#awkward conversations
Yuri (Before absorbing Yugo): This is gonna hurt me more than it’s gonna hurt you.
Yugo: HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE WHEN I’M THE ONE GETTING ABSORBED?!
Yuri: YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!
Yugo: I REALLY DON’T!
Yuri: IT’S HURTING MY INSIDES!
Yugo: FUCK YOUR INSIDES!
Explaining World Youth Day to people who are Catholic, but who may not have heard about it before, is kind of easy, “It’s a pilgrimage to Poland, to celebrate our Catholic faith with the Holy Father and other young Catholics from all over the world.” Explaining what World Youth Day to people who aren’t Catholic is kind of difficult. “Well, it’s like a mix of the Olympics with a bunch young people from all over the world coming together, and a Catholic festival with music and stuff, oh, and the Pope will headline the main stage.” How does that even make sense?
I’m been having a lot of awkward conversations lately. I’m behavior therapist, and for work, we have to schedule a lot of meetings for our clients. It seems like I have a gazillion meetings a month. In preparation for World Youth Day, I’ve been having to tell a lot of my clients and their caregivers that I will be out of town in July and August. Some people hear that I’m going to Europe and get excited about that. Others, this may be the first time they find out I’m Catholic (We don’t often talk about our personal lives with case managers). Unless someone drops a hint (saying they can’t eat meat on Fridays or saying they got married in a Catholic church), I don’t know what religion they are either. So, bringing up matters of faith is always a tricky conversation.
I had one of those interesting conversations today. I was at a meeting with two lovely women who work very hard for their clients. After I announced that I was going to be out of the country in July, they, like any person would, asked where I was going. I took a deep breath and told them. I really wasn’t nervous about telling them. I was more nervous about the follow up remarks.
“You’re going where?” “Oh wow, that’s neat?” “What are you going to see?” “I have mixed feelings about the church, but, that sounds great!”
The ladies really were wonderful, and it was fun telling them about the places I am going to see. It was interesting to see how each of them took it. One of the women was not Catholic, but thought it was great that I was active in the church. She asked me how old I was, and when I told her, she gave me a thoughtful look and told me that I was not like most people around my age. That I was mature. She told me I gave her hope in the future because she saw someone involved in the community.
The other woman brought up the fact that she was a nonpracticing Catholic. She was really surprised when she heard that I was Catholic. “Not many people in my immediate circle are still Catholic. That’s nice.” Her faith, though she wasn’t practicing, meant a lot to her and her family. She then mentioned that she had a few bad experiences with either Catholic institutions or priests. While she loves the faith, some people have given her a bad taste for it. Surprisingly, this is not the first conversation I’ve had that has gone like this.
When other people I work with find out I’m Catholic (usually over the age of 50), the conversation usually ends up with us talking about why they left the church and why I am still here (those who are around my own age, either don’t seem to care or tell me about how they are involved in their own church). I really value these conversations. Often, I’m so wrapped up in my practicing Catholic bubble, that I don’t hear this side of the story. I don’t hear about people who felt hurt because of something that happens a long time ago. I don’t hear from people who fell away from the faith.
Pope Francis writes in Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) that “each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the “peripheries” in need of the light of the Gospel.” (20) Sure Pope Francis, it’s easy when you are the Pope to say that, because you are the Pope. It’s also really easy when you are with, oh, say a million people, to show the world how you are the “light of the Gospel.” But when you are alone, one on one with your neighbors who has experienced hurt…. that’s difficult.
I’m receiving a lot of unexpected graces preparing for World Youth Day. I’m hoping that my conversations with people who aren’t practicing or who aren’t even Catholic benefit them, even if it is just to show them that the Church still loves them, especially after their bad experiences. I hope I can be a little ray of Christ’s light during their own pilgrimage experiences. They sure have enlightened mine.
Friend: “I like such and so Shampoo, because they don’t test on animals.”
Me: *Uses Horse Shampoo.*
