June 20, 2018 For I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. On the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as Corpus Christi, I witnessed a large group of people who were not ashamed of the Gospel. They were visibly proclaiming their faith, processing through their community while singing and professing their belief that bread and wine turn into Jesus Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity. We live in a secular society. We’re discouraged from living our faith publicly. Society tells us our faith should be relegated to inside the walls of our churches. Yet here was this large crowd – it stretched almost the length of the block – exiting the church, taking their faith to their neighborhood. They did that in front of their neighbors, their friends, their classmates. That takes guts. When I accepted this job, I had the standard concerns anyone has when starting a new adventure: will I make friends? Will I like it? Will it be fulfilling? Those fears were minor. One of my fears, however, was/is major. That fear: writing this column. Why does that scare me? First, because I have little experience writing in my own voice. But that was the lesser concern. The bigger fear: it’s intimidating to express my faith in such a public way. Thousands of people receive this paper. If I write well, a certain priest (who shall remain nameless) may even post my article on social media. All of my online friends and family then have access to it, too. They all get to see me attempting to express my faith. That’s sort of scary. I pray God continues to give us – all of us – the grace we need to live our faith boldly, and share the Gospel with our neighbors, be it in the streets, in a newspaper or wherever we may go. |
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