Catholic-Link.com - This video expresses an all too overlooked truth, that just because someone claims to be Catholic it does not mean that they actually are one. A girl is taken into a court room, convicted of being Catholic. After being questioned and insisting that she is Catholic, she is declared guilty. Then her lawyer pleads with the judge for an opportunity to prove that she really isn’t a true Christian and therefore is “innocent”. Granted the floor, the lawyer reveals just how superficial her faith really is and that although she sincerely believes she is an authentic member of the Catholic church, she falls tragically short of fulfilling what that actually means.
A Deeper Look
It is quite refreshing that the video boils Catholicism down to the simple commandment of loving the least of our brothers. The character reads from the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus explains that loving the least, like the hungry, thirsty, and imprisoned, is in fact, loving him. Christ again says in the Gospel of John, ”By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” So the message is clear, if we love others in a real and concrete way then we are Catholic in a real and concrete way.
So many people, I believe, think of the Catholic Church and think of priest’s vestments and marble saint statues. Sometimes there even appears to be a similar attitude within the pews, where if one were to look at fellow church members, they may begin to think that all there is to being Catholic is praying memorized prayers and kneeling and standing when it is appropriate. Yet this video helps to remind us all why we go to Church in the first place. The holiness of the Mass cannot be contained within the walls of the sanctuary, it must be spread out through the world, and it is our job to do so.
There is an interesting dynamic in that the Eucharist is God himself, and in that way, it is our, “be all and end all”, and our ultimate goal and object of our admiration. Yet, on the other hand, it plays the role in this world of also being our food. This may not seem like a very important distinction to make at first, but it becomes so when you realize that we do not live to eat, rather, we eat to live.
What I am trying to imply by saying this is that Jesus does not tell us parables of people sitting around and eating, unless he is speaking of the eternal banquet, which is a reference to heaven. When Christ speaks about this life, he uses images of workers. In Luke 10 he speaks about the harvest and the laborers, in Matthew 20 he tells a parable of employees in a vineyard, and again in Matthew he speaks of the servants and their duty to increase the wealth that was given to them by their master, through work and investment. In fact he goes so far as to say that those who do not increase their spiritual wealth are wicked servants.
So with a desire to follow God, and act as honest servants of his divine work, let’s take up the torch and begin to spread Christ’s message with such ardor and sincerity that when others see us in action they will immediately know that we are disciples of Christ.
- Ian J
Video Produced By Outside da Box productions
© IanJ for Catholic Link, 2012. |
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