The
question we must answer is "if Catholicism offers a better way, why don't
Catholics' lives seem any better?"
If
we believe our faith and action in this life has eternal consequences, why
don't we act like it? If our relationship with God is truly the most important
relationship, why don't our daily schedules reflect that? If our marriages and
families are our greatest blessings, why do we sacrifice them for our careers? Any
honest outsider can surely tell that we can't possibly believe what we say we
believe. Not only is our religion a fraud, but so are we Christians. That's
what Catholics as a whole communicate about Catholicism.
If
you are waiting for the institutional Church to stem the tide and fix this
problem, you're missing the point.
What
nobody else can do like the Catholic Church does: Create saints. Saints are
beacons of Christ. They are the tangible fruits of the sacraments. How many
saints is your parish creating? That is the ultimate metric.
A
saint is a powerful weapon in this culture war. They are compelling from every angle.
They need few words to be understood. They need no defense. They need no money,
glory or fame. They have but to be themselves and the world can't help but
change.
But
we've gotten bad at making saints because we've gotten bad at teaching by
example. The best teachers show. As children we learn more by what we see our
parents do than any words they ever say. We've forgotten this when it comes to
handing on the faith.
My
parents' generation left the Church without leaving the pews. And now they
wonder why their kids find it silly to stand in the pews of a church they never
really understood professing creeds they never really believed. So we find
ourselves scrambling for ways to teach the truth. To instruct the ignorant.
Demanding orthodoxy, we attack all the symptoms without really getting to the
heart.
Instead
of lecturing people that they have to go to Sunday Mass, inspire them to want
to go. Instead of telling them to dress more appropriately for Mass, give them
something worth dressing up for. Instead of talking about how beautiful the
faith is, show them its beauty.
If
we want the world to take Catholicism seriously, we must first take it
seriously ourselves. That means making radical changes to the ways we live our
lives. We need saints. Not just saints of the past, but your sainthood. When
the world sees you, they don't have to see a saint, but at least let them see a
sinner set on sainthood. They should see Christ radiating authentically and
naturally from every move we make. If they can't, we need to shut up and stop
talking about what's wrong with everyone else and we need to start living a
more compelling life.
Each
of us have been called to live a radical life. To be a saint.
