What is a Catholic?

Matt Walsh's recently released documentary is causing certain eyes to role, spinning heads to spin more wildly, stomachs to churn and people's blood pressure to rise (higher than gasoline prices!). His video - What is a woman? - asks a simple enough question.

Walsh's documentary exposes an inability on the part of some members of society to respond to a reasonable question in a concise, civil, rational and honest manner. What should be easily coverable in a thirty second documentary - including title and credits - is understandably prolonged to meet the challenges of our day. Exposing sophistry in an age of intellectual complacency demands a lot from teachers. People nursed on a diet of "my truth", the silliest expression of relativism yet to infect conversations, too often end up with cotton candy for brains.

Leaving aside Mr. Walsh's timely exposé, let's ask a question that surely lingers in the minds of Catholics, and perhaps others, who are witnesses to a crisis of identity, or at least a confusion of identity propagated by cafeteria consumers of religion who cloth themselves in vagueries in an attempt to dodge the demands of the Christian vocation.

What is a Catholic?

The definition of who or what is a Catholic is more refined than certain Catholic-in-name-only politicians (and academics and...) are prepared to model and defend. Refined, not complicated nor vague.

The recent confirmation ceremony of a woman in our Ordinariate congregation offers the following straightforward qualification:

After joining with the congregation in reciting the Nicene Creed, the person being received into the Catholic Church makes the following profession of faith:

I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God.

Note the one word 'all'. Not some, not a little, but all. To profess is to live the Faith we confess. The oath could read: "Catholics believe and profess all... ." Catholics must live the Faith to which we are called to do so by God.

And we humbly beseech thee, O heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

We are reminded in no uncertain terms (St. Matthew 7:21-23):

“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’

One could here cite the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy as identifiers of the Christian character:

Corporal works of mercy

1. To feed the hungry;
2. To give drink to the thirsty;
3. To clothe the naked;
4. To harbour the harbourless;
5. To visit the sick;
6. To ransom the captive;
7. To bury the dead.

Spiritual works of mercy

1. To instruct the ignorant;
2. To counsel the doubtful;
3. To admonish sinners;
4. To bear wrongs patiently;
5. To forgive offences willingly;
6. To comfort the afflicted;
7. To pray for the living and the dead.

Don't skip over that last item - to pray. Catholics are blessed with countless reliable spiritual guides - Doctors of the Church, martyrs, saints galore - whose witness and writings remind us that the Holy Spirit is available 24/7 to draw us further into the embrace of God.

We are truly blessed!

Consider the Beatitudes, a constitution of the Christian life: St. Matthew Chapter 5 (The Sermon on the Mount).

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Notice the Sermon does not say, 'Blessed are they who imagine themselves immune from reality'. Nor does Jesus say, 'Blessed are the virtue signalers'.

Jesus gives Himself to us in the Mass

The Lord gives us Himself in the Holy Eucharist. The Church reminds us that the Holy Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life!

1324 CCC The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch."

The Lord invites us to enter into an intimate communion with Him and the Father in the Holy Spirit. 

Meet Jesus in His Church

The Catholic enters into a lifelong discipleship. Thanks be to God, we have the seven sacraments given by God to enable us to walk with Him. Every moment of every day is an opportunity to respond to the gift of God in Jesus Christ. He gives the grace - His very life - to enable us to love as He loves. Thus, configured to the Presence of God, the Catholic embodies joy, hope and love. The prayer Jesus left us - the Our Father - acknowledges our relationship with God and orients us to His command to love one another as He has loved us (St. John 13:34-35).

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." That pretty much sums it (the Faith) up. Love, of course, is not what many imagine love to be: a feeling, a pleasant disposition toward others, being nice for the sake of not making waves, virtue signaling, etc. The love Catholics are commanded to embody is the same love Jesus shows for us. To understand that love, one need only to cast one's gaze upon a crucifix and be present to the sacrifice of Jesus Who gave Himself for our salvation.

St. John 15:13

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

To meet Jesus go to Mass!

We in the Ordinariate are routinely blessed with beautiful liturgies wherein Christ can be found: in the congregation, in the preaching of the priest, in the priest who acts in persona Christi, in the word of God (Holy Scripture), and the Body and Blood of Christ that Jesus Himself gives to us in Holy Communion. Every Mass is a miracle. God comes to meet His people in a most intimate, vulnerable, loving and gentle way.

The glory of God is the living human. The life of the human is the vision of God. Gloria Dei est vivens homo. Vita hominis visio Dei. - Saint Irenaeus

Here concludes the beginning of an answer to the question 'What is a Catholic?'