One day, after work, a friend of mine asked me if I could give him a ride home. As we were driving we got on the topic of religion. He told me that he used to be a christian but left. He was telling me how he didn’t like all the different denominations. Methodists, Evangelicals, Baptists, etc. I told him that I was raised Catholic but chose to continue to live it. He said “Now you see, you’re Catholic because that’s what you’re comfortable with." I couldn’t help but laugh, and he looked really confused and asked what was so funny. I looked at him, still chuckling, and said, “I’m not comfortable being Catholic, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done”.
Why did I choose to be Catholic? Quite honestly I ask myself this question multiple times, sometimes daily. Sometimes after a long Saturday, getting to bed late, and waking up early to go to church, that question pops up, “what am I doing? Why am I going?”. However, I have to remind myself why I love being Catholic. Being Catholic means I am part of something massive. We have such a rich history, with thousands of saints, artists, wars, persecution, and kingdoms. According to our belief, we are the completion of God’s work within the Jewish religion. God laid down the foundations with Judaism, and completed it with Catholicism. So technically, our history can be extended into Jewish history (although not as personal as the Jews, you get the point.)
Along with our rich history, we have a universal culture (get it?). Anywhere I go, throughout the world, there’s most likely a Catholic church there. In a foreign land, surrounded by foreign people, I can walk into that church, and I immediately feel at home again. I’ve been fortunate and blessed enough to travel to Portugal, Spain, and France, and every place I went I felt like a tourist (I hate feeling like a tourist). However, whenever we stepped foot into a Catholic church, I belonged there. I was a part of this building, even if it was turned into a museum, I belonged there.
There’s a lot of good, a lot of awesome, stuff about being Catholic. If I were to write every good thing about Catholicism…well, I wouldn’t stop writing. There’s a lot of challenges with being Catholic, especially considering our calling. We are told that we are “to be in the world, but not of the world”. What probably comes to mind for a lot of people is our “rules”. I always find this a funny excuse of why people left the Catholic Church. Truthfully, I don’t even see them as rules. God gave us 10 rules, known as the Ten Commandments. When most people read them, they’re like “Well, duh! of course you’re not supposed to kill people." Well, when I look at the “rules” the Church sets up, I think “duh!” That being said, peer pressure is still real. Dealing with personal temptations is difficult enough, and society just makes it harder. It is as though what you’re trying to stay away from is creeping up on you, everywhere. You feel like you’re behind enemy lines, except the enemy knows that, and they’re just playing with you. I’m madly in love with my God, with the Church, and Her teachings. However, I’m just like any other person. I’m human, I make mistakes, I fall, I give in.
Aside from the temptations that I endure, which are expected, there's the opposition I receive from all types of people. “Oh…you’re…Catholic? Well, I’m a Christian." Last time I checked, there wasn’t a difference. *sigh* It also gets kind of annoying when I have to constantly clear up misunderstandings about my faith. “Oh, you worship a goddess, right?” “You are crazy," “You’re blinded by an outdated ideology," or “You’re sheltered." These, and many more comments I have personally received, some from my own family. Yet those don't bother me that much. One of the hardest things I had to learn to deal with is the hatred I receive from people for just being a Catholic. I’m silenced because of my religious beliefs. I remember one time on Facebook (what a glorious platform) when I got in a little scuffle with some people who were pro-choice. This guy joined in and noticed my profile picture. I was wearing my school’s T-shirt (Franciscan University) and was holding my camera. He took the picture, wrote "Religious education doesn’t count in real life,” all over, and shared it all over the Internet. I couldn’t help but laugh (St. Thomas Aquinas wouldn’t be impressed with his “education”). I’m silenced, made fun of, looked down upon and hated all because I profess my faith in God. We don’t do much to people, all we want to try is share with the world the beauty found within our church.
Now, I can’t complain about how I am treated, since Christians across the ocean are being treated much worse. We, Catholics, have lived through a lot. Persecution upon persecution. Empire after empire has tried to tear us down, yet, we are still going strong. Today, we are going through some of the worst persecution in our entire history. What’s worse is that my brothers and sisters are being killed every single day (those under Rome and who belong to the East) in the most brutal ways possible, just for being Christian; and most of the world doesn’t even care.
Yet, despite all the hardships, I love it. I belong to a church, a living body that does not just exist among the living, but is composed of the dead. I am part of a legacy. We have stories to be told, lessons to be shared, proverbs to be printed onto a dinner plate in grandma’s cabinet that no one is allowed to use. I don’t care when people trash talk me, hate me, “offend me." They’ve tried to kill us since the very beginning, by killing my King. Well, guess what? He’s alive again. So who’s really the winner in the end?
