Interior Catholic

  • All Saints’ Day

    It was nine o’clock in the morning when a friend texted me, an hour that neither one of us are inclined to typically acknowledge. “Happy All Saints’ Day!” she’d written.

    “Huzzah!” I’d replied. “And you texted me just as I got out of Mass.”

    “Look at you, attending Mass on a holy day of obligation!”

    If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have selected eight a.m. I also wouldn’t have gone to my usual parish, thirty minutes from home, in the opposite direction of work. But I happened to have an appointment to look at a condo in the morning, at a place literally seven minutes away from the church, and that could be no accident.

    There was a magic to it, attending church at an hour I prefer to still be in bed (even if I was slightly late, thanks to New Jersey traffic). The rising sunlight hadn’t fully reached the building yet, so the stained-glass windows were slightly darkened. Gradually, over the course of the Mass, they illuminated with the breaking of day. That’s an obvious metaphor if I ever saw one.

    It wasn’t so long ago that I was unaware days of obligation were a thing. And are the saints really an “obligation” on par with Christmas, or Easter? Well, no. Nothing compares to the glory of Christ. But to be gathered with His children, honoring those faithful who came before us, at an hour I’m typically not inclined to acknowledge?

    It was beautiful.

    I almost went again, after work, at the parish near my office. Because there is more I can be doing, more to honor those who came before us. Instead, I came home. I curled up on the couch and continued my studies. Because it’s not enough to honor the saints—it’s also our duty to be them. To be one of the faithful.

    At RCIA this week, we had a nun come to speak with us about prayer. I’d admitted my Protestant background during introductions, so when we discussed praying to the saints she looked directly at me and said, “You’re probably still unconvinced about that.”
    I nervously laughed and replied, “I’m getting there.”

    I’m sure there’s a patron saint out there for converts who are still wary about praying to saints.
    Whoever you are… please pray for me.

    “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple.” —Revelation 7:14–15

    ,

  • The Atheist Support

    The old college crew was together again, and we were catching up on major life events as old college crews tend to do. I hadn’t expected to tell the full story of my conversion, but they kept asking questions. To my knowledge, none of them are Catholic. A couple grew up in the Church, but have since left, or they have no belief system at all. After I’d spilled my story, as much as they wanted to know, a former Catholic turned to me and said, “I’d love to come to your Confirmation. Let me know when it is.”

    It threw me off-guard at first, but it wasn’t the first time a non-Catholic has been supportive. In fact, most of my support—besides my sister and my sponsor—has been from non-religious friends. It’s been the former Catholics who want to attend my Confirmation or talk hours about God; one suggested I look into religious publishing when I was talking about a potential new job.

    But I tell non-Catholic Christians about converting, and I get shut down. “You can’t possibly believe that stuff,” they say.

    Why? Why, when we all worship the same God and only want to do His will, do we shut each other down? Why are the ones with no concrete belief system the most supportive of my finding Him?

    Maybe they’re seeking their own belief systems. Maybe they’ve found something that works for them after years of searching. Maybe they see a kindred spirit, someone who simply wants to find the Truth, and rejoices because they recognize the journey. Even if our journeys are not the same, and didn’t end up in the same place, they understand the need for it.

    Or maybe it’s just being a good friend. A good human being. It’s adopting those Christ-like qualities without being a follower of Christ. I’ve heard it said that atheists are the “better people,” because they aren’t good because God told them to be. They’re not trying to impress Jesus. They’re displaying goodness and love for the sake of displaying goodness and love, and not for some kind of divine reward.

    Sometimes, Christians get stale. We grow up knowing God, and we take Him for granted. Christians will often not search any further than what their Church or their family teaches them. So when someone goes out to learn the Truth, they don’t get it. “You have everything you need. Why are you making it so complicated?” But there’s always more to discover, and more to learn, and sometimes those discoveries lead us away from the belief system we’ve grown up with.

    Don’t shut each other down. We’re all searching for God. We may not all find Him in the same way.

And they said to him, “Inquire of God, we pray thee, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed.”

And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the LORD.”

—Judges 18:5–6

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