I am Catholic because it was chosen for me to be
baptized (in this life) into this denomination of my family's Christian faith.
Before I was even a glistening star in my mother's eye, she converted from
Baptist to Catholic. When I was an infant, and it came time for my faith to be
professed, my mother chose that I join her in her newfound faith. And so it has
been, for the past 25 years from cradle to present day, that I have been a
Roman-Catholic Christian. I spent 12 years in Catholic school. I went to church
at a local Catholic church, every Sunday with my devout mother. I have even been
grilled by the notion, most recently, that nothing would make my mother prouder
than for me to one day give her Catholic grandchildren, in a holy matrimonial
union between me and her future Catholic son-in-law. And of course, with God
always steady behind the wheel of my life's vehicle, it would happen that my
first full-time job out of college would be for a Catholic university.
However, though my life is so well versed and
coated in Catholicism, I am at a point now where I am revealing the real
me to the world. Yet, in the midst of this revelation, I am curiously
tempted but brave enough to face the consequences in asking the very
important but very tricky question in my life: Why is it I am Catholic?
Why do I continue to follow in this way of faith and of a life filled
with beliefs and laws that continue to shape my faith life and help guide
my physical one? Is it I am Catholic because my mom wanted me to be or I
choose to be? Whether it is someone else's choice or mine, what does it
really mean, to me, being Catholic?
I am Catholic, first and foremost, because I
need and love the spiritual stability of the faith that comes with the
traditions and universal practices of the Church. Everyone needs
something to believe; and, the Catholic Church has provided me with years
of strong faith built upon a solid faith community and academic
foundation. Catholic weekly/weekend Masses and school have given me
purpose and prepared me to know how my place in the world is so much
influenced by this faith in God.
It is this influence that is the reason I
know whose I am as well as who I am. The down-to-earth feel of the
Catholic community strengthens me wholeheartedly, in every aspect of my
very being. The Church has had many a battle over the past two millennia
that have given shape and character to it through its followers. In
studying these battles, and the history behind them, I take on that shape
and grow by living out my life in the fashion of that same character.
The Catholic Church stands for what it
believes in as the teachings of our Savior. It teaches that no matter the
struggles of the battles in life, I still can stand strong in my beliefs.
Just as in Mark 2: 1- 5, four strong men's faith helped one paralytic to
be lowered down through a roof of disbelief and into
his strong faith
before the presence of our Lord. One in the same, it is the determined
and strong faith of being Catholic, a billion-strong community of faith
around the world, that affords me help to faithfully reach and come
before the Lord for myself. Being Catholic, for me, just feels
comfortable. I am at home and loved - the essence of God for me. There is
this sense of fulfillment that stays with me, for being a Catholic. For
it is that people do not care bout how much you know, until they know how
much you care.
The Church, in many ways over the years, has
shown it cares about its people and me. It gives new meaning to the
phrase "commitment to excellence," because it has used its followers and
leaders to be the best disciples the world has seen. It provides a haven
to build family in faith, in a world that prepares a place rejecting the
idea of every human being as being family and one in the same to another
as kin eternally in God. Being Catholic reminds me that we are all one
family. For I am because we are and since we are therefore I am. We are
all one family under the same tradition of seeking God's love that has
and will sustain us until the end of time.
We all have different stories, some where we
were born "cradle" Catholics, baptized in our infancy and reared in the
faith as part of our families' generations-old tradition. Some, in
school, learned about Catholicism and were so academically and
spiritually impressed in celebrating its practices. Others, after years
of exposure and having fallen in love with the church through years of
mass attendances as a non-Catholic, have decided to join R.C.I.A. and
officially join the Church. Catholics, either by life involuntary
circumstances or voluntary choice, have joined and been immersed
profoundly in God through the practices of the Catholic faith. God's plan
for their life laid out that destiny to reign true and come to life,
sustained strong.
Simply or not simply, it all boils down to
what you feel and what you believe in your heart and soul to be true. I
believe in all the reasons that have led me to stay a Catholic. I believe
in the woman behind her holy black habit and white vestments to be a sign
of authority and resilience, influenced in a life nourished by her
commitment to service in the name of her faith. I believe in the priest,
whose plans are wonderfully grandiose and whose life is led sharply by
its point of strong conviction. I believe in the godparents who kept it
real and kept me focused with loving arms and open understanding. Most of
all, I will always believe in the mother of all conservative and
unconditionally loving Catholic mothers that molded my faith strong,
despite the challenges of single motherhood, keeping me firmly standing
in the glistening light of faith in God. Catholic, I am a part of
something that is more than a huge number of followers in lots of church
buildings worldwide. We are family with Christ serving and worship God!
We are Catholic! We are Christian! We Are Love!
Ms. Glenda A. Brown hails from her home state
of Georgia, in the city of Atlanta, by way of Birmingham, AL and Pawleys
Island, SC. By day and during the week, she works as Program Assistant
for the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of
Louisiana, in New Orleans, LA. By night and on weekends, she focuses on
her love of short filmmaking, cooking, and what else…writing. She wishes
only to fulfill God's purpose for her life, living each day surrounded by
the people who love her and being happy in the knowledge that she made a
difference in making time to be there for, listen to, or help out someone
else. God's Blessings!!!
