I submitted last week’s column before I heard about the terrible shooting death of Charlie Kirk.
I also wrote the first draft of this week’s column before Kirk’s death. But I’m very glad we’re talking about this stuff now.
Should Catholics have political and other kinds of opinions? Of course they should.
I understand that good Catholic people feel strongly about the war in Gaza from both sides.
I know many of them also feel strongly about uncontrolled immigration, the war in Ukraine, COVID-19, and vaccination.
Have at it, folks. Have as many opinions as you like.
But remember that none of this has anything to do with your mission to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ where you live and work.
And if your strong opinions are causing you to fight with and cut off relationships with people who have done nothing wrong except politely disagree with you, I’d say it’s working in the opposite direction.
The trouble begins when people high on dopamine from constant validation of their ideas start putting the world to rights.
They forget how to interact politely with other people. Sometimes they go as far as shooting them.
This brings me to those of you who think we should impose the gospel on people through a government run by the Catholic Church.
Do you really think that this is what the Lord wants? Maybe check in with the four gospels and think again.
Spoiler alert: It isn’t. And that’s because this Catholic fantasy – like all the others – involves us taking the easy way out.
We want to be right all the time. We want to win our stupid online arguments.
We want to see our pundits “destroy” their opponents (or in some cases, their interviewers).
Jesus promised us the exact opposite. He told us we would be hated, persecuted, betrayed, hunted down, and killed – just like he was.
He told us that the only way to be a true follower of his was to take up our cross and carry it daily.
He demonstrated this by losing himself in a painful public humiliation and death.
So if you are one of his followers, you must also be prepared to lose – whether it’s a stupid argument, or your entire life.
Start making room for Jesus Christ in your life again by walking away from your precious online “debates”. Do it while you still can.
I had never heard of Charlie Kirk before now, God rest his soul, because I’m working four days a week in an adult job that demands every crumb of my attention and effort.
When I come home, I want my very active mind to power down, not up. On what is laughingly referred to as my “day off”, I also do other research.
This is actual academic research – not watching online content from the Bigfoot community about yeti droppings.
And on the weekends, I am doing all the things that I don’t have a wife to do for me.
I also go to Sunday Mass and worship with my fellow Catholics, many of whom have different political opinions from me.
But that doesn’t matter. We’re not there to talk politics. We’re there to worship God together in the way he asked us to.
If you must live dramatically in the thick of an eternal war between good and evil, let me give you a realistic way of doing it.
Your mission – should you choose to accept it – is to join a largely invisible army of resistance fighters in occupied territory.
The war has already been won. We’re just part of the mopping-up operation.
We must win as many souls as we can over to Jesus Christ. And we do this by living openly as good Catholics.
How do you model Christianity to your non-Christian friends and neighbours?
When they see you and interact with you, do they meet a sane, honest, and likeable person who is a good friend in need?
Or do they meet a jeering, unhappy crank who is always arguing with everyone like the future of the world depended on it?
But perhaps you prefer to live a double life and indulge your jeering and abuse behind an anonymous handle.
Or perhaps you work hard to ensure that don’t have any non-Christian friends and neighbours.
These are just more Catholic fantasies – always the easy way out, and never what Jesus wanted.
You might need to think and pray about this now. We need you in the real resistance, not the pretend one.
