Some of us were baptized when we were little, had our first communion when we were in elementary school, and then had our confirmation when we were in junior high school. We went to church every Sunday with our parents. As we grow older, we start questioning our faith. Had I not been born in a Catholic family, would I be a Catholic now? What does being a Catholic mean to me?
Some people think that being a catholic means going to church every Sunday, doing good, and avoiding sins. That’s it. But actually, there is much more than that. What is so special about Catholic that makes us feel lucky to encounter this faith?
First, it’s about our personal relationship with God. We believe that God is the one who created us, He knows us personally, and He loves us. Think about it. Someone is loving us unconditionally and taking care of us. Isn’t it wonderful? Imagine if we don’t believe in God or religion, so we will only rely on ourselves, our family, and our friends perhaps. But we know how life works. People come and go in our lives. In the future, we may be in a situation where we cannot take care of ourselves and we cannot rely on anybody. When that happens, what can we do? We will be hopeless. But if we have faith in God, we have hope that when life becomes tough, we are not alone and God will save us.
Second, this faith teaches us about love. To love everybody like Jesus loves us. Which is unconditional love. A lot of people think that money is the key to happiness. But don’t we realize that it is actually love that brings us to true happiness? Isn’t loving someone or being loved by someone the greatest feeling? If we truly live our faith, we will see this world from the lenses of love. We see the good in people, not just their weaknesses. We forgive people, even though it’s hard. We will not expect anything from others because we love them unconditionally. And this will make us more free to love and to receive love. Nowadays, we are afraid to be ourselves and to be vulnerable, because we think we have to meet certain expectations to be loved by others. It’s possible that we also love others with conditions. For example, we adore people with good looks, great achievements, or certain traits. How about the poor, sick, or unsuccessful people? Do we still respect them and treat them with compassion? At the end of the day, the Catholic faith can inspire us to love everybody regardless of who they are and to accept people the way they are.
Third, the faith is about getting to know who our God is. In the beginning, I mentioned that Catholic faith is about personal relationship with God. That means we have to know our God well before entering into a relationship with Him. Since we were kids, we were told that God is great, powerful, and merciful. But these great things about God are not something we can understand until we experience them ourselves. So how do we get to know God and experience His love and mercy? Every relationship takes time. It will also take time to grow deeper in faith. We can start our relationship with God by greeting Him every morning through prayer; involving Him in our daily life; read scriptures because that’s where God has revealed Himself to us; as well as attending the Sunday mass. If we never want to spend time with God and always busy with our own lives, then don’t say that God did not exist. That’s because we never really look for Him.
If we only do what we were told to do since we were kids, such as going to church, doing good, and avoiding sins, eventually we will be burned out. Without a deep relationship with God, without experiencing God’s love in our daily life, we will think that Catholic is merely a religion that has too many rules, and we may become bored with the Sunday mass ritual because we see the Sunday mass as an obligation rather than something we love to do. But if we grow our relationship with God first and experience God’s love in every day’s life, then following the rules and attending the Sunday mass become our second nature as an expression of love and gratitude for God.
To sum up, Catholic is about God’s love that gives hope and assurance, loving one another unconditionally, and growing in a relationship with God. It will take time to fully integrate these things in our daily life, but once we do it, we will start to see that this faith can actually transform our lives.