![](\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/__dQCWErAY9c\/S9nGvpJs__I\/AAAAAAAAALE\/wN66l7upCq8\/s1600\/truckdriver.jpg\")
<\/a>As our sons enter their teenage years, the challenge of imbuing them with Catholic Christian values is becoming more difficult. How do I live in the world as a Christian when my tendency as a Christian is to protect my sons by running and hiding with them? I just got off the phone with one of my dearest friends. As usual, talking with Martha illuminated me. Today\u2019s hour-long chat included mention of a tattooed, pierced truck driver. Not the one at left, but someone like him.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>Martha lives about an hour from us and is busy raising four daughters with her husband. So we don\u2019t talk or see one another as much as either of us would like. We joke that during our occasional marathon phone calls, however, we \u201csolve world problems.\u201d We nearly always talk about how we are trying to live out our faith and raise children to follow Christ in a world that seems increasingly indifferent to spirituality.<\/p>\n Martha and her husband, devout Christians, had considered homeschooling their daughters. Instead, they enrolled them in public schools, believing the girls could be a light of faith for other children. Lately, she\u2019s been struggling with the same issues I am: how to maintain and communicate our values to our children, while not condemning or avoiding others who don\u2019t share our beliefs. Our faith teaches us, after all, that every human being was called into existence and is deeply loved by God. Everyone we encounter is redeemable. Each of us is part of the face of Christ in this world. This is how she began to talk about the truck driver.<\/p>\n Martha told me about how she recently had stopped at a red light with her daughters. Her third grader looked over at the truck stopped next to them. The driver had lots of tattoos on his arms and multiple piercings on his face and ears. The daughter sneered at the sight of him, \u00a0turned to her mother and said \u201cWhy would someone look \u00a0like that?\u201d Martha took a deep breath.\u00a0\u201cYou know what? He\u2019s the kind of guy Christ would want to hang out with.\u201d\u00a0\u201cReally?\u201d the daughter asked. \u00a0\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Martha told her.<\/p>\n During the time of Christ there lived a group of Jews called the Pharisees.\u00a0Their name comes from the Hebrew word\u00a0<\/span>parush<\/span><\/i>, meaning \u201cset apart.\u201d They came into existence during the third century B.C. \u201c<\/span>A growing sense of superiority to the\u00a0<\/span>heathen<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>idolatrous<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0nations among whom their lot was cast came to be one of their main characteristics<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0Boy, does this hit close to home.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s no coincidence that Christ came into our world during a time when Pharisees were a revered group or that Christ considered them a bunch of hypocrites. And it isn\u2019t some random biographical detail that Christ chose to share meals with people who lacked piety. This all is designed to instruct us how to live our Christian faith: in the world, not just the sanctuary.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Here in the suburbs, I\u2019m not likely to encounter a leper. Who are our modern-day undesirables? The teen rushed to the emergency room for alcohol poisoning. The neighbor spotted at nearby bars, cheating on his wife. The parents who prefer cocktail parties to spending time with their children. The former parishioner who mocks the church. The mother who sends her troubled son to a counselor with his nanny instead of accompanying him herself.<\/p>\n We\u2019re called not to condemn. We are called to see, as another friend puts it, \u201cthe smashed face of Christ\u201d in those we encounter, including ourselves.<\/p>\n<\/a>How easy it is for me feel self-satisfied in my sweet cocoon of family and parish, from which I sometimes look out at others with suspicion or contempt.\u00a0Christ had a strong name for people like me: hypocrites.\u00a0If we want to follow the life of Christ, we need to take a look at how Christ lived. He didn\u2019t hang out with pious people. In Chapter 2<\/a> of the Gospel of St. Mark, Christ leaves his home. He argues with other Jewish teachers. He heals a paralyzed man and then shocks people by forgiving his sins. He finds Levi, who is a tax collector, a man doing one of the most sordid jobs for the Roman occupation. (Think of how we view loan sharks.) Christ says to Levi, a married father of four: \u201cFollow me.\u201d \u00a0Christ shares a meal with Levi and his disreputable friends. The Pharisees were disgusted to see Christ eating with such a crew.\u00a0Levi eventually becomes an apostle of Christ. He\u2019s St. Matthew (pictured). See how much he looks like the truck driver?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n