Monday, April 8, 2013

Catholic in the Extreme

Sorry for taking such a long break.  I especially want to apologize to my fans, i know you both missed me terribly.

      Part of the reason  was gone so long was i simply ran out of topics worth writing on.  Or rather, I ran out of things to say on them.  The other part is, trying to write a post weakly became a chore and then i lost interest.  From now on i will try to post more than once a semester, but no promises on how often that will be.

      Here is what got me to come back.  I saw a post from CatholicVote today and it got me thinking.  You can read the article here. But basically, the author is upset that some low level military clerk put together a power point in which Catholics were referred to as extremists. 
       Now, on the one hand, the power point did put us along side such groups as the KKK, Al Queda and Hamas.  That is a little offensive but that was not CatholicVote's complaint. CatholicVote was upset we were called "extremists".  They found something which was marginally offensive and then proceeded to miss why.  Yes, it is offensive to imply the Catholic Church is a hate group.  No, it is not offensive to call us extremists.  That is exactly what we are called to be.
       We are called to a radical Christianity that makes itself felt in every part of the world, that expresses itself in every aspect of society.  Not with blades or bombs, but with truth and love.  Catholic extremists devote their lives to serve the poor and underprivileged, they build schools and hospitals, they travel to strange and distant lands just to tell people whom they had never met just how much they love them.
      Some religious extremists have Bin Laden.  We have Mother Teresa. 

       Saints are radical, they go to the extreme.  St. Francis once challenged a group of Muslim scholars to walk with him through a furnace and whoever survived served the true God.  The scholars declined his offer.
       After John Paul II recovered from being shot he went and forgave his attacker and even converted him to Christianity.
       As the Titanic was going down, Father Thomas Byles turned down two seats on life boats in order to remain with those who needed him.  He gave up his life in order to spend a few more minutes with people who were soon to die.  He spent his last minutes praying the rosary, hearing confession and sharing what words of comfort he had.
     
       This is Catholic Extremism, this is what we are called to.  We ought never take offense when someone accuses us of living up to it.  If only there were more Catholic extremists out there, the world would be a much better place.


From your friendly neighborhood Ghym








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