St. Joseph of the Lakes

“’...he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.” (Jn1:34)

I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. (Is49:6)

I was raised to believe that correct doctrine was the highest goal of our faith. I suppose this came about largely in reaction to the Protestant reformation which began expressing doctrines that differed from Roman Catholic understandings. Early within my education (which was all Catholic schools) I was reminded that the Catholic Church was the One, True Church.  Every other church was just an expression of it’s founder’s views. Our founder was Jesus Christ, so we were connected to the true intent of God in the creation of a religious expression.  The “rightness” of the Church was almost more important than the founder’s mission. 

John the Baptist tells us that he has seen and now testifies that Jesus is the Son of God. Our founder has come, as Isaiah tells us: “that his salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” This is still the true mission of the Church. Not that correct doctrine is not important, but really the work at hand has less to do with being “right” and more toward expressing that good news of Jesus’ salvation. Even with google we can get paralyzed in announcing this good news for fear of not getting it “right”. 

I believe the way we live should become an invitation for others to witness faith at work. It is those moments when we are struggling through something but we do not give up; or our ability to look beyond ourselves to see God in the person next to us that cause others to ask the question: “how do they do that?” The easiest answer to that question is because God is there for me. It is not so much about being doctrinally pure, but instead bearing witness to the salvation our founder is still offering to the ends of the earth.