“I am Catholic and Christian” was my response to question posed by someone who heard me sing once. You see, the Word of God tells us in Deuteronomy 6:5, “You must love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength”. Jesus reiterated this when asked by a lawyer what he must do to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and Jesus replied, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.'
Both of these passages are telling us the same thing about what our relation with God should be. We must love God with everything that we have and with all that we are. If I get more excited about say a football match or a song or someone, than I do about God and my faith, then something is very wrong. I am not loving God with all that I am – with all my heart, my mind, my soul and my strength. To love God the way the Bible tells us is to put HIM first. Anything else is to put false gods before the One True and Living God.
Now back to the topic of being Catholic and Christian, a Christian is someone who, by his or her life, tries to imitate Christ. To be a Christian means to be Christ-like in every aspect of our being. Not just for the time we spend in church on a Sunday morning, but throughout our lives. Christian is meant to be so much more than an ‘association’. Christian is something we become because of our relationship with God, through Jesus Christ His Son. It is meant to be so much more than a title we carry because of our baptism when we were babies.
The first record of people being called Christians was in Antioch, and is recorded in The Acts of the Apostles, Ch. 11, Vs 26 – ‘And it happened that they stayed together in that church a whole year, instructing a large number of people. It was at Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.’ Now I have great news for you on that. The only church that can trace itself all the way back to that first group that was called Christian is the Holy Roman Catholic Church. That is a historical fact. So be proud to profess that you are Catholic and Christian. Do not be afraid nor ashamed of being Catholic nor Christian. Do not hide who you are, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, allow the light of Jesus Christ to shine in and through you so that others who are lost may come to know that HE lives.
