To my utter delight, I am blessed with watching someone's faith and reason grow. The struggle has been awesome but the results are showing and I think the Catholic Church will be blessed to welcome a new daughter at the next Easter Vigil.
I also have to giggle because I am watching her display the same astonishment when someone cannot seem to grasp the obvious that I used to display. What it tells me is this: when the Holy Spirit begins to work and the person starts to have their eyes and ears opened wide for the first time in their life, the flat out genius that is Catholicism opens up before them like a well written children's book. Simple, deep, real and beautiful - the whole thing starts to make sense. The next step then, usually, is to look around us and think, "What is wrong with the rest of the world, that they cannot see the obvious?".
I often share with people the simple fact about my life today - nothing, and I mean NOTHING, will ever separate me from Jesus Christ in the Eucharist again. Not bad music at Mass, not scandal, not politics and certainly not whatever the passing fancy of the secular world is this week - no matter what, I will never walk away from Him. I did that for too many years. I did it out of laziness, out of fear that I would lose my family and my friends, out of the desire to be popular and because everyone else did it.
What I got from that experience is exactly what St Paul told the Church in Rome - the wages of sin is death.
I died inside, became a shell. I crumpled at the slightest shove. I had lost my rock, my anchor, my ability to navigate the world with any grace and dignity.
Today I look at those who spend the day in bed, rather than walking in the Sunlight of the Spirit, and I feel so sad. I know what that is like - call it depression or alcoholism or mental illness. Call it 'Being a Loner'. Whatever you call it, it is a sad and silly way to live.
Today, I am not going to live a silly and wasteful life. It will not be a large life but it will be an honest life. It will not be a life that is profiled on MSNBC and Jon Stewart will not invite me on his show to discuss theology and how to go to work every day knowing that you make your living pushing paper around and how one manages to survive that without losing your soul.
Today I shall repeat, day and night, the prayers of my ancestors. I will pray without ceasing and I will spend each day walking towards heaven as best I can, one day at a time.
Those who chose a life of darkness are really missing out - it is bright out here, sunny and bright, and I am so grateful to have a life today that is second to none.
How about you?
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