossed the line; they had charged one too many taxes, they had pushed one too many laws, and they had stolen one too many God-given freedoms. It was time for the colonists to rise up and bring about a radical change. It was time for a revolution. This revolution didn’t come from an organized and systematic government; it came from an unorganized, unqualified group of young men who were willing to put everything on the line, without counting the costs.

A revolution is an uprising of people seeking to bring about a complete and radical change. A revolution starts in the minds and hearts of the people. It always comes from the bottom up, because it seeks to overthrow the authority that lays hold of the people, that is restricting their freedom.

Revolutions require much, demand much, and endure much. They require staking your entire life on your beliefs and letting nothing and no one stop you from the change you know is urgent. In order to win a revolution, one must never consider the odds or count the costs; one must simply put everything on the line at all times.

Imagine what our lives would be like if the colonists hadn’t fought. Imagine what our country would look like if the militia had given up — if they had dropped their guns and ceased fighting because the odds weren’t in their favor. Imagine if the young people who rose up to fight in the American Revolution had decided not to continue fighting because it may have resulted in their death or because it was too hard. The United States of America as we know it today would not exist. Because the militia was unwilling to allow things to remain the way they were, its soldiers fought and fought and fought, and they ultimately achieved the goal of all revolutions: freedom and change.

More than two hundred years ago, young people in this great nation placed their lives on the line while fighting the American Revolution. The result was our freedom. They made tremendous sacrifices, suffered agonizing pain, and died many sorrowful deaths —but they now share in an ongoing victory. The heart of the Revolution endured, the complete and radical change was accomplished, and the colonies proudly became the United States of America.

ARE WE ALL THAT DIFFERENT?

This question goes through my mind day and night. Are we Americans living in the twenty-first century much different from the American colonists? We are not. We have more in common with them than you could ever imagine.

If only the early American revolutionaries could see our country today. They would mourn. We are not the land of the free and we definitely are not the home of the brave. We are slaves and we are cowards.

Just think about the language of the Declaration of Independence for one moment: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Now answer me this: Do we as Americans hold true that there is a Creator and that he is in charge, or have we made ourselves God? Do we see that all people have the right to life, from womb to tomb? Are we really free, or are we slaves to our own sinfulness and materialism? Does the current American culture really lead to happiness? Are you sincerely happy? Or are you longing for more?

This book isn’t about a second American Revolution or overthrowing the American government; it is by no means political. I am convinced that the change this great country needs, and the change this world desperately needs, is one that cannot be accomplished by government officials.

The country and the world change when the people of God say it does. When the people of God cast away the lies and corruption, that is when we will see change. Change does not come from a man. It does not come from a president. It comes from God, and God alone.

The Holy Father spoke these words in Cologne, Germany, at World Youth Day in 2005: "It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true. True revolution consists in simply turning to God, who is the measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love. And what could ever save us apart from love?"

If we want to return to freedom, if we want to return to what is really good and true, and if we want to return to real happiness and real joy, then we must return to the living God. We must look to God who is love himself, and we must know him. We must know his ways, know his will, know his words. Christians and non-Christians alike have been trying to bring about reform for hundreds of years. They try to do good and fix society, but they do so relying on their own power and in their