Should I Stay or Should I Go? (Part B-Helping Yourself)

Yesterday, I posted about keeping others from leaving the Church. With this post, I want to focus on keeping yourself in the Church.

I sometimes worry about myself. I love Christ, and the way He is revealed through the Eucharist, but sometimes I wonder if I'm always going to be this faithful. My friend tells me constantly that he is sure I'll be an atheist one day, to which I always reply, "And I'm sure you'll be Catholic." I pray I'm right.

I feel like there are two main reasons people leave the Church: their own doubt and the 'hypocrisy'  (every Christian's favorite word) of others. So, I'm focusing on those two reasons.

Keep in mind this is not an in-depth analysis. Questions about church teaching and problems with the 'hypocrisy' should always be brought to a priest. Or even better, 2-3.

In my short few years of life, I've experienced and seen doubt firsthand. Let me assure you, doubt is a natural human reaction that can be helpful. Particularly when you receive an email from an exiled Nigerian prince. We see these emails as ridiculous claims, partially because Nigeria isn't a monarchy, but mostly because a prince contacting you is too good to be true. Something else that is too good to be true? An all powerful being descending from paradise to our crappy planet, taking our form, living as a peasant, subjecting Himself to ridicule, and dying the most horrific death ever known to man so we can live with Him in paradise...but wait there's more. Then he RISES FROM THE DEAD, FLIES to heaven, makes Himself present in bread and wine, and establishes an indestructible Church so He can always be with us. Oh, and He left us with a vessel to be forgiven again and again because he KNEW we'd keep sinning.

Every sin we commit hurts God. All He had to do was turn His back. But He did all of this, created an ever-expanding universe, just to be with us.

It's more unbelievable than a Nigerian Prince, am I right.

So, what was the point of that insane monologue? Doubt is understandable. Christ knew we'd need proof of His divinity, which is why he performed so many miracles. So the glory of God could be shown through them. There's an entire section of the Gospel of John dedicated to these miracles called the "Book of Signs," these signs were written down to point to Christ's divinity.

"But don't just take my Word for it," then Jesus gives us His Body. Eucharists exists as a proof of Christ, and God's existence. Eucharist sets Catholicism apart from other Christian religions, and has been given to us as another sign.

The reason why I'm saying all of this is to give you an idea of where the truth in Catholicism lies. The Church wasn't founded on the idea of not letting gay people be married, or not letting people get abortions. The Church wasn't even founded on an idea, period. The Church was founded on a person; Jesus Christ. Her teachings stem from the teachings of Christ, and branch off in different directions, like a tree. Sometimes, one branch by itself can be confusing, but remember: that branch is connected to another, and another, and is ultimately rooted in Christ.

The Church has been around for 2000 years, which is 1900 years longer than the oldest person who could possibly be reading this. We so often say that the times have changed, but that idea conflicts with the fact that humans nature has never changed. Even though we have different technology and ideas, my human nature is the same as the twelve apostles. If you doubt a teaching of the Church, know that that teaching has been around for a VERY long time, and has been reviewed, contemplated, and studied. Nothing is there by accident and certainly not ignorance. So, study the reason behind the teaching and pray to understand it more clearly

But when all else fails remember: The teaching is rooted in Christ. And we should be as well.

Also, don't feel overly guilty about doubting. St. Thomas (the poster child of doubt) ended up traveling further than any of the other apostles, spreading the gospel as far as India. All because his doubts were satisfied.

Hypocrisy: the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense

Now that that definition is out of the way, let's talk about its usage. 'Hypocrite' comes from the Greek word  hupokrisis  thich means "to play a part." Christ used the term a lot to describe the 'devout' Jews that would pray on the street corners to make sure people saw them. Christ teaches us that our true measure of faith comes from what we do behind closed doors, or within ourselves.

Remember, Jesus said "Hypocrites pray on street corners," not "everyone who prays on a street corner is a hypocrite."

So many times in today's culture, people who are vocal about their faith are called hypocrite because they were caught *GASP* sinning. Everybody sins, guys. Everybody has their faults. You become a hypocrite when you act like you have no faults but indulge yourself in sinful behavior when no one is watching.

So, hypocrisy has to do with what happens when no one is watching. So how are we able to tell when someone is a hypocrite?! Hint: You can't.

The sad, yet comforting, truth is you will NEVER know everything about someone no matter how hard you try. Even if someone is swearing like a sailor, they could have a heart of gold. Noe, they need to fix that mouth...but who are you to judge?

In fact, judging is sometimes what makes the boy cry 'hypocrite!' Sometimes we feel judged by a Christian and we feel alienated (and rightly so.) But if you know who Christ is, you know He doesn't judge, and that person who is being judgmental needs more of Christ. So pray for them. Don't let it push you away from your faith and love for Christ. If you feel a push away from something, its not God. Christ never pushes. He leads.

I posted about the term "Quo Vadis" the other day. Peter was fleeing Rome, but Christ appeared and led Peter back. God was calling Peter to be a martyr, but Peter didn't hear this call because he was too bus giving in to the push. Christ never pushes us away from things, he leads us to greater things.

I have a friend who has said he is leaving my youth group, which isn't the same as leaving the Church. But when I asked him where he was going, he said he didn't know. That's how I knew his calling wasn't from God. He felt pushed because of the attitude of some people in the ministry, but like I said before, everyone is fighting their battles with sin. Don't let one person (or even thousands) dissuade you from following the path Christ has for you.

God bless,
Patrick

Should I Stay or Should I Go? (Part A-Helping Others)

Hello, everyone!

So, I've been pondering lately, which according to a certain animated film is a dangerous past time.

I am part of a leadership team in my youth group and on our recent leadership retreat I wondered something: How inviting are we?

If you are someone who reaches out to people and evangelizes regularly, you know that sometimes its easy to go talk to the quiet kid and bring them into the conversation, after all, they're not as threatening. Also it makes us feel good.

But what about the rest? The people we see every day? Its a shame when people leave the Church, but an interesting statistic is: 100% of people who leave the Church, were, at one point, in the Church.

There are countless stories of people who were on fire for their faith, but for some reason, that flame was choked. A lot of it is on their part, but there are some things we can do.



I'm going to tell a story now, of a boy who was in youth group for three years. He loved Jesus with all of his heart, and was a dedicated leader. One weekend, he went on a leadership retreat (this story actually happened by the way). On this retreat, the boys were separated from the group to make dinner for everyone. Of course, on this retreat, the adults made every activity a learning experience. (This story is now going to switch to first person.)

While the rest of the guys were making dinner, I watched our youth minister pull that boy I was talking about out of the kitchen without anyone noticing. He whispered something in the boy's ear and the boy sat down at a table. It was a test.

The test was to see how long it took for the boy to be invited back. Now, this boy was well-known and people noticed he was gone immediately. In fact he made eye contact with another guy in the kitchen. No one did anything. The guys in the kitchen picked up his slack while he sat there, bored, and they started talking about him.

After five minutes, they all were talking about him being gone. At seven, they were laughing about it and calling him lazy. At eleven minutes they all unanimously laughed about how his laziness would cause him to not eat dinner. After fifteen they finally invited him back, still not sure.

What really broke my heart was that even after they found out it was a test, they still made fun of him, even punishing him for being able to sit at the table for fifteen minutes. After a series of kind of mean jokes, and desperate attempts to deflect them, he was getting pretty angry.

What started out as a test turned out into a reflection of attitude of the group. I was really disappointed in them. This kid who sat off by himself was being made fun of even though he didn't have a choice. I asked the guys later, "Is that how we treat new kids in our youth group?"

One replied, "No we just thought John was being John. We thought he was sitting there because he was lazy. It's different."

Was it different, though? Sometimes, we as Catholics are too quick to judge. Sometimes, we even judge the people we know very well. What the group didn't think about was, what if John was having a really bad day and he came to youth group to try to get away from it? What if that was his breaking point?

We, as Christians, need to be welcoming of everyone. Even the people who we think are already in it for good. Because, like I said before, 100% of Catholics who leave the Church belonged to the Church at one point.

If we aren't helping people get to Christ, we're hurting them. If we mess up and are judgmental and unwelcoming, then God has to send someone else to clean up the mess we made in that person's life. We need to be a bridge to walk across, not a wall to get over.

One way to do this is to embrace our private faith life more than our public prayer life. I met Jason Evert once, and asked him how he became a prominent preacher of his faith. He told me this:

"Your faith is like a skyscraper. What the people see can be dazzling and spectacular, but the foundation, what they don't see, must be rooted deeper than the tower is tall." -Jason Evert 

So, in your efforts to evangelize your community, remember to make your personal faith life deeper than it is tall. And honestly, the best way to do that is to pray.

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." -1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Contemplate that verse, (and better yet, take it to prayer), keeping in mind that the best way to pray without ceasing is to set aside specific times to pray. It sounds strange, but trust me.

God Bless,
Patrick

PS: Part B is coming. I just have to go to rehearsal first. Yay! School's back in session! (slight (heavy) sarcasm)

Quo Vadis/A Simple Thought

"Quo Vadis?"

I just returned from a retreat in my diocese called Quo Vadis, which is Latin for "where are you going?" Traditionally, these are the words that Jesus spoke when He appeared to Peter on his way out of Rome, attempting to escape death. Jesus was entering the city, carrying His cross. Upon hearing these words, Peter returned to Rome, embracing his martyr's death for Christ.

Heavy stuff, right?

It seems that priesthood is like that. Taking on a burden and being like Christ, even to the point of sharing in the way He died. It's definitely not for the faint of heart or the weak in spirit. (Maybe the meek of heart and the poor in spirit.)

There is a lot of talk about celibacy, obviously, being a rather large part of the priesthood. In the early years of my discernment, it was the biggest stumbling block. It seems, however, that the people who truly embrace celibacy are the happiest people.

Maybe sex isn't the quintessence* of human existence. Maybe loving in the way Christ did (and does) trumps 'loving' the way the world tells us to love. Huh. Imagine that.

(*That may have been a Secret Life of Walter Mitty reference. (It was.) Good flick. Check it out.)

Anyways. I plan on writing more on celibacy. My seminarian friends had a lot of beautiful things to say about it.

Oh yeah! I'm back, by the way.

My main reason for not posting as much, is it takes a lot of time to research and write full length, life-changing articles. Particularly because I am one person on a tiny little blog. (A "voice crying out in the wilderness," if you will.)

While on this discernment retreat (I brought it up for a reason). I remembered that we're all called to sainthood, and we're supposed to use our gifts accordingly. As I wrote this down in my journal full of awesome adoration/mass/reconciliation/etc experiences, I realized I'm not sharing that part of me, and I'm not using those gifts.

So I'm back.

What I recently realized is a lot of Catholic Anons (on twitter) have blogs, and they just post about their lives as Catholics. Maybe that's what I can do.  I am, after all, a Catholic with a life (or what I think is a life) and I have a blog. So why not use it?

My 'simple thought' is this: Maybe not every word out of my mouth, or blog, has to be profound. After all, saints didn't always speak in eloquent verse or colloquial sayings. They talked like people, and demonstrated their faith in a way that made them relatable to other people.

So, I hope I'm relatable enough for you. Thank you for reading!

God bless,
Patrick

P.S. It seems like I always get back into my blog in August. Please pray for my diligence in this endeavor. Thanks!