Authenticity

Perception is everything. How is it that we are perceived? How is the Church perceived? Is what we are teaching and preaching authentic or are we just talking the talk without walking the walk?

Today during a visitation in one of our local community I encountered my first argument. Although I hesitate to use the word argument, I’m not exactly sure what it was. It sounded like an argument from my cultural perspective, but I was warned when I arrived that when Liberians are conversing and get excited it can sound like they’re shouting at one another, but that’s normal. And the catechist, Bruno, and the other man said they were “brothers” and it is considered joking here. Whatever it was, it might have been the first time I really felt uncomfortable.

Not that I didn’t feel safe, but it really made me question things. This man is a recent convert from Muslim to Christianity. And he went on making accusations about the wealth of the Catholic Church and what we are really doing for the people in these communities. He made references to Bruno’s dress, crucifix, watch, phone, and the fact that he’s traveling with a white missionary (while he himself rode up on a quality motorbike, but that’s neither here nor there). He then asked how we are able to bring Christ to these people who have nothing.

The man, while his approach might have seemed a bit rough from my perspective, made a lot of valid points. How can we as Catholics proclaim Christ to the people we are called to serve? Bruno made many well-founded claims based on St. Francis of Assisi’s familiar phrase, “Preach the Gospel at all times, when necessary use words.”

But have you ever wondered how twelve men transformed an entire empire so long ago when thousands of us today seem to transform so little? The answer lies in our authenticity and our own personal relationship with God.

Fr. Thomas Dubay in his book Happy Are You Poor said that, “Modern men are weary of weavers of words, people who say beautiful things but do not live them. They are looking for authenticity, for heralds who have met God in deepening prayer and can speak of him from their hearts.”

If I have learned anything so far in my time in Africa is that even more than monetary or material support you can give people (even people who desperately need these), what matters more is our mutual spiritual poverty. And I have been fed just as much, and probably more, than I have been able to feed.

During our discussion this evening the man was attempting to make a point concerning our differing cultures, but Bruno stepped in and said that we understand each other completely. That the beauty of our Catholic faith is that no matter where we are from we are all serving the same God. We can relate with each other’s joy and walk with each other’s struggles because we are all pilgrims journeying to the same heavenly homeland.

We all have our own distinct and unique calling from the Lord. Even if you are called to the same vocation (say, two brothers in the seminary journeying towards priesthood) we are each called separately by name. But no matter what we are called to or the level of poverty we are asked to live out, we are all called to a deepening of our prayer life with God. We are all called to live out an authentic faith so we can be true heralds of Christ’s word and his love. And to quote St. Francis once more, "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

-Dan
written 07/15/11