Why It Is Hard to Be a Catholic (but also totally worth it)

We all have non-Catholic friends.

Ok, perhaps we have no friends.

But even if we live beneath a rock in the sea and have no friends, we still have Facebook.

We still watch each Reformation Day as our feeds blow up with gleeful Protestant posts declaring how wrong we were.

Oh, I am sorry.

“Are”.

Is it martyrdom?

No, but we can profit from it nonetheless.

We don’t need to be hanged upside down to love God; we only need to refrain from hanging our neighbor as he insists we adore and burn incense to our scapular each night.

Since no act of love is ever forgotten by God, we had better start turning these times of trial into opportunities.

What are the biggest times of trial for us Catholics each and every day? Here are three:

The Three Times We Might Wish We Weren’t Catholic

1. The Restaurant Debate: Loosing our Coolness

As Catholics, we can count ourselves lucky when it comes to eating out. We don’t have to keep kosher, abstain from pork, and that amazing Italian restaurant was probably founded by Catholic immigrants!

Well, it is great to be Catholic until the food comes.

Everyone begins to dig in, without halting the conversation while the Catholic sits there, like Peter on Via Appia, stuck in crisis of identity.

To pray or not to pray?

We all know what our mother would say. But do we really want to act the nun at this meal?

Because we Catholics do not just pray; we make a whopping big Sign of the Cross to tell the whole area we are now thanking God for our food.

If we were only Baptists and could just bow our heads….

2. Speaking of the Dark Ages…

Currently, Christians are the most persecuted minority on earth (watch PragerU’s video on the subject.)

In many East Asian countries, one cannot practice any religion.

On the other side of the world, some Muslim countries will put to death anyone who disagrees with them, from gays to Catholics to disobedient wives.

But all this pales in comparison to the greatest genocide since the asteroid wiped out half the earth: The Inquisition.

Or so we Catholics might think from all the hateful looks and comments on the subject.

Despite the State being more responsible for the torturing of heretics than the Church at the time, the idea of the “Catholic Inquisition” is so ingrained in the minds of most that this is just another instance where we must smile and listen, like the cruel torturers we are.

3. Who Does Wear a Cloth Necklace?

Please tell me I am not the only Catholic to be yelled at while fighting for survival in the tumultuous waves of Airport Security.

The story goes like this:

-“Ma’am!”

-What have I done, now? I know: they found out I have been using the same Metro ticket for five years!

“Take off your necklace.”

Necklace?

I don’t even own a necklace. I am an earrings type of girl.

But, in the off chance that a flying squirrel threw one around my neck when I was not watching, I glance down-only to see my scapular.

The “necklace” made of old cloth hanging on by one thin worn thread, ready to tear at any minute.

The one with the pretty picture of a lady standing on a moon.

We can’t say Our Lady did not suffer greater things for us.

But being Catholic in the world is not all suffering.

Here is one of the many joys of our Faith:

4. My Really Older Brother Built That

I love this country and all but, let’s face it: Europe’s churches are so much cooler. Flying buttresses, Gothic Cathedrals, the number of side altars reaching the double digits.

In America we do not have that. We also do not have the Sistine Chapel paintings, Fra Angelico’s Annunication, or Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.

Funny, you know? Seems like many of mankind’s greatest artistic achievements were done by Catholics.

Vatican City? Not too shabby for being built by a member of that crazy necklace wearing sect known as Catholics.

Since we are all connected in the Mystical Body of Christ, looking at the Pieta is like looking upon the work of a much older sibling.

                        Who can’t be proud to be part of a family like that?

What is your favorite part about being Catholic? Any particular struggles besides these three?