Last night I was invited to speak to a group of high school students who gather at a local Church each week to discuss life. I was invited so that they could be exposed to another seminarian to see that we are normal people (I'm still trying to figure out why I was picked to show them we are normal!). One of the questions that I was asked after I gave a brief story of my life was "do you still get scared of not knowing how to answer people?" Have these people been reading my journal? That is probably the number one fear I have had recently in approaching the altar of God to be ordained a priest. What will I say when people ask me about x, y, or z?
The answer I gave surprised me, sort of. I said that it is important to be vulnerable. It is important to show people that you love them and that you are willing to stand there and not know what to say...but that you are willing to stand there anyway. We must be willing to journey with people. That means that we won't always know the answers, but we are willing to seek the answers together with them.
This approach will require a lot of time and effort on our part, but it takes away a great burden. We don't need to know all of the answers. Of course we can't use this as an excuse not to learn as much as we can about our Catholic faith, but we must come to the point where we are humble enough to admit when we don't know...and that will happen a lot!
The key is love. We have to love people enough to tell them the truth and to stand there when they have questions, especially "why?". We must love them enough to stand there and take whatever may come our way when they don't agree with us or when we don't know answers, and we must love them enough to agree to journey with them in finding those answers however difficult and painful it might be. So in the end St. Paul was right (shocking, I know), "love covers a multitude of sins," and it can also cover a multitude of our shortcomings, if we are willing to give of ourselves.
The answer I gave surprised me, sort of. I said that it is important to be vulnerable. It is important to show people that you love them and that you are willing to stand there and not know what to say...but that you are willing to stand there anyway. We must be willing to journey with people. That means that we won't always know the answers, but we are willing to seek the answers together with them.
This approach will require a lot of time and effort on our part, but it takes away a great burden. We don't need to know all of the answers. Of course we can't use this as an excuse not to learn as much as we can about our Catholic faith, but we must come to the point where we are humble enough to admit when we don't know...and that will happen a lot!
The key is love. We have to love people enough to tell them the truth and to stand there when they have questions, especially "why?". We must love them enough to stand there and take whatever may come our way when they don't agree with us or when we don't know answers, and we must love them enough to agree to journey with them in finding those answers however difficult and painful it might be. So in the end St. Paul was right (shocking, I know), "love covers a multitude of sins," and it can also cover a multitude of our shortcomings, if we are willing to give of ourselves.