YOUR TASKS AS A CATHOLIC ARE THREE

 

Know your Catholic Faith. – You cannot live your faith if you do not know it, and you cannot share with others what you do not first make your own.  Learning your Catholic faith takes some effort, but it is effort well spent because the study is, quite literally, infinitely rewarding. 

Live your Catholic faith.  Your Catholic faith is a public thing.  It is not meant to be left behind when you leave home.  But be forewarned:  Being a public Catholic involves risk and loss.  You will find some doors closed to you.  You will lose some friends.  You will be considered an outsider.  But, as a consolation, remember our Lord’s words to the persecuted:  “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.  (Matt.5:12).

 

Spread your Catholic faith.  Jesus Christ wants us to bring the whole world into captivity to the truth, and the truth is Jesus himself, who is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).  Spreading the faith is a task not only for bishops, priests, and religious – it is a task for all Catholics. 

Just before his Ascension our Lord told his apostles, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20).