I went to a new church for Easter Sunday. The homily I heard was so simple, and so inspiring. Each of us is called to a deep, personal friendship with Christ. Our Catholic faith isn't simply based on knowing a bunch of facts about Christ. As the priest said so eloquently, "The Catechism is important. Yet even an atheist can teach the catechism! We're called to be something more!"
He talked about how St. Peter and St. John heard about the empty tomb from St. Mary Magdalene. Yet they weren't content with learning about this facts second hand from another. They rushed to the tomb to see it for themselves. This priest told us that we all need to see for ourselves the truth of the Catholic church. Faith comes from a personal knowledge of Christ. We need to examine things ourselves and make our Faith, our very own thing.
I found all this so inspiring as a meek little Carmelite. I'm not an evangelist. I'm not an apologetic. I'm not a homeschool teacher extraordinaire.
I'm someone who is friends with Christ. I meet up with him in the Mass. I talk to him in prayer. I learn more about him in Scripture and the Catechism. Sometimes, I learn cool new things about him from the Pope and the Saints. I talked to Christ about my little daily problems. Sometimes, I take his advice about how to solve problems over the junk inside my own head.
I have a small, practical, "little" Faith. I really enjoyed hearing that the most amazing thing about our first Pope, St. Peter wasn't that he said something amazing and profound after the mystery of the Resurrection. This priest was most impress that St. Peter ran to the tomb to check things out for himself. I felt encouraged, like "I can do that too!"
