I continue to have “bad experiences” in the Church. I’m just not motivated enough to leave right now because I’m afraid that I will abandon what little faith I have left if I do. I am dismayed with the Catholic church, which, in practice, is a bit too liberal for my tastes, and Protestants don’t seem to have anything better to offer as I’m not into that “Purpose-Driven” drivel.
The way I see it Church should be a place where acknowledged sinners in need of God’s mercy can come together, be reminded of the truth through the teaching of the Scriptures, and encourage one another in the difficult and often discouraging struggle to pursue goodness and truth.This hasn’t been my experience since returning to the Catholic Church. Pastor’s message is that everyone is good, and that the only evil in the world is the result of “those mean spirited conservatives and Republicans like Bush and Cheney.”
In the Sumatra Earthquake-Tsunami day after Christmas, 2004, the ones who were there helping people were CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES!!! They have always been there, living in poverty and helping the poor in their corporal and spiritual needs. So when disaster struck, they were already there. Catholic Missionaries live in the poorest of the poorest sectors and nooks and crevices of countries. Those poorest that live in cardboard boxes and the streets, Catholic Missionaries know and see them everyday. You remember Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her nuns. Mother Teresa had an appointment with Pope John Paul II. She saw a dying dirty poor man on the street and instead of going to the Pope, she stopped, went down the vehicle, cleaned the man, even picking up the worms on the wounds of the man with her fingers, stayed with the man till his death!!! For in such a man, Mother Teresa saw Jesus.
Actually, Mother Teresa is only one example. There are many many others there in the crevices and nooks of the earth that you have never heard. But God knows. Maybe you can join them and find fulfillment in life as a Catholic over there!!!
