What does it take to be a Catholic nowadays?

Well, there are nearly 1.1 billion of people around the world claiming to be Catholic. This comprises 50% of all Christians worldwide and 16% of the word’s total population, which is indeed great. But just claiming to be Catholic makes you indeed one? Of course, is not up to me or anybody but God Himself to judge it, but here are some basic and practical rules on what does it take to be a catholic nowadays. To illustrate better these ideas, imagine there is a room, in which there are one hundred people claiming to be catholic, and let’s see their progress through this basic rules.

1. You must believe.

It sounds ridiculously logical, doesn’t it? Even pretty obvious. But it’s actually not that simple. To believe in God isn’t just to remember of His existence in the moments of despair (after all, everyone is an atheist until the plane starts falling). To truly believe in God is to see His acts in each small thing. Is to rejoice in His being, is to firmly accept our Creed, is to see Christ’s legitimate flesh and blood through the Eucharist. Is to believe in the intercession of Mary, our mother, and of all the saints. Finally, is to believe that eternity awaits for us, in a life that is to come with God in Heaven. Maybe basic, but it’s not simple, and it’s an unmeasurably important point. So, out of the one hundred people we had, half still hasn’t really clear to themselves who God is. They don’t have a proper constant contact with Him and are Christians only when it’s convenient for them. These are out, and that leaves us with fifty.

2. You must pray.

Also obvious and logical, also not that simple. Right now, twenty-five people are walking out that door, from the fifty we had minutes ago. Why? Well, the prayer is the easiest and most reliable – and maybe the only – way to get along with God. Literally, to improve your relationship with Him, to talk to Him about your worries and moments of joy, about your accomplishments and disappointments (by the way there’s a great song called ‘Cry Out to Jesus’, from ‘Third Day’ that is amazing, listen to it if you can). The prayer is an exercise that must be practiced on a daily basis, you must keep along with God, and if you haven't yet given it a shot, I assure you he’s a good listener. It’s impossible to be a Catholic without praying. Pray asking for your day, thanking for something, complaining about someone, asking for help and for conversion. Prayer is the base of a life with God.

3. You must attend to masses.

Things are getting specific. But that’s also definitely a must, first of all because it’s good for you and your soul, or are you gonna tell me you don’t feel that lightness of soul when you leave the church? It’s also necessary to keep in touch with the Gospel and to celebrate his Word, not to mention that it’s the only way to experience the communion of Christ’s holy flesh and blood. It is very common to see people claiming that they are Catholics because they believe and pray in their homes, and they don’t need to go to churches. Well, they are perfectly following rules one and two, but already diverted from rule three. As I said, it’s not up to me to judge anybody, so these rules are just my point of view. But how would them respond to Christ Himself when he said “... do this in remembrance of me” [Luke, 22:19]. If He’s not telling you that the Eucharist was established by Him and you’ve got to celebrate it in order to remember His sacrifice, I honestly have no idea what could it be. Maybe Martin Luther did, but as he didn’t make himself very clear, I can’t see any other option. But, it’s funny to see the excuses people make up, like “I don’t want to have to wake up early every Sunday”. This is such nonsense, people don’t actually know there are Masses later on Sundays or even on Saturdays – if it’s past evening, Saturday Masses count as Sunday’s, officially. Half of those group of twenty-five people are trying to make up better excuses and are out, leaving us with twelve.

4. You must refrain from sins.

Why did I say “refrain” instead of “you must commit no sin at all”? Because Jesus and Jesus only did that. We’re humans, we sin, and it’s natural. But we do must avoid sins every time we can, because it is always up to us, and because that makes us closer to God. Saint Augustine compared the Evil to a chained dog. He keeps frightening you with his barks and temptations, but he was chained by Christ, and can only bite you if you step close to him. So all we’ve gotta do is avoid this dog, and refrain from sinning. And, of course, we must confess our sins. The Sacrament of Penance is there for that! God loves us and He will forgive us, no matter what. And if someone ever doubts it, go read the Prodigal Son (Luke 15: 11-32). His justice is incomprehensible to us because His Agape love is unmeasurable. So, six out of the twelve did refrain from sinning, and looked for Confession constantly, practicing Penance, and did well in keeping up with God. But, even though the other six did believe, pray and attend to Masses, they just kept on deliberately sinning. They avoided Confessions, and, when they,in fact, practiced it, they omitted sins. They knew they were sinning, and kept on lying to themselves, trying to believe it was all okay, but they knew it wasn’t, and they kept doing it. So, they also left the room, leaving us with six lone rangers.

5. You must resign.

Pretty much similar to the last one, but is more like a progression of ideas. Sincerely, what is the point of sinning, asking for forgiveness, receiving the Sacrament of Penance and, as soon as you leave the church, start planning when will you do all that again? What’s the point of being forgiven if you will do it all again? I don’t see any. And that’s the hardest part. People tend to think that sitting next to a priest and confessing to him everything you did wrong– that, by the way, he is gonna forget everything in a couple of minutes and, so, will never judge you for that – is difficult. No, it isn’t, the difficulty is what comes next: conversion. Conversion means resigning. Resign from those pleasures you used to have, resign from that life the world out there wants you to have. It is hard, oh boy, it is. But that’s what being a Catholic is about, resignation. And, eventually, it’s not bad at all, because I assure you that conversion gives you a lightness of soul, a joy you won’t experience with any other thing. And whenever people start judging, complaining or joking about why you don’t do what anyone else does, remember you’re not just anyone. God chose you, and He will strengthen you. If He chose this life for you, how can other people judge it? And you’re not alone – the whole Church is always there for you, tons of nice people who also chose that life for them. Okay, now you’re asking, how is this life different from the life that the world wants you to have? The Catholic life is based on God. It values family, the bedrock of everything – and family is an institution that is being seriously harmed lately. It values love, dignity, charity, and it is full of pleasures, of course it is. But that involves making right choices according to a properly formed conscience, and not just choosing randomly and in a depraved way, which is measured, chosen carefully and virtuous. Those pleasures offer us true, long lasting joy instead of a mere and fleeting happiness. Of course, you surely know what’s coming next. The lone rangers are down to only three, as the other three just left the room. They gave up on conversion, thinking it was all already good enough the way it was. They gave up on the rightful life on it’s first turbulences and went back to the world’s life.

6. You must spread.

I don’t know what about you, but the first thing I do after I finish watching a great movie, reading a great book or listening to a great song is I always tell all of my friends about it. Because we, humans, we need to share. When we experience something good, don’t we want the people we love to experience it too? I think it works the same with Catholicism. Being a Catholic is wonderful, there isn’t anything as good as having this close contact with Christ that our religion allows us to have. The experience of living under God’s will is fantastic, and as reading a great book or watching a great movie, we should tell our beloved ones about it, because we want them to be happy and we want them to feel this! And spreading His word is not going door to door on Sunday’s morning to talk about the Lord. Nor is to flood every one of your friends facebook’s timeline with Christian pictures – I’m not saying they’re bad, I’m sure they’re wonderful, but when people post 20 of those pictures per day, it gets a little annoying. It is really difficult to make someone like and accept something new to them when their first contact with it is in an annoying situation, like being waken up on Sunday mornings or having your social media’s timeline completely flooded. The best way to spread it is giving concrete examples. We live in a world that lacks love, true joy, peace and virtue. If you give examples of loving your neighbor, being a joyful person, always in peace and living a virtuous life, people will see you as an example. They may start asking what medicine do you take, in that case, answer “Eucharist”. Spread your religion by testifying it. Never deny you’re a Catholic, but always declare it firmly and with pride, after all, you’re a disciple of Christ! Of course, this also doesn’t mean you’ve got to wear rosaries on your neck or tatoo Jesus all over your body, but whenever you’re in a debate about religion or something the Church’s got a position on (e.g. Abortion); state your position as a Catholic firmly. Defend your faith, and spread it, especially to the ones you love. So, finally, the ones who didn’t spread the faith, but kept it only to themselves and failed this rule, which are two, left the room leaving us with one, one remaining Catholic from the one hundred that were in this room shortly ago.

Wow. One, out of one hundred remaining; Being a Catholic is not easy, it was never meant to be. “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15: 19-20). Yeah, folks, this lone remaining Catholic will struggle a lot in this world, because he is not from here. God chose him for His world, and so he will be persecuted. But there is something else: right before this Gospel, literally right before it, Jesus tells us all: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15: 18). In other words, He is looking at you right now and inviting you to His world, to His grace. He’s warning you of all those difficulties you will face, but Jesus loves you more than you can even imagine. You are unique to Him and He wants you to stay by His side.

We have just celebrated the Holy Week. We have just testified to Jesus' eternal victory over sin and death. What do we have to be afraid of? Jesus is on your side. He wants you to take His hand, to follow these rules and, while the other ninety-nine are living their lives, He wants you to be the special one. Do you know what is the phrase that appears more times than any other message in the Bible? “Do not be afraid”, and few people know this. All through history, God has told His people not to be afraid, over and over, and the phrase appears more than one thousand times throughout the Bible. It is hard, but do not be afraid as God will be always there for us, and the what we gain is overwhelming.

So, after all of this, what are you going to do? Do you want to be one of those ninety-nine who left the room or do you want to be the one that stood there until the end? It is only up to you to decide.