Monday, July 13, 2015

Your Mission...

     ...should you choose to accept it...no, wait, wrong TV show.

     If you’re a lone Catholic, or one of a tiny minority of Catholics / Christians, in your family / job / neighborhood, you are a de facto missionary. Mind you, the position is unsalaried, comes with no perquisites, and is likely to be fraught with danger (to your self-regard, at least). But take heart: there are no quotas, no job description, no performance reviews, and the single-layer Management is as well-disposed toward you as you could imagine. Also, you get to set your own hours.

     Wait: that last bit is a little off-center. In point of fact, you’re pretty much on the clock twenty-four hours per day. But as all you’re required to do is to be a Catholic, the duties shouldn’t exhaust you.

     There’s a lot of loose talk about how American adolescents are under terrible “peer pressure” to conform to the latest trends, adopt the latest fads, and express the au courant opinions. Why the “peer pressure” on a teen should be so terrible, I can’t fathom. After all, isn’t he a peer? Can’t he press back? Yes, I do know that my readers are almost entirely adults, and I am consciously writing for that sort of audience, but even so, it’s worth considering your isolation, whether it’s relative or absolute, from the same standpoint: opportunity as well as discomfort.

     Like as not you’ve never thought of yourself as a missionary. In this regard, the Mormons have an edge over us, as they require their allegiants to do missionary work. (I think the same is true for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, though I can’t confirm it.) Christians of the more conventional sects aren’t taught to think in such terms. Nevertheless, it’s the case: your contacts with non-Christians are opportunities to exemplify your faith: its beauties, its benefits, and its promise.

     I’ve received wake-up calls about this from several sources: persons who’ve written to tell me of how the examples set by sincere Christians who live their faith – they don’t find it necessary to preach the Gospels by “using words” – have influenced them toward the embrace of faith and other significant adjustments to their lives. Saint Francis of Assisi must be proud of those evangelists-by-example; I certainly am.

     Pope Benedict XVI told us, quite explicitly, to be not afraid. To live in fear is to be perpetually miserable. It’s especially tragic when what’s feared is the disapproval of others who hold to lower standards. Disapproval should flow in the other direction, shouldn’t it? No, you needn’t express it where others can hear. Indeed, you mustn’t.

     Try thinking of yourself not as an object of derision or a victim of ostracism, but as an example to others. Among other things, it will strengthen you in times of darkness and doubt. Isn’t it the case that we rise to the occasion with more determination when there are customers lined up and waiting?

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