The Drama of being Catholic

Ever since I became Catholic it has become clearer and clearer to me that being Catholic means having drama. There is always a debate about something going on. Whether it is about abortion, contraception, whether or not to go to invalid weddings, to hold hands or not to hold hands during the Our Father, immigration, whether it is smart to say that your future spouse will never do X or the many other things that Catholics argue about.

One day you can write something that has someone sing your praise and the next you write about something else and they hate everything you have ever written.

We divide into camps like those who like Noah and those who think ROCK PEOPLE! or those who like Matt Walsh and those who don’t or those who love Fr. Barron and those who think he’s the greatest heretic of 2014. We even debate every word that comes out of Pope Francis’ mouth.

We are drama queens. And we are family.

I used to think that all of this arguing on Facebook was scandalizing to those on the outside who probably wonder why a group of people claiming to love Jesus and follow Him can’t stop being snarky to one another for an entire day on the internet.

But today it came to me that it is not scandalizing at all. Anyone who sees any big family interact with each other will see exactly what plays out online with Catholics everyday. We laugh, we cry, we mourn, we fight, we are snarky to one another and we whine to our Father that “she won’t stop brrreeeathing on me!!”

We are brothers and sisters. Some of us don’t get along and some of us do but then disagree on some things. But no matter what, we are united by God our Father and the Church our mother.

What brought that home for me was reading this post written by a priest about a man who was mugged and killed yesterday morning. My newsfeed (which I shouldn’t even be looking at) has been filled with stories of this man and this particular post by a priest talking about the goodness of this man, my Catholic brother, that ended with a prayer for God to forgive the men who killed him. It  just hit it home to me, that for all our fighting and discussing , we love each other.

There was also the story of the two little girls who died in a car accident a few weeks ago who belonged to a Catholic family. Calah Alexander wrote this post that dripped with that love us Catholics have for one another.

In my parish, one of the members of our pastoral council and the daughter of a friend of mine died in a car accident the day after Ash Wednesday. As I sat at her Rosary and Funeral Mass, I looked around and saw my family. Sure I didn’t know some of them, and sure I had been angry at a few for whatever reason, but right then at that moment, in prayer for a sister who had started her way to Jesus, none of that mattered.

It is dramatic to be Catholic, we are crazy. We all have different gifts, different preferences, we are smart, philosophical, scientific, reasoned, opinionated and diverse. We have big mouths and big hearts.

When tragedy happens we are there for each other regardless of differences.

There is no other family I would rather be a part of than this one which is full of the kindest lunatics I’ve ever known.

Please consider pitching in for the funeral expenses of this fine young man if the Spirit leads you, and please pray for his family, his murders and for the repose of his soul.