Are You Catholic-ing Right?

Picture this: it’s 2020, and your church sends out an announcement that its doors will be closed for the unforeseeable future due to a looming pandemic that might end humanity. Your first thought was likely, “Okay, this too shall pass,” and then your second thought was, “Oh no! No Eucharist? No Jesus’ Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity?!”

Your priest sends out an invite to watch the Mass online. “Great. At least I get the Word of God.”

Now let’s say this "shall not pass." Let’s say it becomes the norm for months, and (ever so cautiously) years?

Let’s say your longing for Jesus in the Eucharist leaves you spiritually starved.

Let’s say the Word of God becomes irksome to you because every mention of its missionary tone to “Go out” is blunted by your inability to actually go out.

And let’s say the family with whom you are bunkered down starts to lose their religious zeal.

And you start to lose your interest in… everything, including your faith.

So you go online.

But you don’t become a missionary to the digital continent. Instead, you become a consumer of all its worldly allurements because your boredom at home leaves you with little else to provide those hits of dopamine you used to receive by logging on.

And you become dependent on that device.

Now, let’s say this isn’t just happening to you, but to all people, worldwide, who now isolate themselves in their rooms, entranced by an artificial reality that caters to their every desire, sinful and/or spiritual.

And your church remains abandoned.

So does your local bar.

And your child’s school.

And the museums, the symphony, the movie theaters, and libraries.

Because you can get all of that on your phone.

Even the grocery store is less populated because you can order groceries with an app.

Same reason why the restaurants are empty.

Now let’s say the pandemic threat disappears.

And the people have every opportunity to “go out” again.

But they don’t.

Because they’re still in their rooms, on their phones.

If they’re lucky, their phone, or their interest in it, dies.

And they realize their longing for true connection.

They go back out to the grocery store or to the restaurant because they’re hungry for food.

They go back to school or work because they’re hungry for knowledge and progress.

Then, something uber-interesting happens—they start wondering what community feels like again.

As Catholics in a secular world, community is a necessary component to our spiritual growth. Post-pandemic community life is fascinating because it is the antidote to the seclusion we felt in the early 2020s. The question we all ask ourselves, though, is, “How do I live a truly Catholic lifestyle in the communities (both secular and spiritual) in which God has placed me?”

Let’s explore these various communities, including our digital connections, and see just how “Catholic” we can be in them:

Work/School

If you work at a diocese or as a parish worker, this part isn’t for you. Gomer over at Catching Foxes talks about his life as a Church worker in pretty much every episode since he started working in the roofing industry.

This is for the secular lay men and women who work in the public square. Teachers, students, police officers, office workers… wherever work and learning intermingles with non-Catholics.

How Catholic can you be in these places? It varies depending on how your colleagues and peers view the Catholic faith—some will be curious about your ever-ancient, ever-new faith. Others will be militantly opposed to it. And you will be right in the middle of that spectrum.

Your goal in this space is to test those limits without being noticed. You can go the St. Thérèse of Lisieux route and do millions of small things with great love in secret. Or, you can be bold and start a prayer group/Bible study that meets before you need to clock in. Start small by crossing yourself before you begin your work and build up your works of mercy in silence—they will speak louder than most of your words. Then, when your co-workers or fellow students approach you with questions, you’ll be like St. Peter and “always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks for the reason of your hope” (1 Peter 3:15).

Be humble in the secular workplace and let your Catholicism speak through your actions, because if you are Bible-thumping your colleagues and constantly making references to your religious beliefs, you’re not doing it right.

Neighborhood

This is personally my favorite place to evangelize. Where you live is typically the place you spend the most time. Your home or apartment is your domestic Church, even if it has a congregation of one. But your neighbors are the first fruits of your contemplative love.

How can your Catholicism impact your neighborhood? In a bajillion ways—through neighborhood cookouts or ice cream socials. Go for a walk and say hi to your neighbors. Bake cookies just because and wrap them in plastic wrap to give to the lady down the block whose grandkids come every Friday. Mow the elderly man’s lawn. Invite your floormates in your complex to board game night in your apartment. Get statues of a Saint and put them next to your front door. Fly a Vatican flag. Get dressed nicely, and they’ll notice when you walk to your car to go to Church.

If your neighbors don’t know you’re Catholic, you’re not doing it right.

Church

Your faith community is the one place (save your domestic Church) where you can be around like-minded (or not-so-like-minded) Catholics. Whether you agree with how the liturgy is run in your parish or not, or what the proper interpretation of the footnote of some Pope’s encyclical from the Middle Ages means, you’re still a part of a system, THE system, of organized religion. Its rules and regulations are specific, but the way we live out our faith is unique to our calling.

That being said, we are one body, and the Church community is the one place where your spiritual community can sustain itself through the life-giving meal of Christ in the Eucharist. To add, this is the place where you can learn from and depend on people who have grown to levels of holiness that you aspire to. Of all our different communities, this—the Church—is where you can feel the most comfortable in your Catholic faith, but it must also be the place where you experience the most humility in your discipline to know, love, and serve God through the talents he gives you.

Church is where you learn to “go out” and evangelize. It’s also the place where you are raised to become a missionary disciple.

If all of your spiritual life takes place within the walls of this space, you’re not doing it right.

Online

The digital continent is a strange missionary land. In the past, missionaries would travel to distant lands, learn their languages and customs, and convert the people to the true faith by means of education, service, and unfortunately, in some cases, by conquest.

The digital frontier is different. For starters, we travel to it with a click of a button. We don’t have a corporal presence, but an intellectual one, upon which we build our digital footprint through the publication, or reception of, content.

So, how Catholic can you be online?

The answer: very.

In fact, everything you do online should have a semblance (and essence) of Catholic holiness.

Look at (almost St.) Carlo Acutis as a perfect example of this. He loved screens, so much so that he taught himself how to design websites during an HTML time when such things were hard to do. And what types of sites did he design?

Catholic ones (like this one).

And he felt that same sense of darkness that the digital world surrounds us in—the behavioral addictions that tend to tear us away from God, community, and ultimately ourselves.

His primary mission in everything he did, both online and in the real world, was to become holy and take everyone he could with him.

This should be our mission, too.

Every keystroke, every app we download, every time we unlock our screens, we must do so with the intent of becoming holier. But we must not stay amongst our digital communities—we must always return to the reality of the Body of Christ, His Church, His Sacraments, and ultimately His mystical union with us in mind, body, and soul.

If the only way you are able to live out your Catholic faith is online, you’re not doing it right.

En Fin

Let’s go back to that feeling of hopelessness you felt when your Parish closed its doors to the public. Remember that holy longing you felt when you were unable to experience the power of receiving the Eucharist. Think about how difficult it was not to be surrounded by your fellow parishioners who love Jesus so much they wanted to be in His presence at Mass. Think about the total completion of self that unifying your soul with God’s (and His people) in the Sacrament of Communion achieves.

Now, think about all of your friends, family, and co-workers who long for completion. Imagine their desire (be it knowingly or unknowingly) to know, love, and serve Jesus to the highest degree possible.

It’s time for you to “go out” and be Jesus for them in word, in deed, and in silent prayer.

And maybe through your presence in the community you share, they’ll one day come to know the fullness of Communion in Christ’s most perfect gift of the Eucharist.

And then you’ll be doing it right.