Be Catholic: Fight the Tyranny of “Fitting In”

My latest at New Evangelizers is up: Catholicism is for People Who Don’t Fit In.

Funny story: The other week at confirmation class, my kid won a gift card to Zaxby’s for being able to define and explain the word “Catholic.”  Important concept for a group of 9th graders thinking they might want to commit to this Jesus thing after all.  It’s not a club.  It’s not a lunch table you get to sit at.

It is understandable that we might seek out a place where we fit in.  Who doesn’t want to find “our” people? But one of the marks of the Church — that “Catholic” part — is that we are home to everyone.  We’re not the place where people turn themselves into Katholic Klones.  We’re the place where you can be yourself in your all your eccentric unrepeatability, but fully belong nonetheless.

It’s for people who like this, and this, and also this and this.*

Which means that if your efforts at evangelizing are failing because people just aren’t coming out for Wine and Cheese Night, or Hunters for Jesus, or whatever it is you are doing to try to lure people into your clutches, that could be a hint that you’ve got things a whole lot backward.

Understanding the nature of the Church helps us resist bait-and-switch attempts at evangelization. . . . The rationale is that prospects will come for one thing and stay for another.  But longing for a good social scene doesn’t impel one to faith in Christ.  It is only when the person longs for a relationship with Jesus that evangelization and discipleship can occur.

That doesn’t mean there’s no place for parish clubs and activities.  There is such a place, an important one, and I discuss that over at NE.  But when you have your relationships in order, you can have an authentic Christian community: Something much deeper and more sincere than any bond over superficial interests.

If we are living entirely and only for Christ, everything else in our lives is just details.  Suddenly the person with whom I have nothing in common is the person with whom I have Everything in common.

Read the whole thing here.

*But we’re allowed to argue about our art, right?  Yes? That’s part of the experience too? Please?

PS: I’m going to write another post about it later, but all this confirmation talk reminds me to remind you, the YOUCAT rocks. I don’t care how goofy it seems on the surface. Get one.  Read it.