Live the Faith So Others Can See Christ

There was a time in a parish back in Maryland when a retreat program was started to help parishioners know each other better and build communities of friendship. In that setting, I was grateful for the chance to meet one person in particular, my friend Marlene, who died of pancreatic cancer two years ago.

She was different from me, who approached the faith more intellectually, and I was taken aback at how this woman with no formal catechesis lived the language of Christ’s love. She was a practicing Catholic but had very little understanding of the details of Catholicism. Marlene simply lived charity among all around her.

The beauty of the faith that this woman exuded was magnetic. Her care for others and willingness to understand where others were coming from left them feeling at peace. When I met her daughter years later, I saw these same attributes of kindness, gentleness and generosity. However, her daughter was not a practicing Catholic and had distanced herself from the faith, seemingly disillusioned by the behavior and attitudes of some practicing Catholics.

The Catholic faith means everything to me. Christ died on a cross for my salvation and came down to earth to found the Catholic Church for all people. Through the sacraments, I am divinized as he allows me to share in his very life. Thus, it was painful to see this daughter of my friend, and many Americans like her, reject the Church and Christianity because of perceived failures in how people are treated by some today.

I am thankful that several of our Jewish brethren in academia have stood up to the challenge of defending human rights, but saddened that this role is not being played by many foremost Catholic apologists. Our silence is noticed by those already tempted not to go to Mass in an increasingly secularized world.

I, too, am very interested in getting absorbed in the details of what we believe, and I have encouraged others for years to learn more about the Catholic faith, particularly in the writings of the early Church Fathers. Still, I sense that for many today, simply knowing about God’s love is just not enough. If we really are Christians, and especially Catholics, many people want to see us practice that faith on behalf of the good of others.

How many of us are like St. Thomas More, ready to speak up for what is right in defense of the love of God? I, too, cringe at the thought of “getting my hands dirty” and standing alone. But I know that Jesus is with me when I do, together with the Blessed Mother and a whole army of the communion of saints. I am the beloved daughter of God the Father. He has my back, and he will bring good out of even my well-intentioned mistakes.

“The Christian life is a sacrifice” is a saying I’ve never forgotten. More than 40 years ago, it was much more difficult to even talk about the sin of abortion in many parishes. Thankfully, we have changed that practice by making it easy now to acknowledge that abortion is murder and to work more openly through fundraisers in support of crisis pregnancy, thereby ameliorating the effects of an unplanned pregnancy. More Catholics are speaking up against euthanasia and the death penalty — these are improvements in living the faith that we can be proud of. The Holy Spirit is clearly working in the Catholic Church. But can we allow this same love for life to be extended to lives at all stages in between and be a voice for the poor denied basic human rights?

I believe that we can, and I’m thankful for the strong voices of several of our bishops. We believe in the power of the divine life given to us in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist. As Catholics, we are blessed to live in the fullness of faith and have this power to spread the love of God and neighbor within our parishes and take it forward positively in our country.

God has great plans for us. Let’s share what we’ve been given and be the example that will inspire others to come home to the Catholic Church.