My son sent me an email through Facebook today. He wants my husband and me to read a three page response he's written on our Catholic understanding of the place of good works in our journey to salvation.He's worried that, if we have our theology off just a bit, we might veer off enough to end up in hell. While he used the word hell, I have paraphrased the rest of it. I don't think he realizes that I do, as a matter of fact, think about hell more than I used to when I thought I had a sure place in heaven. He's the one who doesn't worry about hell anymore . . . at least not for himself. He knows where he's going when he dies. And he likes to share that news with pretty much anyone who will listen.
I can't blame him for being worried about us . . . or confused, for that matter. He was born into a Presbyterian family. Then we tried non-denominationalism. His dad was "saved" and went to seminary to be a Presbyterian pastor. His father student pastored a Congregational parish. Then, instead of going into pastoral ministry, his dad left ministry all together. That lasted about a year or so. We moved our membership to the United Methodist Church. His dad re-entered seminary, this time to become a United Methodist minister. We divorced. I became Presbyterian again. His dad served a few years in the United Methodist Church, dabbled at youth work, left ministry all together and remarried a few more times. I met and married my husband. We became Baptist. My father passed away and I began a journey into the Catholic Church.
Nobody should be exposed to that much uncertainty about doctrine and dogma.
And now that I'm grounded in the Faith, he is sure that I am as mixed-up as I have ever been.
Continue to work for unity. The stranger you reach out to may be someone's husband or brother or son. The woman you meet at the game and engage in small talk, she may be someone's wife, or sister, or daughter. Share the faith. Work for unity.
"There is nothing more serious than the sacrilege of schism because there is no just cause for severing the unity of the Church." -St. Augustine
St. Augustine was right.
Our hearts cry out for unity. Father, make us one.
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