HOW IS AN HONEST CATHOLIC TO VOTE?

It seems almost ever conversation these days ends with, “Father I want to ask you about the election.”  People are genuinely concerned more than I ever remember before.  It is the dirge constantly playing behind every conversation waiting to come to full volume.

Among many Catholics, there is a profound sadness.  Nobody is, and nobody has for quite some time fully represent us.  Like King David angering God by numbering his people and having to face one of three punishments, we always seems to be asking, not who will best lead us, but who will do the least amount of damage.

The Pope was asked about this conundrum and according to a CNS article he simply said that Catholics facing difficult political choices must study the issues, pray about the election and then vote according to their consciences.  He would never comment on a specific electoral campaign.  "The people are sovereign," he said. "Study the proposals well, pray and choose in conscience.”

So what is one to do?  The first is to be well formed.  It is not about what I may feel, what seems fair, or what I like.  We are a people of the Creed and that is something that we receive through faith in God in the Church.  We are formed by it, we do not form it. It informs and forms us and makes us one in faith.

The Catholic who has studied his faith at all knows that there are some things that far outweigh the other.  Issues about the economy are extremely important but it is dust on the scales when compared to the taking of the lives of the most vulnerable and innocent among us.  If the economy tanks, we may lose every penny we have a suffer terribly for it.  If we blindly allow the taking of innocent life as a right paid for by our taxes in order to have a better economy, then we have lost our very souls.  That has eternal consequences.  (See yesterday's post for resources.)

After being formed, we must be INformed.  “Study the proposals well,” says Pope Francis.  That does not mean turning up the volume when a political add is on T.V.  

Then pray whether you have made up your mind or not.  Someone else may need the prayer.  Do it seriously.  Make a holy hour.  Consider doing a fast of some kind.  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has a novena for the election.  Pray first and then vote.

If you have done all of these things, then rest assured that you have done all that you can do at this point.  Stay informed and look for the next opportunity to be involved.

IF YOU CAN PROMOTE YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE, YOU CAN DO THIS

Perhaps one of the best things about the new evangelization is that those things you hate most about the concept is probably the wrong thing to do anyway.  One story that I told this past weekend at Mass (so if you were at that Mass you may skip this paragraph) was about my mother and I taking the bus when I was a young ‘un from our small city to the big downtown in Akron to do some going-back-to-school shopping.  A guy gets on the bus at some point and turns to the person in the most forward bench and says, “Are you saved?  Unless you are saved you are going to hell!”  I like to think he was sincere and that he was hoping to save souls and it took a lot of courage but it was a miserable failure.  He turned everyone off on the bus.  By the time he was half way back people would just put up their hands and refuse to talk to him.

 

That is NOT an example of the new evangelization.

 

The new evangelization is first and foremost about one on one relationships.  We can use a similar conundrum for an example.  Living in a city you come across people begging for money.  People often throw money at them because they feel guilty.  The beggars often stand at highway exit ramps or busy corners so just about all the time you have is to stick your hand out the window with some money in it and hear a thank you before the light turns green and the guy behind you honks the horn.  The flip side to the guilt is wondering if the person is really being helped by the donation.  That is what I like so much about organizations such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society, or Catholic Charities, or Catholic Relief Services (and subsequently where I put money.)  They do not just throw money at a problem.  The go out and meet people, get to know them, asses their need, assist where they can, and give guidance on how not to end up in the same place.

 

The evangelizer on the bus was akin to throwing money at beggars.  The new evangelization, on the other hand, is about getting to know people, listening to them, and discerning their need.  It is about inviting, not commanding.  It is about telling your story and not telling others what their story should be.  It is about patience and trusting in the Holy Spirit.  It is about being a joyful person which makes you attractive and points others toward your faith.  It is about prayer.  It is about not expecting someone to be as deeply on board as you are right away and supporting them on their journey.  It is about supporting and encouraging.  It is about being natural about your faith.  It is about being comfortable saying, “I can tell you what works for me.”

 

Yes, this is very vague.  But it has to be.

 

Maybe one more example might help.  My Dad was an avowed not-a-God person who lost his faith, near as I can tell, during WWII.  He invested heavily in life, believed in the human spirit, the power of his own body, and living life to the fullest.  It kept him distracted more than gave him joy but saw him through over 80 years of his life.  Then he ended up in the nursing home unable to tend much to himself.  Everything he counted on in life was failing him.  He would say to me, “Help me.”  Most of the time all I could answer was, “All I got is prayer Dad.”

 

He wasn’t exactly an atheist, but when I said that I was going to become a priest he said, “Religion is for weak people, but at least you will be a leader among weak people.”  So as you can imagine, religion was not a popular topic between us.

 

So one day, frustrated with his failing body, the loss of deceased relatives and friends, depression over the great void he imagined coming, he said to me again, “Help me.”  With no real hope I mechanically said, “Dad, all I got is prayer,” to which he responded finally, “Fine!”

 

With that he died reconciled with God.  There were no arguments. No talk about what he should be doing to get ready to die.  The theological debates.  No pointing out his predicament.  No moralizing or Bible thumping.  (And don’t get me wrong – there is a time and place for such things.  When your 12 year old says he doesn’t want to go to Mass, you do the same thing you do when he says he doesn’t want to go to school.)  It was a relationship (no matter how stressed at times), invitation, acceptance, joy, sincerity, hope, prayer, persistence, and gentleness. 

MARK MY WORDS!

IF your town still has a newspaper, and IF you still get it, and IF on Sunday they still have the Parade Magazine (will someday I have to explain what a magazine was to kids?) this past weekend you would have seen an article about Mark Wahlberg.  The short article is under a weekly feature called, “Sunday With . . .”  In it, they interview a famous person and there is at least one question that they ask every week: “How do you spend Sunday?”

 

Week after week after week I read this feature paying particular attention if it is a person whose work I like, just hoping that one of them would say that they somehow gave thanks for their talent, their wealth, their notoriety, or the fact that anybody cares that what they do on Sunday.  But week after week after week it is usually something along the lines of, “We sleep in.  Then I make pancakes.  We lounge around the house or go shopping or to the zoo.”  Not even a “we help out in a soup kitchen.”  Sunday, for many, seems to be “Me Day.”  I don’t have to work so we spend time on ourselves.  On the one hand that is good.  (I try for some me time myself on Sunday if it is available.)  But there is not even a mention of, “and we say grace remembering that everything is a gift.”

 

Then there is Mr. Wahlberg, former crack-addict, prisoner, Calvin Klein model, rapper, current actor and father.  Here is how he describes his Sunday;

 

“If the kids are good, I’ll have doughnuts for them at 6:30 in the morning,” (Note: 6:30 in the morning – ready for his kids.  I have just started thinking about becoming functional at that time – he’s already got doughnuts for the kids and I have Mass!) “and I say, ‘You guys gotta let Mommy sleep in!”  DO YOU KNOW WHY HE DOES THIS?!  BECAUSE THEN: “I’ll go to church” (read: Mass) “at 7:30 and everybody will be eating breakfast when I come home.”  Nice right?  Hold on to your biretta friends for the next sentence.  “Then we’ll go to church again at 10:30. . .”

 

Okay, maybe he’s making up for some of his famous peers who forget to mention anything outside of themselves as a Sunday activity.  But still: he’s once again proven himself one of my heroes.  (If you hear that he kicks his dog or lets his kids eat Cheerios at Mass, please don’t tell me.  I need my heroes.)  But it just goes to show you how much good you can do.  He isn’t pictured waving a Vatican flag or preaching (apparently like I am) about what people should do if they consider themselves faithful, he was asked a question and he answered honestly.  It led to a second question by the interviewer, “Faith is obviously a big part of your life.”  Which, in retrospect is not a question but a statement.  But he answered none-the-less, “It’s the most important part of my life.”

 

There.  Very matter of fact.  No preaching (in the negative sense) and no theatrics.  And he did a world of good for Catholics that need a shot in the arm.  Thank you Mr. Wahlberg.  I hope more of us can follow your example.

(And we have dooughnut Sunday here.)

THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH SO HELP ME GOD

There is a tendency within humans to want to worship with like-minded people. There is a higher comfort level when similar beliefs unite to be a worshiping community. So naturally flowing from that is a penchant to share our thoughts and beliefs in order to win people over to our way of thinking. In the Catholic world we sometimes see this as a good. We believe that the fullness of truth resides in the Catholic Church (naturally enough) and so we share the faith with others hoping to bring them into the fold.

There is also a way in which this is not good. It follows two extremes and is equally unhealthy at either end. The first is the tendency to be stricter in teaching than the Church. It is one thing to have a stricter sense of personal piety and belief than the Church in general, it is another to force it on others placing “heavy burdens” on people’s backs. It leads to a “you must do it this way or you are not a real Catholic” mentality that can destroy the life of faith in others. It is hard to fight. The other person looks like they are doing something so much holier than others how can they be wrong? But it can lead to a disheartening of a believer who cannot live up to what the narrower-than-the-Church person demands, it deprives legitimate expression of the faith in some, and make still others who are well on the Catholic playing field feel like outsiders. It can appear severe enough that a seeker may see the Church expressed in this person and think, “I don’t see fullness truth here. I don’t want to be a part of that.”

At the other extreme are those who are less strict than the Church. Rather than carving out something on the Catholic playing field and declaring that small portion “true belief,” these take something off of the playing field and present it as true faith. “I know the Church teaches this, but would Jesus really want this? Forget feeling poorly about this! Do it! God will understand!” The danger, of course, is leading someone astray – taking them away from truth and living something that could harm them or others spiritually, mentally, or physically. It can appear so wishy-washy that a seeker may see the Church expressed in this person and think, “I don’t see truth there – there’s nothing to believe in. I don’t want to be a part of that.”

Honesty demands that we present the entire playing field and only that so that those with particular callings and charisms can know that they can have a legitimate home in the Catholic Church and others can know what is legitimately taught as truth and that which is not. Only then can they make proper decisions about their faith life. Everything else is in some way a delusion.

ARE YOU COOKING SAINTS IN YOUR KITCHEN?

There are exceptions to the rule of course but the primary place where the faith is handed on is not in Church or PSR/CCD or in the day school of your parish. The primary place where faith is passed on is the domestic church – in the home. It is modeled and nourished and directed at the parish, but it is passed on in the home. It is the same thing with math. If parents do not place some amount of importance on math and grades then there is nothing a teacher can do to force a kid to learn. If faith is not important in the place where they eat, sleep, and be family, it is rare that an outside influence will bring them to faith and God.

So how does your home stack up as a domestic church?

1. Could you be caught in prayer in your home?
2. Do those who live in your house ever pray together – even grace? Do the heads of the house offer blessings?
3. Are Christian/Catholic ideals in manner, speech, and action upheld, fostered and honored?
4. Is Mass and regular confession a priority in scheduling?
5. Do images, shows, stories, or any other manner of media invited into your living room through television, computers, and other electronic or print media noble or at least not scandalous?
6. Are the poor served in some fashion from your home? (For example donations to charitable organizations etc.)
7. Is the liturgical calendar celebrated in your home in anyway? (For example – does Christmas really seem Christ centered? Do you recognize your feast day?)
8. Is the faith ever discussed (even the weekend’s homily)?
9. Does your house show any sign of housing a people of faith? (For example – is there a crucifix well displayed and honored or do you have a holy water font?)
10. Has your house been blessed or given a patron?
11. Are there resources for learning or being inspired about the faith? Do you a book blessings and use it?
12. Is your home a place of love and joy?

Some of these in some places these are more easily achieved than others. What does one do in a home of mixed religion for example? This may not be a complete list but is a start. You will come up with more. There is an ideal atmosphere in which faith grows just like there are perfect conditions for plants to grow and we are called upon to do our best to achieve them.

VINEGAR AND HONEY

Do you want to be happier? Do you want to feel better when you wake up in the morning? Do you want to have more energy during the day? Do you want to look better? Do you want to improve your marital relations? Do you want to look ten year younger?

Are you thinking, “Yes! Yes! Just tell me what to do!” or at least, “I know what I need to do, please give me a new way to do it that I will actually participate in.”

What if the opening paragraph read:

If you keep eating the food you like you will remain fat and listless. You feel sluggish because of the amount that you drink. You look older because of the cigarettes you keep smoking. You are feeling low because you keep filling yourself with mild poisons.

If you are like me you find some interest in the first paragraph and start shutting down or even skimming through the second. One invites people to be the best version of themselves that they can be and the second merely points out how terrible a person is as motivation to be better. (So the alternative is to be a negative person like you?) The first tends to work better than the second but far too many people use the second especially in matters of faith.

Rare it is that a person does not know what the Church stance is on something or what (at least they’ve heard) what Scriptures says about a given topic (through probably not why.) They care - but not enough. This is mostly because they know the teaching through the second type of teaching. This is true of premarital sex, cohabitation, same sex marriage, contraception, or even missing Mass on Sunday. Too often the thrust of presentation on these teachings is, “Here is what (God/Church) wants and those who are not doing it are sinning and sinning leads to unhealthy lives and unhealthy lives can put your immortal soul in jeopardy.” This is all true – but not very appetizing. If you teach the truth unappetizingly it does not matter much because people are not going to digest it.

Rather, start with the promise these teachings offer – even before the why of it. “You have tried everything else and they have not got you very far at least for very long. Do you want your marriage to be better? Do you want to love more deeply? Do you want to risk discovering something special between you and your spouse that you might never have seen before (or have lost touch with? Do you want to feel better about things? Do you want to risk finding a different kind of fulfillment? Then risk trying to live this teaching. It is unconventional by today’s standards but that doesn’t mean it won’t work. Why might it work? Let me offer you these reasons . . .”

Which would you rather hear or at least which would entice you to conversation? When you choose – then present the faith to others that way.

THROUGH NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN

Someone out there may already have a solution to this problem or perhaps have an insight from being a person who finds themselves affected by this problem. So before we spend too much brain time on it I thought I would throw it out to you for you in put.

As parish many of our programs assume that children are from relatively intact families and can meet the demands of our programs. More and more however this is not the case. So we have a sacramental program and a child does not show up much of the time. It might be a little less worrisome for programs that meet weekly as a child may be caught up. But when a program meets monthly or even every other month and they miss half of those the program is essentially gutted for them.

Now there are those that are simply choosing other programs over their sacramental training (backed by their parents! “They can’t miss basketball think of the team!” Of course I am more concerned about their immortal soul. Neither of us can understand the point of view of the other.) This is an entirely different topic. This problem is more difficult. It concerns the children of divorced parents.

Too often one parent can only have a child here every other week. Maybe. Just as often the other parent does not want anything to do with the faith so there is absolutely no support from that end. So we have a child who, through no fault of their own, has little tie to the community, comes to Mass and sacraments spottily, and who knows little about the faith.

It is not like all the kids that this affects have the same schedule or are in the same grade so there is a need to cover all grades and one any given day or time. As a parish we are already understaffed and a volunteer (after they are Virtus trained etc.) would have to be able to teach a child of any given grade and tropic at any given time. We might ask a guardian or parent to “home school” which might be a solution but often – now that they are on their own – their time is stretched to the limit.

So – there is the problem. Do YOU have any ideas that might help these children out?

MONDAY DIARY - CHAPTER 14

The homily for my Dad's funeral was a partial reflection on our relationship with God and so I thought for this week to post it as the Monday Diary (it seems to work). As usualy with my homilies, it does not read well and changes with the preaching of it, but you get the idea. Thank you again for all your prayers and support. Especially surprising was the support from the cyber community. Wow. Thank you guys. May God bless you all.

I will tell you the truth, I was worried about my Dad. Not only was he not much of a Church man he was not much of a God man either though he tollerated my my foray into both realms. He once told me that he was glad that I was going to be a priest. “Religion is for weak people,” he said, “and at least you will be a leader.”

Dad was extremely practical and of a scientific mindset. For something to matter to him, for it to be believed, for it to make it on his radar screen it had to be out in the open readily available to touch, sight, and scrutiny. That bled into his life even about the house. Things were not in drawers or closets or boxes but out in the open. Even his desk was covered with papers and projects much to the consternation of Mom who liked things neat and tidy. “A place for everything and evething in its place,” she used to say. I like to think I am like Mom, but I am afraid that I am much more like my Dad in that matter. Fr. Klasinski, my last pastor, used to say, “You have so much STUFF.” I don’t think I did, it was just that all my stuff was out in the open.

This needing to see and handle and prove and use extended, for Dad I think, even to God. For most of his life God was just a bit too invisible, required to much quietness, was a bit too theoretical to be believed.

Those of you who knew my Dad know that he loved, relished, and adored life. The world was his playground. He woke up excited in the morning and went to bed regretuly at night that the day was over. Especially after retirement it was not at all unusual for him to wake up in the morning to work in the garden, then run out to see if the guys were windsurfing at the lake, take a trip out to the airport to see if anyone wanted to go up, then home to eat dinner and back out to go on a long bike trip which might include a visit to his sister in Pleasantview or Sue down at the city building. And this he did well into his eighties.

And though he loved life, one day we were taking a ride out to Silver Creek to go cross country skiing and he turned to me with tears in his eyes and said, “Do you know why I do all these things? I have to get it all in. Soon there will be nothing, this will all be over.” He truly believed that this life was all there was.

Now this is pretty serious stuff for a son who believes that all of this is temporary. It is nice and beautiful and enjoyable but is not the point of our existance. There is more life, more beauty, more joy yet to come and (I thought) my Father has no concept of it. He has no hope. For me this was sad and so I prayed for him in a special way every day that he would not live life merely in fear of death.

The first time I had an inkling that things might be different was when Mom died. Dad was destroyed; completely bereft. He may have not known Scripture but he did believe that they were one and part of him died when she died. It was made all the worse because he did not have the hope of a future meeting. For him his wife, Mom, simply ceased to exist. That was when Uncle Frank reported that he had taken Dad aside and prayed with him; perhaps the first time he had done so not under deress since he was a lad.

A few months later I was cleaning his house (something he was adament about not needing done) and I came across a prayer he had secreted away that someone sent in the mail. It asked for God’s help in belief. I quietly put it away. God and prayer were not topics about which we spoke civily.

Eventually it became clear that Dad needed constant attention and so he went to live at Pleasantview with his sister. (I must say that Pleasantview is an outstanding institution that bent way over backwords for Dad. I’ve yet to encounter a place that does so much for residents as this place did for Dad. Instead of medicating into oblivian they worked hard at just plain tuckering him out every day.) Every now and then I would ask him if he would like to be anointed (I didn’t want to force anything one him) and he would get a sour look on his face (a kin the look I might get if you ask me if I would like to have some fish) and flatly say, “No!”

I know some of my brother priests visited him from time and so I asked them to offer the sacraments to him should they be there in the off chance that he just did not want to receive them from his son. I thank you for your efforts.

It got to the point that I no longer asked or brought my oils with me. One day he was feeling particularly down and we had emptied our bag of tricks and so in an off hand way I said, “All that’s left is anointing Dad, I’m out of ideas.” “Okay,” he said. I was in shock. I said to my sister, “Keep him occupied, I am going to run out and get my oils before he changes his mind!” When we were done there was a quiet time and we could see him thinking. “Thank you,” he said in his most officious voice. That was amazing and my sister and I looked at each other with eyebrows raised.

Things began to change quite a bit after that. Dad was confused and could not understand what was the matter with him. His body in which he had put so much trust was turning on him. Once again, after everything else failed I said, “Well Dad, you could trying praying.” “Fine. How?” he asked in his gruff way in these matters. “Just ask God to help you.” “Fine. God help me. How’s that?” “That was a good start Dad.”

Then a couple of weeks ago I got the best present that Dad could give. Conversation was difficult. He could be right in the present or the very distant past. You could not ask what he had for lunch and he could not or would not talk about the future. So conversation was more of a monologue of current events from the speaker. I ran out of things to tell him and we sat quietly for a while and then I stood and said, “Well, Dad, I gotta go.” “Okay,” he said. But it didn’t seem quite right to end the conversation on that note and so on a whim, on my way out the door, I said, “God bless you Dad.” “John,” he said causing me to stop and turn, “God bless you too.” For a week I was in a daze. “Wow, I received my Father’s blessing.” This was something I never expected to receive and it was quite the thing to receive it.

Well, this is the way things stand; Dad died with the consolation of the sacraments and we rely on God’s mercy which I believe to be generous. The day before he died I told hom to say the prayer to the Sacred Heart to Whom our family has a particular devotion. “Just say, ‘Jesus, I trust you’ Dad. It is the most powerful prayer I know for you now.” And with that I put my trust in Him.

How appropriate then it seems to have buried Dad on the Feast of Saint Thomas. Doubting Thomas who would not believe until he put his finger into the wounds of Jesus’ hand and his hand into his side. Who know why or if there is a why Dad had to suffer so. But maybe he need to experience wounds, albeit his own, in order to believe and so be ready to go home.

In any event it just goes to show you never know. Never give up on a person. Never give up on love even for the seeming unlovable thereby becoming unloving yourself. Never give up on hope even with the hopeless. Never give up on faith even with the difficult cases. Everyone has their own journey and no two are alike. Some are hard and some are not. But I believe God never gives up on us no matter how “hard” we may be and we should, in turn, never give up on each other.

So Dad, we pray you find you way home and to joy and to God. May you find the best clouds to ski down and Mom to waltz with once more.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, we place our trust in You. Jesus meek and humble of heart, make our hearts, and especially that of the most troubled, like unto Thine.

THE DAY CLEVELAND ATE PIZZA

I’m sure you heard about the 23-cent pizza that Papa Johns was selling to Clevelanders yesterday. Everybody else did. I know because most of them were standing in our front lawn and filling our parking places.

I thought it might be fun to pop over the pizza joint and claim our 23-cent pizza for lunch and told the guys I would go over early and beat the crowd. HA! Take a look at this picture. This is the line from the pizza shop taken from my front window. From here it went down to the corner, turned, snaked through their parking lot and finally into the pizzeria.

My life is worth more than a couple of hours waiting for a 23-cent pizza.

But it got me thinking that maybe here is the marketing strategy that the Catholic Church needs to start employing. I mean, here was a large group of people who did not mind giving up an hour or so of their time, parking quite a distance away and walking to their destination on a misty day, and who did not mind standing in procession in an interminable line. It was like watching news reports of Cold War era Russia. And all for a cheap pizza that by today is only a memory save for the heartburn.

It would be easy to be snotty at this point. I am tempted. But the more I think about it the easier it is to think of the millions of faithful Catholics who are loyal to Christ every weekend and do the same. Getting to Mass is a hardship for some and sacrifices are made. This weekend in this parish alone about 1,600 people will stand in line to receive not pizza, but the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. The next day the effects of that Eucharist will not just be a memory but an active agent in the life of these faithful people and a down payment on the life to come. There is a lot of hope in that.

My urge to be snotty is a basic human desire for others to share in what I see as important. Yes, 23-cent pizza is fun; eternal life is better.

Come back and park here on Sunday. Find true nourishment.

GOOD NEWS IS NOT NEWS

Our bishop came to the Church of Saint Clare last night for confirmation. The priests were able to enjoy his company in private before hand for a little while and chat. One of the things that we discussed was the great faith of young people. It was awesome to see his eyes light up as he talked about the promise of the faith within young hearts and minds. Those who take the faith seriously take it very seriously and can be quite surprising in their insights and their longing for the true meat of faith.

We need to hear things like this. I am constantly surprised by the deep faith of people. DAILY. (Take just for example how many of you both knew what the Liturgy of the Hours was and PRAY it! I had no idea!) Yet all we hear about in the news is the dire predictions of the faith. “Mainstream Churches are dying on the vine!” they proclaim. “Catholicism may be holding steady, but that is only because of an influx of Catholic immigrants!” Maybe true.

If you are going to have a discussion about the faith somebody will bring up a horrible experience they had (which justifies them not practicing anymore.) Either they or they heard from about somebody who had a bad experience with a priest, or did not receive a service they wanted, or acted out of the boundaries of the Church and then claim victim status when there were repercussions. I could tell you such stories myself. But was has that to do with the Eucharist? What could possibly justify giving that up? Saints died rather than give that up.

A number of times over the past few months you have left comments or sent Emails telling about wonderful experiences that you have in the Church had and these have stuck with me. “The best confession I ever had,” “The life changing homily,” “ A great mass,” “The comfort of a prayer of the Church,” these stories may not have the dirt and gritty allure of the scandal story but we must share them. They give life.

All we tend to hear about are the sordid tales. After all that is what “news” is. That is what brings about the ratings both on network broadcasts and in the gossip circles blowing them all out of proportion. Yet for every trying incident there are multiple thousands of incidents that bring life and hope and joy.

These are the stories we must find a way to share.

GONE FISHING

Priests will not save the world. Well, they won't influence the guy you work with, or your friend at school, or your pen pal, or your Aunt Matilda into a deeper relationship with God or more active in church mostly because they don't see these people. I always find it amazing also that people are actully afraid of me because I am a priest. (Nobody was afraid of me in high school.) But that is why the new evangelization is so heavily reliant on relationships - the relationships you have with famiy and friends to bring them into the practice of faith. If you don't do it who will?

Here is a six minute video on why people do not share their faith.

We could aslo add #9: Because Miss Manners said it was impolite, though Monsignor Manners says it is perfectly alright.

Today we have a guest blogger. A young person yet she had many spiritual children. No longer afraid to bring up topics of faith she has brought people closer to Christ. And many of the people are those others might think too hard of a case to even try. I asked her to guest blog and tell about us about it.

Do you think you are one of the few who really WANT God? You know that YOU want to serve Him, but your best friend or that guy at the office…hmmm, not so much. When I was younger I believed what I saw on TV: people are callous, cool, beautiful, having a good time, and have no interest in God. It has taken me a lifetime to figure out that in the real world everyone is hungry for God. These are just a few stories of unlikely “seekers” I have met in my past.

I once went bowling with a bunch of friends that included a guy who was a hard core drug user. He flung his bowling ball into the wrong lane, still actually hit a pin or two, turned around, looked at us bug-eyed, stroked his hair back firmly with his fingers and growled, “I love this gaaaame!” I heard years later that he became a rather passionate Christian of some form, is currently clean….and is convinced he’s going to hell. Arrrrrg! I wish could tell him about confession.

I have a friend who scoffs at the faith but, by worldly standards, appears to have it all. I told him I was making a novena of masses leading up to Christmas. He humbly said, “Oh, good girl! Pray for me. I need it.” He can’t understand why he has everything, but still isn’t happy.

I dated a guy with a troubled past who never saw the inside of a church in his life. He told me that, even though I don’t believe in sex outside of marriage, if I think lust is wrong, I shouldn’t even be doing ‘X, Y, and Z’. He was right! Where did HE get an insight like THAT? I’ve heard through the grapevine of his hunger for faith. He’s an Augustine or an Aquinas waiting to happen.

I hung out with a band that I did a song with blasphemous lyrics. I told them I didn’t like the song for that reason, fully expecting they would tell me to buzz off because the song was really popular. They immediately agreed to stop doing it! I was good friends with their drummer, and once when he and I were alone at a bar, he started asking me about God. I barely discussed the subject because I thought he would think I was weird. Besides, it would put a damper on the ‘X, Y, & Z’ later that night. Oh, how I regret it!

I once told a friend that I pray for him every night, thinking he could care less. He stopped me, very seriously one night and said that was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to him.

I had a friend who was a creepy, womanizing alcoholic. One night he revealed to me that he always wanted to become Catholic so he could “do that thing that they do” – the sign of the cross!

I had a college friend whose life was full of chaos and who was hostile to the faith. I wanted to give him the “God talk”, but it always seemed like such a downer when we were having a good time. After years of separation, he made a surprise visit and I got my second chance to talk. He was enraptured! Turns out he married a very Christian girl and is surprised at how much fun he has with her very Christian family. I know he once thought that if he were with me, he could share my peace. Maybe now he will find his own.

I am always surprised at the reactions I get when I give away a scapular. I gave one to a delinquent teen and she put it on right away, OVER her shirt, without a shred of embarrassment. I gave one to a young man covered in tattoos and piercings, and he received it with such joy that he exclaimed, “Oh, I’m going to put it on right now!” My mentor at work lived a rather debauched life, but shortly before he died I gave him a scapular (we were at odds at the time personally) and he took it with the most angelic smile, wanting to know the details of how to wear it. A friend who claims he has abandoned the faith revealed to me that he carries one in his wallet. When my niece was little she told me, “If I had one of those, I would wear it all the time!” but I didn’t want her to get snide comments from her peers (like I had), so I didn’t give it to her. I hope I am making it up to her now.

These are just a few stories; I could tell dozens more. In hindsight, I have learned some very specific things about God and human beings. This is what I know:
1) EVERYONE is hungry for God.
2) Ignorance, not hostility, keeps most people away from Him.
3) Intelligence - faith = insanity
4) The world is crawling with wanna-be priests.
5) Poor catechesis “inoculates” Catholics against the faith.
6) People who have had no religion at all in their lives gratefully devour the faith (now I know why Jesus preferred thieves and prostitutes)
7) Truth does its own work – people are attracted to it even if the messenger is lousy
8) If I were a nun I think I would walk past public schools wearing a sandwich board saying “If you are hungry for God, follow me”. Filling the Catholic churches would be like shooting fish in a barrel.
9) Same goes for juvenile detention centers for girls. With a little catechesis, you could paint a new sign over the center that reads “Sisters of the Holy Eucharist”.
10) The most inspiring words are just seeds on rocky ground if you don’t stay involved in friends’ spiritual lives. Talk to them. Give them books. Invite them to mass or confession with you. Encourage them to watch EWTN. Make sure they know that no problem is so awful that you won’t listen and help if you can.
11) The greatest deterrents to holiness are discouragement and exaggerated anxiety. (I lifted that quote from St. Faustina’s diary). This is the only thought that keeps me brave against the world.

I let a lot of people down in my past because I was too cowardly to talk about my faith. About two years ago I had my breakthrough moment when I ignored my fears and spoke openly about my faith when asked. Life has been “interesting” ever since. I am writing this just after a party hosted by the girlfriend who unwittingly unleashed the missionary in me, and who is soon to be my goddaughter. I was surprised at the end of the party when Jeff said not to forget him during all the good-bye hugs. He’s a drummer in a rock band, covered with scary tattoos, and has that low, droning voice that says, “Dude, I smoke LOTS of weed.” I’ve been told, to my surprise, that he’s been on a desperate search for God in recent years. At one point he was willing to give the devil a chance, if meant he would get some peace. Last I heard, he was a Jehovah’s Witness. You never know who’s hungry. I’m still watching for my opportunity to get my meat hooks in his soul. Say a prayer for me and my spiritual babies, guys!