Catholic Faith Space
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Let’s talk about truth. In the world we live in, truth has been crumpled up and thrown out the window. We live in a culture of moral relativism. If someone believes something that is contradictory to the truth, we dare not say anything unless we want to be labeled as “bigoted or hateful.” We are told we need to agree with everyone and all beliefs, all in the name of tolerance and acceptance. After all, we might offend someone. For Catholics and people of faith, this is dangerous. As followers of Jesus, we cannot withhold the truth from others. We are called to dig into the truth of our faith and the Church’s teachings and share with others.
There is a common misconception among many people that having strong beliefs is “imposing your religion on others.” You’ve probably heard it before. “Don’t like abortion? Don’t get one.” Don’t like same-sex marriage? Just ignore it.” “Don’t like contraception? Don’t use it.” The list goes on and on. The Catholic Church has strong, clear teachings on topics such as these. It is not a matter of simply not liking these things. The Church tells us what is morally unacceptable and through scripture and tradition, God reveals truth, beauty, and goodness to us. Defending our faith in these times is vital, but it is not easy. We often like to be comfortable. Maybe we don’t want to upset anyone. We might not want to offend anyone. We would rather just go along with the culture and hide our beliefs. People are free to do whatever they want as long as it’s not hurting anyone, right? Well, not exactly. When Catholics decide they can reject certain teachings in order to not offend anyone, this can lead to a slippery slope. Picking and choosing to believe certain teachings of the Church but disagreeing with others can give a flimsy and weak representation of the Church and our faith. Christ is far from flimsy and weak. Our world tells us to love everyone. If only it really understood what love is. We cannot love without truth and we cannot share truth without love. If we really love those around us, we will share the truth with them. If we want to fully embrace Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Church, we will proclaim the truth boldly. It will probably offend people. The truth is offensive to our politically correct culture. People will leave and reject you. When this seems too difficult, think of Jesus and how He preached truth. I like to think of John Chapter 6, known as the Bread of Life Discourse. “Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” As a result of this, many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” (John 6:53, 59-60, 66-67). This is how far Jesus was willing to go to tell the truth. He accepted the consequences and did not back down, even when His teachings were met with confusion and questions. He did not soften the truth, even when it meant people would turn away. There’s a quote from Mother Angelica that sums it up pretty well. She says, “It’s your obligation to speak the truth, and everyone can either take it or leave it. But truth must be in us. We live in such poverty of the truth today.” If we are truly convicted of our beliefs, we must not be complacent. When the world is going one way, we are called to walk the other way. We are not called to be “tolerant and accepting.” We are, however, called to be loving. And that means sharing truth in a world that is lost and confused. Let’s get to it!
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Yesterday, I was looking back at previous pages in a journal, reading over notes I had taken during the talks at the SEEK 2019 Conference. (SEEK is a conference put on by FOCUS where thousands of college students from all over the country come together to pray, worship, and listen to nationally known Catholic speakers.) I came across a quote I had written down from a talk by Edward Sri and it really hit me over the head. It was almost as if God was calling me out. The quote was, “We make time for the things that are most important. Prayer is not about feelings, it’s about faithfulness. Love is not about feelings, it’s about faithfulness. Do you love Jesus enough to show up and pray when you don’t feel it?” I began thinking about prayer. Do I pray as much as I should? Do I continue to pray, even when I don’t “feel” anything? Do I love Jesus enough to pray when I don’t feel like it?
We can form a lot of habits in our lives. Some of them might be waking up at the same time every day, drinking plenty of water, and sitting down at the kitchen table every night to eat a big bowl of ice cream. It’s easy to be consistent in these things. We probably do not even have to think twice about our daily routines. What about our prayer lives? When it comes to prayer, there are a lot of questions we can ask. Are we consistent? Do we make it a priority? Is it a strong habit? One great thing about prayer is that we can pray throughout our whole day, at any random time and in whatever we may be doing. However, it is also important to take a chunk of time out of each day to just be with God one-on-one and deepen our relationships. God knows all of our thoughts, desires, and fears. He knows everything that is in our hearts but still wants us to bring it all to Him. God wants us to pour ourselves out and in return, He wants to pour His love out onto us. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, not always. We are busy. We don’t hear God. We don’t feel anything. It’s boring and dry. We don’t know if He hears us. Since we are human, these thoughts can easily pop into our minds. This is when we need to stop and refocus. We need to remind ourselves that a relationship with God is not about feelings. It’s about growing closer to Him. It’s about love and sacrifice. Do we love God enough to show up and pray even when we don’t feel like it? God showed up for us 2,000 years ago and he shows up for us now, in every moment of every day. Prayer doesn’t need to be extravagant. We can just be. We can take a break from the hustle and bustle of the world and listen in silence. Take some time today and every day to sit still and rest in His presence. Whenever work is really hectic and things get crazy, I always think about how grateful I am that I do not have to do everything alone. There is a team of people working together to get various tasks and projects done. A normal day involves everyone filling in their part. Some days you give more and other days you give less and coworkers always step in to do whatever it takes to complete the work. Coworkers help you along through the work day, encourage you when you need some inspiration and motivation on a project, and give you what is needed to get it done. I think this is a lot like life and our journeys of faith.
Looking at my journey of faith over time and reflecting on the growth I have experienced, one factor that comes to mind immediately is community. In a world that tells us it’s better to be completely independent and do everything on our own, I am reminded that what truly sustains me and deepens my faith is the community of people who are striving to know and love Jesus more deeply each day. It is overwhelming to think about the number of people who have guided me in faith and who continue to do so. So many people have inspired me and encouraged me through their willingness to share their love for God and their excitement for the Catholic faith. I am continually amazed at the countless people who care about where I’m at and where I’m going. They share their knowledge, wisdom, personal stories, and offer up prayers for me. Walking this journey of faith would be impossible if I had to do it on my own. It’s a good thing we are not asked to do it alone. God created us to live in relationship with one another. We truly need each other if we want to grow in faith. We need the witness of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to see how Christ is working in their lives. We need to hear their stories of how He has touched their hearts in both big and small ways. Being Catholic is not always easy, especially in today’s culture. In fact, we will be persecuted and challenged. After all, Jesus was. We will have struggles and experience suffering. We need prayers and support from those around us. The opportunity to be in communion with others is all around us. First and foremost, we have the gift of worshipping God together in the Mass every week. There is a lot of power in that. Aside from the Mass, there are retreats, conferences, Bible studies and faith sharing groups that we can partake in that allow us to build connections with other members of the Body of Christ. Everyone has something to offer that no one else can. We are part of other people’s journeys and that is a beautiful thing. In this individualistic world, people are desperate for community. Striving to grow in holiness and walk the straight and narrow path is hard. Having other people walking with you is less hard. Don’t be afraid to lean into your faith community. Let them laugh with you, cry with you, pray with you and for you. Let them experience joy, excitement, pain, and sadness with you. Let them teach you, guide you, and help you grow closer to Jesus. Today, take some time to thank God for the people in your faith community and pray that everyone would enter into the community that we were made for! Are you happy? This is a question that we are often bombarded with on a regular basis. Everyone wants the people they care about to be happy and they want to be happy themselves. Being happy is great, but there is something better. That something is joy. When looking at happiness and joy side by side, it becomes easy to see why joy is what we really want to pursue.
Happiness is an emotion that is a response to different experiences we may have. A job can make us happy. Traveling can make us happy. Eating donuts can make us happy. We should enjoy these types of things because they are good and God wants us to be happy. However, what happens when these things are gone? If happiness is all that we focus on, what happens when these things are taken away or changed? A job we like can be stripped away at any time. Trips don’t last forever and traveling can be limited. The pleasure of a freshly baked donut only lasts until we have taken the last bite and all that remains are the crumbs. Happiness is a feeling that changes and moves throughout our lives as we experience different moments and all of the ups and downs of life. While happiness is fleeting and temporary, joy can be found more deeply within us and it is what we can always count on. As Christians, we are able to have joy in all circumstances. We can have joy even in our challenges, struggles, and suffering. This is possible when we stay focused on Christ. If we look at every period of our lives through eyes of faith, we will be able to experience true joy, even during times of difficulty. A beautiful thing about joy is that we can see it in other people. There are people who radiate joy just by being who they were created to be. It is something easy to notice in others. Encountering people who have joy is amazing because it is usually contagious. People have joy because they know Christ and are aware of the love He has for them and they let themselves be filled by His love. We are deeply and perfectly loved by Jesus. That is a cause for joy! We are called to have joy and share it with others so that they may see a light in us and be inspired to know Jesus in a deeper way. My prayer for each day is that when people see me, they see a joyful witness of Christ’s love. |
AuthorStriving to share hope, joy, God's love, and all of the good stuff, one blog post at a time. Categories |
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