I'm going to be straight-up. Being a Catholic is hard. Being a Catholic while in college is even harder. Pope Francis calls upon the youth of the Catholic community to not be afraid to outwardly live out their faith. He says, “Do not be content to live a mediocre Christian life: walk with determination along the path of holiness.” The determination in faith of college Catholic students tends to decrease when they move away from home and start school. When you go to college, you're exposed to a whole different world that's full of so many different belief systems than the community in which you grew. Because of this, you start to question everything that you were taught to believe, and begin to stray away from your Catholic faith. As college students, how can we maintain our faith when our peers and new friends don't believe in the same things?
As Catholics, we should not be ashamed or embarrassed of our faith. As Catholics, we should be shouting the word of God from the tops of the academic buildings so that everyone can hear. Question: Why are we so afraid to share our faith with others? Answer: We are afraid to be judged. We are afraid that the people around us will harshly judge us and our entire belief system if they believe that we're even slightly different than them. But think about it this way: Would you rather stand with God and be judged by the world, or stand with the world and be judged by God? Being different from your peers and sharing your faith is an extremely hard thing to do, especially while in college when you're trying to reinvent yourself and be your own person. But I ask you again, who are we as Catholics supposed to be living our lives for? God, or the people around us?
What college-aged Catholics don't know is that our generation is extremely important in the growth of the Catholic faith. It's believed that the Catholic youth have proved to be the most influential generation in the Catholic community. By being more involved in our faith, we have caused an overwhelming influx of new youth coming into the Church. So, I'm calling upon every single college-aged Catholic to outwardly live your faith, to not only spark a change in the world, but to spark a change in your own heart.
