How Do We Fix This?

Mary Lou Rosien ponders the role of the domestic church in making a difference in a world beset by trials.

It is Lent again, but on so many levels this entire year has felt like Lent. It is difficult to get the things we need at the grocery store (so we have given things up), we cannot socialize, the political atmosphere is divisive, and some Church leaders have not spoken up clearly on the issues of the day.

So what can we do? How can we fix things?

We have been here in history before. There have been illnesses and plagues. We have experienced economic downturns. Political atmospheres have been highly charged and volatile. The Church has struggled, even with many leaders falling prey to different heresies in the past. To find the path forward, perhaps, we look backward.

Whenever the society and the Church have struggled, God sends us hope in some form or another. Often, we find that individuals are called by God to clarify the truth. These saints stand up against the lies, misinformation and misunderstandings of the day and show us the beauty of the Catholic Faith. They give us strength to keep going and to believe in a better future.

St. Augustine of Hippo spoke truth against the heresy of Pelagianism, St. Irenaeus of Lyons against Gnosticism and St. Athanasius against Arianism -- and the list goes on. One of the best examples of someone who had to deal with political and Catholic Church issues was St. Catherine of Siena. She influenced Pope Gregory XI in his decision to leave Avignon for Rome and helped negotiate peace with Florence.

We need saints.

One way to combat all the challenges of today could be to pray for the saint among us who will be a future inspiration; a person who will have courage, speak truth, and focus on the future. It could even be one of us.

We are not powerless in the current day's problems. We can pray and be part of the solution.

We need grace through the sacraments.

We need grace to have productive communication and problem-solving in the world today. The avenue of grace is reception of the Holy Eucharist and frequent Confession. We can call on God’s grace through the Sacraments of Marriage and Baptism.

In a time when it is difficult to have a wedding or a Baptism, we must show others that we need to persevere by properly disposing ourselves to these sacraments and reception of them. Two of my daughters had “Covid weddings.”

We need examples.

What seemed like a trial became a huge blessing as we intimately celebrated our daughters’ marriage ceremonies. One daughter called it her “wedding at Cana.” The next blessing came as both daughters recently found out they are expecting!

While other people (understandably) cancelled or postponed their weddings (or skipped marriage in the Church altogether) the girls served as a beacon of hope for their peers. I witness daily the abundance of grace in their marriages.

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We can stop looking at the huge world around us and fix our little corner of it. #catholicmom

It is up to us to set examples for the world. We can do this by praying, witnessing our faith (by the way we live our lives), reception of the sacraments, and opening dialogue that is filled with grace and not division. We can stop looking at the huge world around us and fix our little corner of it. We can use our “domestic church” (our families) to bring comfort to those around us in whatever small ways we can. We can love, because where there is love, there is God, and where there is God, there is hope. God bless.

Copyright 2021 Mary Lou Rosien
Images (from top): CR photos, all rights reserved; Jake Page Photography, all rights reserved