Every day we are confronted with people who desperately need charity. This charity is not almsgiving (although this is an important part of Lent!), but rather the charity of treating others with love and dignity—the charity of valuing opinions and perspectives even when they may differ from our own.
We are fond of the virtues at UD, and I would like to invite you to reflect on the virtue of charity this Lent.
I love UD, and I love the Catholic Church; however, within our communities, we often struggle with loving our neighbor. And while UD is composed of individuals who love the Catholic Church, including Her precepts and beautiful traditions, I have sometimes seen this zeal turned into a means of alienation.
Despite my love of the beauty and joy found within the Church, I see others (and myself!) tempted to use this wealth of knowledge as an opportunity to flex our intellectual muscles without considering the consequences.
I see them bludgeon curious people with the Summa, rather than meeting them with an attitude of charity or a genuine attempt to understand where they are coming from.-
Rather than meet individuals with true charity, some Catholics shut down productive conversations and trample on others, in the name of “fraternal correction” or an attempt to “instruct the ignorant.”
For example, while she was converting to the Church, a classmate once confided in me that she had been confused and upset by a fellow UD student. This student told her that her mother was going to Hell because she was not Catholic.
The unkindness of this remark is the least offensive thing about it. After all, sometimes we must tell “hard truths” out of love. And furthermore, the statement’s blatant lack of truth and foundation in the teachings of the Church are also not my primary concerns
Rather, what I find most discouraging is this statement’s combination of the absence of charity with a misplaced sense of theological superiority. In their zeal to be right and to promote the Church, some do not consider the position of the person standing in front of them, such as a new Catholic who is coming to grips with the Faith.
The Catechism never automatically condemns anyone, including a non-Catholic, to Hell. If the Church refuses to definitively sentence Hitler to Hell, who are we to pass judgment on the salvation of others?
Of course, as a Catholic, I believe the Church is the true religion and that the surest way of entering Heaven is to be a Catholic living out the letter and spirit of Her laws.
However, it sometimes seems to me that many Catholics practice fraternal correction with a box-checking mentality: “Because Our Lord tells us to correct our brothers in Christ, I had better call out this person or action. Check! It’s time to move on.”
Attitudes like this one negatively impact those seeking truth and God. Rather than judging relatives of people we barely know, we should focus on the effects of our words and actions on the people around us.
As St. Ambrose wrote, “Let us aid by giving counsel, let us offer our best endeavors, let us sympathize with them with all our heart.”
On the Sunday before Lent, the Gospel invited us to reflect on the state of our own lives before judging the lives of others—to consider if our view of others’ splintering faults is distorted by the beam in our own eyes.
We have been given the blessing of a UD education—an education that prioritizes knowledge and practice of virtue and of the Faith. We must use this gift to help others on their faith journey and not as a means of asserting an artificial superiority on matters of faith.
As recorded in Luke 12:48, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”
I do not think students on this campus intentionally live their lives premeditating how they can “own” another sinner, but this is sometimes the most evident conclusion one can draw from their actions.
In a place that loves learning and truth as much as UD, it makes sense that intellectual pride would be particularly present. But we must acknowledge that this vice actively harms the Church. By giving cause to scandal through our uncharitable treatment of others, we misrepresent the teachings of the Church and alienate people from Her.
If our goal is truly to guide and encourage others towards the Catholic Church, we should pay special attention to the virtue of charity in all of our interactions.