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More Than Words

It's not only the band Extreme's 1991 anthem to fornication, it's also a reality of the spiritual life. If you and I don't go to Mass, pray, confess our sins, and do works of charity, then a Catholic dude from New Jersey becomes an associate pastor among the Reformed, consigned to wearing Santorum sweater-vests for the next 30 years. Not that there's anything wrong with the sweater-vests.

You can hardly blame him. There's no real intent to schism there. He might have concluded that Catholics wouldn't know Jesus from a hole in the ground. Isn't that true?

I am not putting myself forward as some kind of paragon or example, but I believe the Catechism. I believe that if I were to skip Mass on a Sunday or another Holy Day of Obligation, that's a grave sin, and I'd be fortunate to avoid Hell, if I died with that on my soul. There are other things that I am much more inclined to actually doing, and so I stay close to the Church, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I thought everyone did that. That's what Confirmation Sponsor Guy and Lady both do. And Hebrew Catholic Woody Allen, and Bob, and almost everyone else I know. That isn't weird; that's just normal. Or, put it this way: That's what people who believe in supernaturally-revealed truth and judgment would do.

Why practice religion without taking its claims seriously? I can't even begin to understand this.

The Pew survey tells me that I, and nearly everyone else I know, with our basic, Christian sensibility, make up about 4 percent of American Catholics. Sheesh. No wonder I feel so weird all the time.

Keep that in mind, Catholic apologist. The unassailable truth of your arguments are being blocked by Screw these Catholics! At least we take God seriously. You'll pardon the language; it needs to be visceral like that, because that's how it is.

Dear God, we pray that you pour many graces on us this day to be worthy members of Christ's Body, the Church. May we be the irresistible aroma of Christ to those near and far, so that we all may attain true holiness and full communion with You, through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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