I chose you

What does it mean to belong to the Catholic Church? To be a member of the Church?  Is it membership in the sense of belonging to a club or a political party, that is, something that we can join and leave as we please? Though many Catholics may consider it so, our baptism has more durable consequences.  

By our baptism we are woven into the life of the Church. It precedes us and affects us at a deeply personal and existential level. We are made sharers in the divine nature. We become God’s adopted children. Saint Augustine claimed that God responded to the tragedy of the Fall at the first moment of Adam’s sin by beginning the Church even then. Augustine called this “the Church of Adam.”      

We don’t normally think this way. We rarely think in such sweeping terms about our origins and identity. In a world of choices and options, we often view our membership in the Catholic Church as an accident of history more than a heritage of grace. When people describe themselves by saying “I was raised Catholic,” it sounds temporary and variable. We often view membership in the Church as an option, not an identity. 

Rather than being filled with wonder and gratitude by the truth of Christ’s victory over sin and death, we act as contented consumers having gotten a good deal for a good price.  

Or we can descend into becoming wary customers, content to know we haven’t paid too much or been too gullible in the face of extravagant claims. Perhaps such attitudes are understandable; we seldom view anything else in the world differently. Our view of the Church often becomes ill-formed because we think in such transactional terms. 

But, in truth, we are the beneficiaries of all God has done to rescue the world. It is all a gift.  

The heritage we have received enables us to live in freedom from the powers of death and to joyfully embrace the gift of life in its totality. In our status as God’s own beloved sons and daughters, there is nothing that is not given as a gift and blessing to us. 

This is part of what it means to describe ourselves as Catholics. We all know “catholic” means “universal;” most of the time we celebrate this aspect of our identity in terms of geography. We are the Church that is present throughout the world, everywhere the same, and each of us with our own part.  

But, there is a more complete sense of the word. “Catholic” also means there is no place where God is not. Every part of life, each aspect of our experience, the sum of ourselves, are the arenas in which God is present to us. The greatness of our lives in the Church is to know we have been given this promise.  

When the blessings of life are poured upon us, we know their origin and we can say “thanks” to God for them. When we suffer, we know this is a gateway to an intimacy with God that we can obtain no other way. Bright joy and glowing elation are invitations to union with God.  

And, so are the inevitability of pain and the undeniable truth of our limitations. Each part of our experience is where God is alive to us, where the Catholic nature of the Church is present. 

We see this clearly when we celebrate the saints. Their examples remind us of the infinite variety of ways that God is at work amid the circumstances and situations of life. Saint Paul was holy even amid his irritable impatience with those who couldn’t see the truth of Christ’s gift.

Saint Peter was blessed even when he struggled to move beyond his denial of Jesus. Saint Theresa of Calcutta is as celebrated for battling her dark night of the soul as she is for her sunny disposition. And Blessed Stanley Rother is notable because of the complications he had to navigate in his parish and mission in Guatemala.  

Each of the saints offers a unique example of God at work amid the universal challenge of living out a very personal call to holiness. Saints are not honored because they are immobile statues made of the same material, but because they are men and women who lived true, individual and very human lives.  

We are part of the Church of saints and martyrs. God has chosen us and made us a part of this blessing. Our lives, with all their intricate places and complicated geographies, are where God has chosen to take up residence and accompany us on the journey.  

Once we know this, being Catholic isn’t simply one choice among other choices, it is the blessing poured out upon us in unimaginable and unmerited ways.  

Imagine how your life would appear if you looked into the mirror and could see every part of your hidden self. Seeing all, and then knowing each aspect of life had been crafted in God’s will to be a gift to the world, you would recognize what a gift it is to be a part of the Church.  

This is what we have been given. God chose us to take part in this drama. We are the gift of God’s Church to the world.