The Blind Leading The Blind

I voted before work in our local municipal election. I don't want to take the opportunity to vote for granted, and it only took a few minutes. 

I'm a fairly ignorant citizen, but I want to be informed. I'm finding, however, it very difficult to get any kind of information on the candidates for district judge, school board, supervisor, etc in this election besides their party affiliation and names. There are lawn signs everywhere at intersections. They are all listed on the sample ballot on our county's website. But when it came time for me to try to figure out who to vote for based on their platforms, proposals, voting records, etc., I was coming up short. 

I asked our neighbor, who sent me our county's website which, like I mentioned above, simply lists the names and party. I asked people at work and friends, who couldn't answer me. I even asked the local retired State Representative, who said, "I'm sorry, I don't have a good answer for you." I would have thought there would have been a non-partisan 3rd party groups like "Center for Informed Votership" or something where they could do the heavy lifting (but simple) work of linking a website or bio to each candidate's name on the county website sample ballot. 

So what, exactly, are we basing our votes on then? Who had the most lawn signs out? Are we picking candidates to vote for the way we pick wine out from the liquor store "Oh, this label looks pretty. This is fine." Seems like a completely ignorant way of voting, and I'll take full responsibility for my part in it. But I want to do better. I want to be informed. It's scary this is how our democracy functions, because I know I can't be the only one who is struggling with this. 

My wife and I had dinner with an old-coworker of hers who is coming back to the Faith. We had given her a Miraculous Medal a couple months ago when her mom died, and it seems like grace is already working there. After dinner, we didn't waste any time--I gave her an Examination of Conscience sheet, a pamphlet for how to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet I found in my car plus a rosary, and told her about the joys and hardships of living by faith, some basic apologetics and catechesis, and encouraged her by way of invitation to check out the Latin Mass with us where we assist. She was amenable to it all, which was a great joy. And we pray for her every day, as she is now our spiritually adopted daughter. 

Many new Catholics want to be informed, want to be faithful, but sometimes don't know where to start. They need a trusted friend or vetter to take them under their wing and say, "This site is good, this priest is a heretic, this book is solid, this parish is beige," etc. Otherwise the James Martins and Richard Rohrs of the world are just as much a priest as the solid orthodox ones who actually care about souls. Often those who "went to Catholic school K-12" or "were taught by nuns" or whatever are some of the most ignorant when it comes to orthodox teaching and basic catechesis.

If you have been gifted with the faith and graced with conviction, that's where you come in. Don't waste opportunities to educate and support when there's an opening. Don't be afraid to be both kind and frank, and speak the truth to someone while making it clear you are walking with them. Don't overwhelm them, but give some rich milk to start before starting on solid food. Definitely pray for them with laser focus, every day, and make sacrifices. Gift them with sacramentals. Share your wealth of learned knowledge of who to avoid and what sources can be trusted. It's not easy to get there, and many of us have bumbled and stumbled for years trying to get to this point for lack of a guide. Be that guide. In this "messy" ecclesiastical environment in which we find ourselves, it can be like walking in a fog without a lantern otherwise.

No one goes into the jungle alone. You are not a blind guide, but have the light of faith. Light someone else's candle with your own. That's how the light gets into the world to dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief. 

You Can't Defend What You Don't Know

This afternoon my dad texted me. He was upset over an encounter with a neighbor who made a disparaging remark about non-Catholics not being able to receive the Eucharist at Mass. My dad got a little defensive (understandably, given the tone of the neighbor's complaint) and felt he had made things worse and strained the relationship. I suspect he was offended, wanted to defend the Faith, but was on shaky ground with how to go about doing it. His getting upset was compounded by not feeling confident in being able to explain why the Church teaches against intercommunion, getting flustered, and going away feeling that things were made worse after the encounter.

This isn't an uncommon scenario. We need both heart and head when it comes to apologetics. In my experience, the less knowledge about the faith one possesses, the more fervently they tend to argue, assuming they care and have the heart. When you know you're on a firm foundation in terms of apologetics, you don't get your blood pressure up, but let sound argument carry their own weight as you serve it up calmly and politely.

I know enough about the basics of my faith to enter into reasonable discussion without feeling like I'm on an episode of American Gladiators. And I have evangelized enough to know when to fight and when not to take things personally (which is most of the time). But I've also spent twenty years living, breathing, and learning the Faith, so I feel relatively confident there (though there's always more to learn!). It's not enough to be right. How you deliver the message, as well as its content, is just as important.

We need both head and heart. Wisdom and understanding (the head) comes to us by grace and study; thankfully, the Catholic faith is a reasonable faith, one which we can understand with our reason and intellect, while retaining the refreshment of mystery. Zeal and humility (the heart) also is a gift of grace. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6), and faith is strengthened in prayer, which is also essential to "heart knowledge."

I did end up telling my dad not to let this encounter steal his peace of mind and not to dwell on it too much, but use it as an opportunity to learn more about his faith so that the next encounter might be different. Catholic Answers is a great and invaluable resource that is easily accessible online to learn the Faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is another, which is also available online on the Vatican's website. It doesn't cost anything to learn, and it's accessible from any computer. And many parishes also offer adult faith formation classes which can be valuable as well. The hardest part, sometimes, is not the learning, but coming to a place in which one desires to learn. Once you have that, the learning takes care of itself.

But we also need to be people of regular prayer. Prayer roots us, gives us a firm foundation on which to stand, and a place of peace from which to instruct and inform. We don't eat once a week, why should we pray just once a week? Angry apologetics, like a disgruntled combox, doesn't do anyone any good and just leaves everyone feeling downcast and offended. All the head knowledge in the world is worthless without prayer.

You can't defend what you don't know. And the way we know is by taking the time and making the effort to learn. There will always be people ignorant of the Truth, but we should see it more as opportunities to instruct when given the invitation to do so; always with charity, always with love. As Ven. Fulton Sheed wisely noted, "Win an argument, lose a soul." Don't lose a soul.

The Necessity of Religion

Whenever I come across someone who is spiritual but not religious, I think of a body without a skeleton. We have a heart that pumps blood and delivers oxygen to essential organs. We have a brain which is the seat of cognition and the intellect. We have muscles which allow us to move. We have skin to hold it all in and keep bacteria and the elements out. And, of course, we have a soul, which is ethereal and immortal.

However, without bones, we have nothing to give our bodies form; without a skeleton, we would be nothing but sacks of organs and sheets of skin on the floor. The skull protects the brain; the ribcage protects the heart and lungs. (Nothing really protects our private parts, though, so we have to be careful there!)

Religious faith, dogma, doctrine...all those "undesirable" words in modern society serve a vital function--to give structure to our lives, form to our personhood, and protection for our vital organs. Bone is a dense composite that can withstand force, weather the elements, and remains long after the rest of the body returns to dust. Skulls, femurs, vertebrae...they all work together to form a whole--an intricate skeletal system underneath it all.

Of course, if we are simply Pharisaical in our practice of religion, we are indeed nothing but a collection of "dead men's bones" (Mt 23:27). And skeletons on their own are kind of creepy!

We are more than just sacks of skin or bones knit together, brains in a jar or hearts pumping on their own. People like to talk about religion as if it is an extracurricular activity, a peripheral endeavor. No. Doctrine is as vital as the bones which give limbs their structure, dogma as necessary as the ligaments which join them together, and the Church as timeless and enduring as the skeletal system which holds us up, protects our heart and mind, and gives form to our human bodies, even after they pass away.

"The glory of God is the human person full ALIVE." --St. Irenaeus