Do you know anyone who lives an "authentic life"? I think Kelly is right that we are all put off by hypocrisy but let's not confuse it with human failure. I think sometimes it's a little too easy to speak of Christians as Gandhi did, "If I had ever met one, I would have become one." I've met many Christians and they all had one thing in common - they were both saint and sinner. Just like me. Perhaps Gandhi's standards were too high. Was he looking for the perfect Christian?
Our Church is filled with saints who lived an "authentic life". How many of us know the lives of these heroes of the Church? Maybe we think they had some special grace that allowed them to live lives of heroic virtue but the truth is we are all given the grace to know and love God. Here's a few role models from just the last century:
Mother Teresa
Maria Goretti
Maximilian Kolbe
Josephine Bakhita
Joseph Moscati
Gianna Beretta Molla
Andre Bessette
Richard Pampuri
What do you think? Is it possible for you and me in the 21st century to be a saint?
How can we learn about Jesus and the faith? It is a hard thing. You can listen to someone who might be inspiring and that can work, but we have lived so many examples of people who you think "have it" end up being caught doing something awful. It is so heart-breaking. So it causes us to doubt everything we hear. People talk a good game.
ReplyDeleteThe church has it right, we learn best through the power of an example; hence, we have the saints. Jesus Himself explained that he came to be a "model to follow". We are all watching one another very carefully.
This is the challenge for all of us, to live a holy life in order to best teach the faith.
Yes, we seem to live in a particularly "heart-breaking" time when the news focused so heavily on those who let us down. Where do you go when members of the church let you down?
ReplyDeleteI think you have to look for those who are not setting a bad example. We are all fallen and so putting our complete faith in any member of the Church (except the head, Jesus) can leave us disappointed. And yet, we know that Jesus gave us the Church to pass on the model that He was and is. That's why we can't leave her even when her members let us down. We aren't made to go it alone. We are made for community and the Church is that community that we have been given to help work out our salvation (Philipians 2:12).