Occasionally I contemplate why I am Catholic. It comes up because being Catholic is COUNTER-CULTURAL, in this day and age. Mostly, it strikes me that the things that keep me in the Catholic Church have nothing to do with Theology or Apologetics but have to do with making me more human, more firm in my identity, and more fully myself! At some point God made it clear to me that I was meant to live in this exact era, culture, time, family of origin, etc and my life had meaning and purpose in the fact that He called me into existence. Anytime I lose perception of this due to crisis, tragedy, stress, family issues, etc I seem to walk away from myself. I "forget who I am" in God! When I come back - God brings me back to myself.
“True freedom is not advanced in the permissive society, which confuses freedom with license to do anything whatever and which in the name of freedom proclaims a kind of general amorality. It is a caricature of freedom to claim that people are free to organize their lives with no reference to moral values, and to say that society does not have to ensure the protection and advancement of ethical values. Such an attitude is destructive of freedom and peace.”
― Pope John Paul II
