Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Through Broken Roses

Home
Catholic
Taking Off the Bubble Wrap

Taking Off the Bubble Wrap

Last updated on: February 11, 2014 at 12:53 pm by Leticia Adams

Taking Off the Bubble Wrap 2014-02-11T12:53:44-05:00 Leticia Adams

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I have always had this crazy gift of meeting cool people without any kind of effort. Once, I ran into Seether (my favorite band) at the Hooters I had worked at and ended up sitting with them and having a beer. Then, I got them to put me and my best friend, a cancer survivor, on the VIP list. It was the best concert ever, and at the end of it they dedicated “Broken” to us and met us back stage. All of that, with no effort at all. I just stumbled across them at Hooters and the rest just happened. The story of my life.

I don’t know if it’s that weird gift or that I love to talk, but I love learning about people and their life experiences. I never used to get angry when people talked to me about their thoughts on issues that I disagreed with until I became Catholic. Even more so, when I was a Catholic on Facebook during the last election and the Wendy Davis filibuster. That’s when I started becoming someone who I no longer recognized.

I started wrapping myself in Christian bubble wrap to protect myself from THE WORLD. I turned into a cynical, sarcastic, angry, paranoid little Catholic freak. I saw the devil under every rock and everything was sign of him trying to kill us all.

While it is true that the evil one is a roaring lion who never sleeps and is always out to destroy us, it isn’t true that the way to protect ourselves is with bubble wrap to cut ourselves off from the world. Sometimes, the bubble wrap is actually how the devil wins. He does not care if we are jamming the most scandalous rap music while dancing on poles half-naked or if we are self-righteous pharisees who think that we are better than the people who are dancing on poles. Either way, we lose and he wins because we are focused on ourselves and not on God. We are not sharing the Good News with the lost, we are judging them and chest bumping ourselves on how good we are compared to “them”.

Meanwhile, sparky aka the evil one, is telling “them” how they don’t belong with “us”. “Just look at how holy they are, at how they are so good and you aren’t. See? You don’t belong there.” There is not a day that goes by that I don’t hear that voice in my head still, even after all these years of being Catholic. And there are moments when people from my own parish make it quite clear that they agree with that voice, that I don’t belong. The voice of Christ telling me that I do, that He loves me, that He’s got me is louder, so I stay.

But not everyone hears His voice.

Yesterday I had coffee with one of those interesting people who came into my life out of nowhere. She is my mentor. And we agree about nothing. She is a pro-choice republican protestant who owns a match making service for gay men. Wrap your mind around that.

How we met is a long story, but basically she is the one who saw me behind a bar and told me that I really needed to get my shit together because I couldn’t work behind a bar forever. That was before becoming Catholic was ever on my radar and before her match making gay men was ever on hers. But here we are, Me: a practicing pro-life, traditional marriage supporting Catholic and her: everything the opposite. And you know what? We still love each other. We can sit and talk about these things and not yell, get angry, cry or stomp out of the room. We laugh, smile and respect what the other one is saying and asking. And we learn from one another.

Yesterday we sat and discussed homosexuality for a project of hers. We talked about what the Catholic Church teaches, what Catholics say and other things. It was so much fun and refreshing. It’s really the one thing that she has taught me: how to be graceful.

In our conversation she told me that a lot of the people (mostly men) that she talks to were raised Catholic and they do not have very fond memories of the experience of being Catholic and gay. I honestly do understand that. I have seen the things that Catholics say about gay people, about Catholics who don’t think it’s ok to say rude things about gay people and just the all around bat shit crazy that is flying around the internet in comboxes, Facebook threads and on Twitter.

I expect that behavior from people who don’t know any better. But when it comes to people who go to Mass, read Church documents, the Catechism and claim to know their faith and Christ, I expect more. First of all, I expect more from myself and I got caught up in the crazy and become a self-righteous jerk for Jesus.

Jerks for Jesus do nothing to bring people in and help keep people out. Guess who wants to keep people out of the Church and away from Christ? You guessed it; sparky.

That strategy works. There are a lot of wounded people walking around who have anger towards the Catholic Church because of Jerks for Jesus. People in bubble wrap who think that they only way to be holy is to keep themselves safe from everyone who isn’t holy or trying to be holy. Not even Jesus did that. When He walked the earth, He surrounded Himself with sinners. He made a few of them His Apostles. The only Pharisee that ended up an Apostle was St. Paul, and that was only AFTER God knocked him off his high horse. Why do we forget all these details?

Jesus said plenty of harsh things to people, but it was mostly to the Pharisees and not the prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers or even the possessed. He didn’t say “You viper! Why are you possessed?!” Nope, He had mercy on the possessed, then He freed them and forgave them of their sins. He called the Pharisees vipers and hypocrites. And yet, we all walk around acting like Pharisees and think that is cool. Jesus is not cool with that. Pharisees do nothing to build the Kingdom. They tear it down by keeping people out.

After my conversation with my mentor yesterday I realized that the bubble wrap had to come off. I have to go back to being me, the person who talks to everyone, whether they are Catholic, whether they are gay, whether they agree with me. Not to preach to them, or to even discuss any of these things, but to laugh with them, listen to them, and to learn from them. Maybe, by the Grace of God, they will learn something from me too.

We Catholics have a lot of work to do in this world and I am convinced that all the BS time we spend on Facebook or wrapping ourselves up from the people of the world is taking time away from that work. The things we are posting online for everyone to see are sometimes helping the evil one convince people that they will not be welcome in our Church. Think about this: What would you do if a gay couple walked into your parish on Sunday? What would your reaction be? Pray about it and be honest with Jesus about it and ask Him if that would be the right reaction. I don’t mean just what do you “feel” about it, I mean really sit with Jesus and discuss it with Him.

I have talked to Him about it and I was not happy with my answer. That was the last straw for me and I deactivated my Facebook account. I’m taking off the bubble wrap.

**Comments are moderated. Don’t get crazy.

Previous Post

February 1, 2014

Being Still

Next Post

February 12, 2014 My Dear Husband

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category #PopeInUS 7 quick takes Abortion Bad Days Book Review Books Caitlyn Jenner Catholicsim Conversion Crosses Death Dignity of the Human Person Easter Ethics Evil Fall Family Fear Freedom Gay Marriage God Holy Week Homosexuality Jesus Laughter Lessons Love Marriage Mass Motherhood My Life New Evangelzation new year Parenting Peace Planned Parenthood Politics Pope Francis Pregnancy Race Rap Music Relationships Saints Sins Suffering Tempation The Catholic Church The Past Things about me Trust Truth Uncategorized Women's rights Writing

Select a Month December 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 May 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 October 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 August 2011 July 2011 May 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I told my daughter-in-law to uncover a man's feet and lie down at the threshing floor. Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Naomi Rebekah Bathsheba Ruth