I was thumbing through my Daily Roman Missal this week looking for a specific Mass offering and the scriptural choices that were available when I came across a section titled “How to be a Better Catholic.” And I thought: Okay, how can I be a better Catholic? Who wouldn’t want to answer this question because it would ultimately translate into a very simple question: How can I be a better person? The Missal breaks it down into four simple things. First, there is the recognition of a call to holiness. I’m good with that. I want to be holy. Second, is the need for a life of prayer. Okay…I pray. Third, the discipline and growth in a life of self-denial. Not the biggest fan but we can work with this. Last, there is a need for a life of work. Got it…now how do we do it?
In truth, with all funning aside, these four steps are not that new, inventive or strange to the spiritual life of any Christian. They are the normal pathway to follow. When we read any of Matthew Kelly’s books we see these four calls to holiness. If we have read any of the lives of the saints, this is what they do and who they are. So no surprises here. But………we must do them….that’s the fun part. And believe me there is much more to “being and better Catholic” because the section of the Missal goes on for several more pages…these are just the beginning. So my proposal is a simple one…I’m going to go through this section by section…it won’t be part of my Friday emails but you can follow it on my website which I will list at the bottom of the page.
How to be a better Catholic.
Step 1. Recognize that I can be a better Catholic. I am a sinner but as the Church reaffirmed in the Second Vatican Council, each and every person is called to holiness and to live a life that moves away the sins which bind me and keep away from the grace and love that God desires me to live in. This universal call to holiness is universal because it is better when we travel in groups of holiness rather than doing on our own which as we all know (or at least I wish I would remember more often) is the trap of the devil to fall into to sinful pride. What does this look like? Well, Mass on Sunday when a whole bunch of sinners come together to seek holiness by asking forgiveness, praying with and for others and receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. It looks like a family praying the Rosary together on a Saturday night (or any night) seeking holiness. It is the reality of children and grandchildren gathered around the sick bed of their elderly (grand)parent in love. It is the noisy and raucous music of young Catholics giving glory and praise to God in music and dance. In other words, it looks like many different things, but it always looks like the search for God even in the quiet contemplation of Adoration when the unified silence of those gathered togethers lifts a joyous gift of praise and blessing to God.
Step 2…do step one again. If I am seeking holiness, then my conversations with God (prayer) draw me deeper and deeper into a loving relationship of love. And a relationship with God in love is a relationship of holiness.
Step 3…do step one again and step two because self-denial and discipline entails a continual and holy offering of daily sacrifice of time, talent and treasure, the stewardship of life. Self-denial is turning towards God and away from the individualist egocentric greed that focus on the momentary and denies the eternal of life.
Finally, step 4, yes repeat and begin to work. Work is the call to fulfillment. Pope John Paul II Encyclical “Laborem Exercens” reminds us, “Far from thinking that works produced by man’s own talent and energy are in opposition to God’s power, and that the rational creature exists as a kind of rival to the Creator, Christians are convinced that the triumphs of the human race are a sign of God’s greatness and the flowering of his own mysterious design.”(#25)
More later…when I pray that I am a better Catholic.
God bless,
Fr. Mark