Chapter 4

What does it mean to be a Catholic?

As a relatively brand new Catholic discovering Catholicism for the first time, I admit that I have a difficult time articulating what exactly that means when posed the question, "Why did you become a Catholic?"

Mr. Kelly has a valid point, that Catholics all around the world are suffering from an "identity crisis", that we really don't know who we are, what we stand for, or what makes us special. Why should Catholicism stand out more than any other religion or denomination? Because Catholicism is NOT another religion or another denomination, Catholicism IS Christianity, our very life source, the heartbeat of our soul, and our purpose for living. So why are we not bursting at the seams to share such an amazing gift with the whole world?

I think at least part of this identity crisis hails back to Chapter 2 with "Minimalism". What is the LEAST I can do and get by? We've bought into the culture of our day that we just "don't have the time" to volunteer in the nursery, to teach a Sunday School class, to sing in the choir, to organize community service projects so that we can reach beyond the walls of our parishes and take the light of Christ that we receive in the Eucharist every Sunday into a world that is desperately unhappy and in desperate need of the hope only our Savior can give. The statistics are even more damning, that only 10% of the people in a church do 90% of the work, and that number is probably very generous! We refuse to give of ourselves even to each other, and then we wonder why the world does not want to be a part of who we are. And last but not least, the one no one likes to talk about... What is the LEAST amount I can give to the church and still stay in God's good graces? If we truly loved one another as Christ loves us, would we not be falling all over ourselves to serve each other and to give of our time, our resources, and our talents? If Christ put His ALL on the Cross, why are we so reluctant to put our ALL into His Bride, the Church? Every Catholic must ask the question, "What I have done today to show the love of Christ to the world around me?" Not "what I did back when...", not "what I'm going to do...", but "what have I done TODAY?"

One problem we face is that Catholics have been vilified in modern culture with false stereotypes and outright lies about what we believe, and for some reason, we hang our heads and shift our gaze rather than stand up and speak out because we are not comfortable with who we are, and many times we don't even know what we believe. Our identity does not lie in our jobs, our hobbies, or things here on earth. Our identity lies in our relationship with Christ. We are His Bride, we are His Body, and to know who we are means becoming more like Him, the-best-version-of-ourselves. Of course, the best way to know how to be like Him is to study His life, to know His Word, and to PRAY without ceasing (I Thessalonians 5:17).

The first Christians were ready to give their very lives for what they believed, and what we still believe today, that Jesus Christ died to save us all from sin and eternal damnation. They exemplified love for each other in their lives and their communities, they supported each other in sickness, in persecution, in good times and bad. Being a Christian was not a PART of who they were, it was EVERYTHING of who they were. In modern times, we tend to compartmentalize our lives. We have our work life, our family life, our sports life, our TV life, our internet life, our driving life (Get out of my way slow poke, I'm gonna be late for church!!), and somewhere in there, we squeeze in our spiritual life. We even view the church as a "place to go to do that thing". Christ never meant for us to use our salvation as a coat that we put on and take off at our convenience, being "Sunday Christians" and "Monday Heathens".

To establish a "vibrant identity" in the Church we cannot continue in a culture of minimalism, we must give our all, just as Christ did. We cannot stay the same, we must be, as Paul says in Romans, "transformed by the renewing of [our] minds". We must know who we are and what our purpose in life is. Like Mr. Kelly pointed out, our salvation is an adventure, it is the story of our lives. We were given a quest to preach the Gospel to every nation, and we were given a command, to love each other. How hard is that?

According to Galatians 5:22-24, the fruit of the spirit is LOVE, and out of love comes joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Joy is love's strength, peace is love's security, long-suffering is love's patience, gentleness is love's conduct, goodness is love's character, faith is love's confidence, meekness is love's humility, and temperance is love's victory. However, backtracking just a few verses (19-21), we find the fruits of the flesh which are immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, rivalry, jealously, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissension, occasions of envy, drunkenness and the like.

Want to know who you really are? What is your fruit? And that, my friends, is a very loaded question.

Your brother and sister,
Joseph & Frances