Be Catholic On Purpose

Below is a guest post from CCM student Gideon who was received into the Church this Easter.

Becoming Catholic

When I converted to Catholicism this past Easter I thought that the hardest part of conversion was over.  I thought that once I had accepted the doctrinal and moral teaching of the Church it would be smooth sailing.  Coming from a nominally Protestant background, I had no major obstacles to get around in order to accept the church’s teaching.  There were no dramatic changes; no wrestling with Sola Scriptura or anti-Catholic prejudices.  I would have the occasional feeling that didn’t sit right with what I had been taught as a child but after a few more pages I realized that I was wrong and that, you guessed it…the Church was right.  I was a college sophomore seeking objective truth and upon finding the Catholic faith it was easy to embrace. 

After a time in college when I was devouring apologetics, philosophy, and theology, RCIA was a breeze.  I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the faith and most of what was taught I had encountered in other places.  Easter was soon approaching and I came to a realization.  I had to start being Catholic.  I had been in a sort of suspended animation of conversion; paused on the edge of being Catholic waiting to accept the Church’s teaching.  Not long after saying, “I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God;” I had another realization. 

Catholicism is hard.

Now I was Catholic and it wasn’t easy.  The hardest part of becoming Catholic was still ahead of me.  I now had to examine my conscience, go to confession, and go to Sunday mass.  Not only that but I had to be at Mass.  I had to conform my body as well as my mind to the Catholic faith.  This meant the Sign of the Cross, holy water, genuflecting, memorizing the Creed (haven’t quite mastered this yet), and praying the rosary.  I suddenly found myself in foreign Catholic situations that made me very uncomfortable.  I was being asked to usher and take the collection at Mass (I told them I would have to fall back on my Protestant ushering skills and pray I committed no faux pas). Another time, I had to find a priest to hear my confession before a 10^th anniversary Mass.  I remember walking into a room full of priests and announcing that I needed one of them to hear my confession.  At that moment I would have rather been debating papal infallibility.

I would file all of this under conversion.  Since Easter I have been learning to be Catholic every day.  I still get thrown off at Mass, fumble the Creed and forget to genuflect.  These are the things that are hard for me.  Just today I asked my priest how to properly receive communion on the tongue because I am anxious about messing it up. 

So what is the point of all of this?  The point is that I couldn’t learn all of this in a book.  If there is a book with this stuff in it, I haven’t read it.  So being from Missouri I have a favor to ask.  Show me.  Our humanity is bound up with one another’s and I need help learning to be Catholic.  My neighbors may not know this but I have been watching.  Other converts can probably confirm this.  We are always watching you, hoping to catch you living out the faith so that we can imitate it.  All Catholics are living catechists who are always teaching whether they know it or not.  You can either do it well or poorly but you can’t stop doing it.  I will learn to be Catholic by watching other Catholics.

So when you are at Mass make sure you are doing it right.  Take the time to genuflect properly, cross yourself, bow before the tabernacle, and be Catholic on purpose.  There are no other Catholics in my family so I need your example to teach me the faith.

Gideon