Are you proud to be a Catholic?

BE PROUD TO BE A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH
Acts 2:1–11 & John 20:19–23

How easy it is to criticise people and situations - and how slow we are to express appreciation.  A family may enjoy a dozen delicious meals and never say a word of thanks.  But serve one that falls short, and suddenly everyone has something to say!  A worker may do his job faithfully day after day and hear nothing. But let him make one mistake, and it’s the only thing anyone remembers.  It seems we often express disapproval more readily than approval.

The same can be said of the Church.  Speak with people in the street, and you’ll hear what’s wrong with the Church.  “It’s full of hypocrites.” “It’s too divided.”  “It’s out of touch.”  “It favours the rich and forgets the poor.”  No doubt, there is some truth in these criticisms.  The Church is made up of human beings - imperfect, fallible, and in need of ongoing conversion.  That includes you and me.  So yes, the Church is open to criticism and in need of reform.

But that’s not the whole story.

Today, on the great feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, it is fitting that we speak up for her, that we balance the books.  Let us set aside our habit of criticism and instead look at what is right with the Church.

First, the Church endures.  At her birth, she was small and fragile.  In today’s Gospel, we find the apostles hiding in fear behind locked doors.  It seemed their cause was lost.  Yet the Church survived.  Empires have risen and fallen, the mighty Roman Empire has disappeared, but the Church lives on.  In a world where so much crumbles and fades, this is deeply reassuring.  And we are convinced, on the word of Christ Himself, that the Church will endure until the end of time.  Her ability to survive through storms and centuries is one of her greatest strengths.

Second, the Church serves.  You can measure the value of the Church by her ministry to those in need.  For centuries she has built schools, hospitals, orphanages.  She has formed charitable organisations like the St. Vincent de Paul Society.  Her missionaries have not only preached the Gospel but taught people to read, to write, to hope.  She has served in leper colonies and in famine zones.  She has raised millions for those in the developing world.  All of this flows from the words of Jesus: “As long as you did it to the least of my brothers, you did it to Me.”

Third, the Church sanctifies.  Through the Mass and the Sacraments, the Church shapes men and women of extraordinary holiness and courage.  From the first martyrs to modern-day saints like Pope John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Mother Teresa, and Padre Pio, she brings forth lives that shine like stars in the darkness.  We can be proud to belong to a Church that, through grace, produces such witnesses.

Fourth, the Church reminds the world of God.  In an increasingly secular age, she stands as a signpost pointing to Christ.  She proclaims that life has meaning, that forgiveness is real, that God is love.  Even some Catholics say you don’t need to go to church to find God.  But if that were true, we would have to say Jesus was mistaken when He instituted the Eucharist and said, “Take and eat… take and drink.”  Yes, we can feel God’s presence in nature.  But we meet Him in the Mass, in the Eucharist, in the Scriptures, in the communion of believers.  That is the heart of the Church.

Yes, the Church has had her dark moments - bad popes, divisions, scandals.  But through it all, the Holy Spirit has guided her. And He will continue to do so.  The feast of the Holy Spirit we celebrate today is the soul of the Church.  He corrects her, purifies her, and ensures that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her.

So today, be proud to be a Catholic.  Not with arrogance, but with gratitude.  The Church is not perfect.  But she is Christ’s Bride.  She is our Mother.  And in her we find life, truth, and the hope of salvation.

Lord Jesus, today, on the birthday of the Church, we rejoice and thank You for the grace of being members of Your Body.  Help us to be loyal and faithful, humble and hopeful, always ready to build up, not tear down.  Come, Holy Spirit, renew the face of the earth, and renew Your Church within us.  Amen.

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