Witnessing with love

Thank you Augustine 1121 for your comments. What you have written is exactly what I would like to focus on today. Charity.

I was mercifully lifted out of this false sense of holiness when I began to actively discern the priesthood in my life. The Diocese that I was to study for sent me to live in a parish for a year to do pastoral work. When I arrived there, I was still in the place I described in my last post. I thought I needed to “save” everybody by pointing out what they were doing wrong, and show them how to do things right.

Well, the priest I lived with very quickly put me in my place. He noticed that I lacked charity, and I was humbled (and humiliated) more than once. The priest began to show me that what I believed in was good, but my approach to it wasn’t. He taught me about hating the sin, but loving the sinner. It took a while, because I fought with him, but over time I realized that I also was a sinner, and I was suffering from pride. Father did to me what I did to others; he pointed out my sin, but he did it with love, and not with condemnation. He then challenged me to do the same.

Over the years, I have found that one can attract people to the faith much better with honey than they can with vinegar. I have encountered people who do not practice their faith, and those who do who may not understand it as well as I have been gifted to, but there is a difference in my approach now. I stop and think that perhaps these individuals were not raised in a Catholic environment where they were taught their faith. Perhaps they have not had a personal experience of Jesus that I was gifted with. Perhaps God put me in that person’s path to show them the Father but in a way that is loving, inviting them to “come and see.” That approach, I have seen works much better.

I want to make something clear. I still do assent to the teachings of the Catholic faith entirely. I still strive to conform my life to the definition given from the Catholic encyclopedia, which is reposted here:

Orthodoxy (orthodoxeia) signifies right belief or purity of faith. Right belief is not merely subjective, as resting on personal knowledge and convictions, but is in accordance with the teaching and direction of an absolute extrinsic authority. This authority is the Church founded by Christ, and guided by the Holy Ghost. He, therefore, is orthodox, whose faith coincides with the teachings of the Catholic Church. As divine revelation forms the deposit of faith entrusted to the Church for man's salvation, it also, with the truths clearly deduced from it, forms the object and content of orthodoxy.

There is, unquestioningly, objective truth which must be adhered to. The fullness of that truth has been given to us by God in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, by means of the Holy Catholic Church. Those of us who have been gifted with this knowledge and understanding are called to “go and make disciples of all nations.” While hating sin, let us love sinners and invite them to “come and see” Jesus. Let us invite them to experience the power of Christ’s healing through our loving invitations to come home. They will then experience Jesus through the beautiful Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist, and their wounds will begin to heal, as our wounds have already begun to. Finally, the one who can help us be more loving to our neighbors, and more trusting in God’s Love and Mercy, is the Mother of Mercy, Holy Mary. Her intercession will bring us farther then our own prayers ever can.

I will post back soon. Until then, God Bless.

In Christ, Joe Sweeney

P.S. I invite all to post suggestions to discuss. If there is a topic of theology, or other Catholic teaching that people would like to talk more about, feel free to mention it.