‘Catholics Are Wonderful at Being Sad’

Some wonderful wisdom, via Tony Rossi and The Christophers, from a young cancer survivor with a message for the world:

At age 35, Kate Bowler’s life certainly seemed blessed. She had a loving husband and newborn son, she’d written a successful book exploring the prosperity gospel, and she worked as a professor at Duke Divinity School. Then, she was diagnosed with incurable stage four colon cancer.

It became a challenge to process this information in light of her views on God, views that suggested God would heal anything if you just had enough faith.

Kate eventually came to a new understanding and experience of God’s love in the midst of pain and brokenness. She shares her thoughts in the Christopher Award-winning memoir “Everything Happens for a Reason: and Other Lies I’ve Loved” – and she joined me recently on “Christopher Closeup” to discuss the book.

Though not Catholic, she has a rich appreciation for the faith:

Kate noted that she loves Catholics because they are “wonderful at being sad.” That appreciation has only grown in the past few years. She said, “I’ve learned from the Catholic tradition, especially in Lent, that there are times of deep and important lament, when the church, and especially Catholics, are so good at saying and performing what it feels like to come undone…A Catholic cross has a suffering Jesus up there to remind us that we’re in our bodies, Jesus was in his body, and that our suffering is not an affront to God. And that, I think, is really important and beautiful, especially when you’re off in Protestant land with very bare crosses, very few reminders that the world isn’t as it should be.”

Not only does Kate now appreciate Lent more, she’s also come to a new understanding of Easter. She used to view life as something “where I just get a lot done. You love all the right people, do the right things, and, in a way, you don’t really need the Kingdom Come…I think that’s why Good Friday [and] the Easter story [are] so important. That’s why we have to remind ourselves and live through it every year. First, the world has come apart and only God can put it together. And then in Easter, we’re supposed to be hungry for the fact that God’s going to come back and that there will be a new kingdom and a new earth. Before, I didn’t really need a new kingdom. Now, I definitely do.”

Read it all and listen to the interview with her here. 

Watch a short video about her: