It’s extremely hard to describe in few words what it means to be a Catholic, especially for me. Not because I lack an understanding of my own religion, but because it is so incredibly rich and complex. Even certain facets of Catholicism are simply incomprehensible by nature, due to the physical and spiritual limitations of the human mind. To put things into perspective, I want you to imagine that you’re an expert on Calculus. You know it inside and out. You live and breathe Calculus on a daily basis. One day, someone comes up to you and says, “I’d like you to teach me Calculus.” You say, “Sure thing!” Then the individual says, “However, you only have five minutes to teach me everything you know.”
That’s what describing Catholicism is like.
Since I currently don’t have the time to write a thousand-page book on the subject, I’ve decided to put into words the values I've obtained from being a Catholic man that have been most influential and crucial throughout my life. They are: Sacrifice, Love, and Faith. Hopefully, this will give you a glimpse of what I truly believe, and how I live.
I remember when I was sixteen I was experiencing a substantial amount of mental anguish. As a boy that had been raised in a Tridentine Roman Catholic household, I couldn’t help but feel completely alienated by the actions of my peers, who drank heavily, did hard drugs, indulged in sexual activities, and, in some cases, dropped out of school entirely. I brought the issue to my mother, hoping to get some clarity. She explained many things to me about life, but one thing she said stuck out to me. She told me, “Being Catholic is not easy. It never will be. You have to die to yourself, every day.” At first, I didn’t understand what she meant because I couldn’t apply it properly to my own life at that time. I was too focused on my own “problems.” However, after growing up a bit more and being out on my own for a while, I think I finally understand. “Dying to self” means sacrificing the pleasures of daily life for the sake of something greater than yourself. It’s giving your lunch to a homeless man when you’re hungry, spending time in prayer when you’d rather be somewhere else, or choosing to abstain from sexual activity in the face of temptation. It promotes discipline and, from what I’ve found, is one of the noblest things a person can do.
Love, however, was a million times harder to learn than sacrifice. As a Catholic, you are expected to “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” I spent several years of my life with hatred in my heart towards countless people, wishing the most horrific things I could upon them. I was angry all the time. At one point, it was so bad that it even affected my physical well-being, causing me to become depressive, lethargic, and even to lose my appetite. It wasn’t until I made a conscious effort to be loving that I was finally able to escape those feelings and that mindset. However, I would occasionally fall back into that pit, and back to my old ways of thinking. That cycle continues to this day for me.
It is hard to love, and easy to hate. Anger and hatred are emotions that come naturally to all humans. They are hardwired into our psychological make-up, finding their roots within the most animalistic regions of our brains. Whenever you attempt to love in the face of hate, you are fighting against those primal emotions. At times, it can be like trying to hold back the force of a tsunami with a piece of printer paper. That is why it is so hard. However, that is also why it is so worth it. So much wrong occurs when we give into hate and anger. It blurs the lines of morality and robs us of our humanity. Choosing to love is the only thing that keeps us human and can allow our souls to be saved.
Lastly, there’s Faith. We hear that word tossed around all the time when religion is discussed. It’s defined by most as “trust,” or “believing in something even when faced with disbelief,” which are both acceptable definitions. However, not many people know what it’s like to have spiritual faith. For those people, I have another definition that makes things a little easier to understand. Faith is surrendering yourself to God; “yourself” being everything you desire to have control over. As a Catholic, having faith is a focal point of what I believe in. For example, I must have faith that God knows what’s best for me in life and will guide me down the right path. To have that kind of faith, I need to surrender all my anxieties, my stresses, and my worries over to God. I need to trust that no matter what happens in my life, God will provide me with what I truly need, even if it isn’t what I expect.
From the way I wrote this article, it sounds like I learned about each of these values one after the other, but that is not the case. That was just to make things easier for your brain to process. You see, the most beautiful thing, and sometimes the most annoying thing about these values is that they are all interconnected. In order to love, you must sacrifice. In order to sacrifice, you must have faith. And, in order to have real faith, you need to know how to love unconditionally. I was constantly learning one little thing after the other, each new bit of information affecting everything else I had learned before that point. I am still learning new things every single day. That’s what being Catholic involves. It’s putting ideals into practice, making sacrifices, accepting failures, spreading love, and having faith in God. It’s a journey that lasts a lifetime, and I can say with absolute certainty that it’s the most worthwhile journey you’ll ever experience.
