Faith and Applesauce

There are certain foods I really like: whipped cream, Greek yogurt, pasta, etc. Having favorite foods puts me in the normal human being category, which feels nice from time to time (because single, female, Catholic youth minister living in a small town in Ohio isn't much of a common denominator these days). Anyway, one of these fine edibles I enjoy happens to be applesauce. No sugar added applesauce, to be precise. Blame it on my family (we typically made and canned 6-8 bushels worth every year when I was growing up) or blame it on the fact that it's readily available at Walmart and goes so nicely with many different meals... however you look at it, I just really like the stuff!

On the other hand, it's not like I walk around with it in my purse and eat it all day long. I don't hang posters of it on my walls, or wax eloquent on the wonders of this mushed up fruit. So imagine my surprise when one of my friends recently told me that he is currently addicted to eating applesauce... and it's all my fault.

My reaction: "What did I even do? All I did was eat it for dinner one night in front of you!"

Apparently that's all it took.

I was pondering this tonight, whilst making my own dinner (which, by the way, did not include applesauce). Was it really that attractive that, after merely one look, he had to go to the store and get some for himself? I didn't have to rant on and on about the merits of applesauce, come up with convincing arguments for it, or even ask him if he wanted some. Hmm, I thought. So weird. But I couldn't deny what had happened - he's been eating applesauce for days now, ever since he saw me with it just that one time.

And so I submit to you yet another real-life analogy about how we must be witnesses of Christ, before anyone is going to listen to the words we have to say. I know, it can be a tired discussion in Catholic circles, and it's easy to say "Yeah, yeah, we already know that. Witnesses before teachers, Paul VI, blah blah blah. We got it."

I fully admit it: this is just another little blog post reminding you to live like Christ. But the reason it's a bit cliche is because it's true. I don't really want to go into all the caveats right now (for instance, that we must also preach Christ with our words, and not rarely, by any means). Let's just keep it simple and suffice it to say this: I could talk about applesauce all day and no one would care. But the hook was seeing me eat it, and dare I say, seeing me enjoy eating it.

I have no hidden twist to share with you, no extra-special insight that has eluded the Pope or that will convert the nation overnight. I just humbly submit to you one simple, little reminder, and that is this: be fully, passionately, joyfully Catholic. Be filled with life, love and holiness, and see what happens! The Holy Spirit likes to surprise us and use us to bear fruit (applesauce pun definitely intended), even when we aren't expecting it.

It's God's Boat

"Throughout history, the Church has frequently been in difficulty; those difficulties often come because of that 'little faith' or lack of faith for which Jesus chides Peter. A Church in difficulty or crisis is, typically, a frightened Church: a Church that has lost sight of the Lord, that has fixed its gaze on another horizon, and that is awash in troubles because it is no longer looking as closely or as intently as it should be on the Risen One who comes to his people in ways they often do not expect. Then the situation is rectified and the disciples' fears are relieved (as Catholic crises through the centuries will be rectified and Catholic fears for the future relieved) by the Lord's initiative: the Risen One, the Son of God, gets into the boat of the Church, on the Sea of Galilee and throughout the millennia, and puts things right. 

     "Through this story, Matthew's gospel constantly reminds the Church that, for all our cleverness and skill, we are impotent in matters of salvation - that we are the saved, not the saviors, and that all attempts at self-justification come to naught. Put another way, the Church is Christ's Church, not ours, and we start sinking when we try to make it ours."

-George Weigel, Evangelical Catholicism