It is evident that evil abounds: our country is awash with political and religious scandals. Leaders fail to lead, instead rendering blame and shame in excuse for their bad choices resulting in negligence and indifference. Abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism and atheism, among many other social and moral ills, continue to inflict mortal wounds on society while efforts to bring back common sense are scorned. After reading the daily news, I’m overcome with confusion, wondering, what am I, as a faithful Catholic, to do with all of this?
St. Augustine glibly states: Love God and do what you please. And there’s the rub: we are to love God as Catholics, in accord with the identity of what it is to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church. Immediately, one may think of the sources of their faith, the Catholic family we were raised in, our education steeped in Scriptures and Tradition, along with the practices we personally appropriated living as church-going Catholics. Of course, for Augustine, the only Christian followers were Catholic. So, we should do the best we can, acting in accord with truth, and particularly that divinely revealed truth which defines who we are. Adherence to truths of our faith is what determines, for us, the ultimate good, although the foundations of faith are necessarily supported by a commonality with human experience. Necessarily, then, that which lays the foundation for what is to be done as good by us believers is determined not so much by what we believe as by Who we believe. That our faith may not be understood or esteemed gives us a distinct advantage, in that we personally know truth, goodness and beauty in the person of our Lord and Savior. Consequently, He is the one we are to love and share.
It would behoove us, as Catholics, perhaps above all, then, to know our faith well, that we might love God rightly and act in accord with faith inspired by love. Get a good catechism, read the lives of the saints who are our moral exemplars, attend to the particulars of the faith we profess in a community which fosters worship of God in spirit and in truth...and share your insights the while with the world that it may become a better place. A tall order, but that is nothing really to those who follow, for lack of better words, the Tall God.
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