I just saw a similar conversion story.
ocala.com/assets/slideshow/muslim/journey/index.html
The woman says that the only thing she knew of Islam was terrorism, cutting off hands, and cruelty. Then she went overseas and met Muslims who were ordinary people trying to live their lives. She started questioning the people who told her that Muslims were all terrorists and rejecting what they said. She then grew to like the people and their simplicity. Once she got to know them, she felt good about still believing in Jesus, but viewing Him differently. If she knew Jesus, she didn’t remember Him any longer. Jesus told us that we are his hands and feet, so if she didn’t know Him, it is our failing as Christians. This is why the OSAS heresy can’t work. People need to re-encounter Jesus personally every day.
The lesson I take from this is to not lie or distort, to not inflate or tear down. When you do, it makes you an untrustworthy source and even the truth you speak will be thrown out. Just as the Christians who lied to her and told her that all Muslims are hate mongering terrorists had the truth of Christ, Muslims who are good hearted and kind are also mistaken about God. But people are first touched by their physical and emotional needs. Many saints have taught this. People need food, shelter, water, and love. After that they can work on nourishing their souls.
Preaching hatred and violence is not love. Without love, they cannot have the active faith life of a Christian. They might go through the outward motions reading the books and serving the needy, but when they hit their dead ends and don’t have a means of understanding the love of God in their lives, they’ll leave the people who taught them to hate and with them, their God.
This priest, if he was one, might have had poor parents, poor childhood influences, poor seminary teachers, poor choices. We don’t know. What we know is that he did not have love, and when he found love he was opened to faith. Unfortunately, he rejected the fullness of truth found in the Catholic faith for the people who showed him a small glimpse of God. I have friends who converted from Islam for the same reason, because they grew up surrounded by hatred and the first people to show them love were Christians. The testimony of one strikes a cord with me, though.
He said that it was Easter which touched him as a Muslim. He understood, as an Arab, dying for family. He believed those who died revenging their families deaths would go straight to paradise. Jesus’ death on Good Friday wasn’t that astounding to him. Then Jesus’ resurrection hit him. This guy didn’t go glory in paradise. He came back for us. Death wasn’t the goal; life was. He said it was the first time he ever understood Love.
What Sister Amy says is true. Piety and love of God will attract people. Peace will attract people. People will leave behind Truth to find it. If they grew up surrounded by hatred, including the subversive and insidious hatred that masks for acceptance and tolerance in the US, and then they saw people who stood up for what they believed and who lived it, of course they would convert. It was the first glimpse of God they had beheld and they have no comprehension–knowledge maybe, but not comprehension–of how much more of God’s love is infinitely available in His Church.
What can we do about it? What good is it that we have the faith if we aren’t living it? Our church uses the full body in worship. Our church uses fasting and prayers. Our church has a social and moral order. Our church has the Word and Presence of God. So why aren’t we living it? Why aren’t we seeing it? Why aren’t we sharing it? These are legitimate questions they ask. It does not diminish the objective Truth of the Catholic faith, but most people live in the subjective reality of where they can get closest to God. How poorly we are failing when the closest they can come is to reject Jesus Christ!
Those of us here are more likely to be among people who do live the Catholic faith. But like the majority of Muslims in the Middle East who drive and shop through the call from the minarets, most Catholics don’t know more than the outward appearances of their faith and are not emotionally concerned about their loss. We need to reach them with a message of peace, hope, and love. Real love. God’s love. God’s truth. Then people preaching this hatred of Muslims as terrorists will not be their image of Christianity and the suicide bombers will not be their image of Islam. Then their physical and emotional needs will be satisfied and they will be free to accept the truth that Jesus Christ is our Lord, God, and Savior and they’ll be able to worship Him with their whole bodies and whole souls in their whole lives.
What Sister Amy is telling us is how seekers look at Islam and Christianity and how they decide where to go. “Are they living the faith?” That’s what she wants to know. Are we living it? Sadly, for most people who call themselves Catholic, the answer is no. To reach the Muslims, we need to first evangelize the Catholics. We need to reach them with God’s Truth and God’s Love.