Courage

The priest at mass today gave an excellent homily on courage and it made me really think about something that's been bothering for a long time - the fact that I am a coward. I'm not ashamed to admit this because I recognize it and I try to change it, but I'm also not happy about it. When it comes to what really matters, that is, spreading the Kingdom of God by witnessing to the Faith, I am a downright coward. Here at Franciscan it's easy to be a good Catholic because we're ALL good Catholics, but back home, with my friends, it's a totally different story. At work or out to eat with my friends, I can't even bring myself to make the sign of the cross at meals for fear of what they'll think or say. This has often led me to ask myself whether or not I would die for Christ - if someone had a gun to my head and was going to shoot me if I didn't deny my Lord and Saviour, what would I do? I happen to truly believe that I would die for Him, so why can't I do the little things? Amongst the people in my life who need the Good News the most, I consistently fail to witness. Why? We are not here to witness only to one another, but to the whole world. Our ability to witness to the world is invaluable to recovering our Catholic Identity. How many lives would be changed if they saw Catholics witnessing to what they believe? Pray without ceasing; pray for courage.

We have to live our lives in such a way that we will be unafraid to witness to what we believe and live.