CATHOLIC NEWS Sunday, September 13 2009

No one knows, of course, exactly what will be the outcome of the “What does it mean to be Catholic?” campaign which began last week in our archdiocese. But the Church must be hopeful.

The promotions is meant to highlight the archdiocese’s pastoral theme for 2009 “Called to be Catholic.”

The question is causing the Catholic faithful to reflect on their religion in ways they had never done before — and to express their thoughts.

Several of the comments that have been posted on the 2bCatholictt.net blog have spoken appreciatively about this opportunity.

It should lead us on the one hand to look more closely at how we function as Church but also to a greater awareness of the foundations of our Faith and its richness.

The sacraments surely mark us out as Catholics. Our gathering on the Day of the Lord for the Eucharist is key but it is not the end of our worship, as Msgr Michael de Verteuil reminds us in a reflection to be shared in our parishes this weekend. He writes:

Called to be Catholic, from the Eucharist we go, the Body of Christ.

As Jesus brought healing, truth, joy and reconciliation when He walked on earth, now we, Christ’s Body, united in constant prayer with Mary our Mother, continue his mission building the civilisation of love.

Our faith will always be more than what we do within the walls or our Church, as demonstrated by the refreshing story on the back page of last Sunday’s Catholic News which told of Catholic youth, mainly from the Southern and Central Vicariates, who travelled to the Toco Parish on the east coast to paint the Catholic primary school before the start of the new term.

St James, in this Sundays’ Second Reading, says about faith: “if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead” (2:17).

The Church in its various congregations is a complex institution made up of ordinary people who are sinners.

Still it remains a divinely inspired institution, far greater than the sum of its parts: it is after all the Body of Christ.

It is a Church called in every age, no less than in ours, to obedience and trust in the mysteries of the living God — in the midst of conflict and darkness.

What does it mean to be a Catholic? It must mean belonging to a family of Christians where its members are challenged by the command of Jesus: “Repent and believe the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). It means responding to the call of conversation and faith, which finds expression in a variety of ways in the unique experiences of its members — which makes the question a more than useful tool to enrich the faith of those who respond to it and listen to what others have to say.