Revolutionary Authenticity

This is something I've sat down to write many times, and every time deleted. Maybe this time I'll figure out what I want to say. 

What I'm thinking about and deciding I want to write down here might be a bit cliche. It might sound like another classic Christian blog about the Christian life and how we're not doing it well, and somehow need to be better. Maybe in my attempt to be new I'll just be the same. And yet, I don't think I can not write this. 

The world today is a giant mix of a whole bunch of different ideas and all kinds of different people, and it seems in many ways that the Christian ideal gets lost in the tide. You can have a whole bunch of different explanations of why this is, and many of those might hold weight in conversation. Whatever the reasoning, the message of the Gospel is not coming off today as an attractive ideal that draws hearts and minds into the beauty of creation and its Creator, but for many people feels much more like a restriction placed on joy and a set of rules to follow. 

"Better catechesis," you might say. "That is the answer. People just don't get it."

Well, yes. People don't get it. Yet I think that in our times anyone who has ever tried to teach a class or lead a youth group or explain the Truth to a random stranger and hoped to help people young or old see the Truth of the Gospel knows that catechesis alone will often fall on deaf ears. In a world where a person can pull out an iPhone (or Droid, if that's more your style) and within moments have an argument for any worldview, any belief, any set of thoughts that might for just a moment sound more convincing than yours, it is difficult to come up with a catechesis alone that will be heard. And so, as Christians, we can catechize all we want, we can quote Scripture with the eloquence of the greatest teachers, and we can prepare our apologetics as well as possible, and it still might fall on a deaf ear (note: we should do all of those things listed above). 

In his Book of Basketball, sports writer Bill Simmons presents an idea for what makes a great Basketball team: "The Secret," he calls it. For basketball, this secret is a bunch of players who buy into a team, a system, and an idea that winning is the most important thing. 

In Christianity, like Basketball, there is a Secret. Maybe it's not really a Secret, but I think the Secret is this: Authenticity. Don't stop reading here, you've made it this far; stick with me a little longer. 

One of the reasons that I think Christianity doesn't appeal to young people or simply those outside of the Church is a lack of authenticity from those inside the Church. When I say authenticity, I'm not simply talking about living as a Christian all the time; I am, but there's more to it. Authenticity, I would say, means living with passion, joy, and a fervor for life. An authentically Christian life doesn't mean dropping the world, but living in the world with Passion, looking to what is to come.

In Basketball, the Secret is buying into the team. In Christianity, than, the Secret, Authenticity, means buying into the ideal of the Gospel message with my whole heart, mind, and soul, and letting that show in the passion with which I live. 

I'm not an artist of any sort, but I want to talk about art as the example of this. Some of you might be scared that I'm now devolving into the classic blog decrying the Christian music world without doing anything about it, but I hope not to. Just stick with me. Real art, art that moves hearts and changes perspectives, is art that comes from a person who cares passionately about what they do. Art, an expression of beauty, is a transcendent thing which points to a reality bigger than me, it points my heart and my mind out of the simple and mundane and into the Beauty which comes from Him who is Beauty and longs to enter my reality.  

So yeah, if Christians made art from the heart, I think it would be passionate, inviting, and overwhelmingly beautiful. But I think it's much more than our art that's the problem. What Christians need is not just better music (because there is already some very good Christian music out there), what Christians need is to live with a passion and zeal for life that can only come out of a love for the One who gives life. This, I would argue, is what an authentically Christian life looks like and it, simply put, is what made the saints attractive.

Image from taylormarshall.com

People didn't go to Padre Pio for confession simply because he could read their souls; in fact, that was sort of scary, I'm sure. Yet people came from around the world to go to Confession and receive the Eucharist from Padre Pio because his passion and love for Christ had taken him to the point that his life showed a love for the Lord that clearly transcended this world and pointed to something greater than this life. 

Rather than first trying to educate people about why Christianity is right, why Catholicism has the fullness of Truth, we in the Church should start with encountering people and living in such a way that people who meet us know that we truly believe. Then, from there, Truth will come. In us, the Truth who transcends all time and space will break into our world and be a Voice not drowned out by the noise of the world but present in all of it.

If we as Christians live truly authentic lives, we will be able to reach more people and help the world see Truth. More importantly, though, an authentically Christian life will allow us to become the best version of ourselves, to become who were were made to become, and to give God glory through our very lives.

Instead of being scared of the culture and the time in which we live, I want to encounter it and let the Lord speak truth through the way I authentically walk with Christ and become who He made me to be know. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way.