Ubi Caritas

Gather a group of fairly new convert Catholics together around a dinner table and of course you will get interesting conversation, a shared sense of joy in having found the fullness of the faith, moving stories and also the occasional dropped brick. My husband, daughter and I found ourselves at one such dinner recently, an occasion marked by an underlying quiet love for the Church which gradually reached in crescendo much laughter and that fervor for all things Catholic which is so unmistakably the mark of happy converts. Any group of dinner guests that can discuss plenary indulgences with enthusiasm is a very special sort of group indeed! When the conversation turned to who would have been a blogger had they been alive today, Thomas Aquinas or St. Augustine, or perhaps St. Paul, it became apparent that the happiness was perhaps after all only masking a slight bit of insanity, which is what most of the group's Protestant relatives already believe anyway. Either that or there was too much of the rich and magnificent banana pudding dessert being consumed.

I can't say often enough what a blessing the Catholic Church has been for our family. Precisely because it has been a blessing it saddens me when I unthinkingly cause offense in the midst of a joyous gathering of converts. Because, you see, we weren't quite all converts. One of the dinner guests was a lovely and deeply religious Methodist, a woman whose gift for ministry and Christian charity rivals that of any Catholic I have met. Truly. After hearing myself say something about "what Protestants don't understand about indulgences," I paused and remembered with a pang that we had a wonderful Protestant sitting right there among us, a Protestant who not only had not said a word against the Catholic Church, she had patiently and willingly joined into all of our slightly demented conversation about blogging theologians and saints of the church. And I had no clue about what she understands or doesn't understand about plenary indulgences.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Where there is charity and love, there is God. And converts such as myself who have received so much at the merciful hand of God ought to be more aware of this than most.

I can't begin to address or even to understand the reasons why we Christians remain divided, but one thing is certain: where charity and love prevail, there is God. The Catholics who have had the most influence in my life, some going years back and well before our conversion to Catholicism were invariably not trying to convert me with words. With their actions, though, I saw the light of Christ shining through. Several were religious, one was a laywoman who had the most marvellous gift for hospitality I had ever encountered, another was a theologian who patiently discussed everything from the role of women in the church to the magisterium, never once placing Protestants of any sort in a less than favorable light. I suppose it is no accident that he is now an archbishop.

Converts have been graced by God in marvellous ways, and we all tend to recognize and celebrate that grace. Placing Protestants in a second place position in comparison to Catholics may be an easy temptation to which some of us fall prey, but it should be avoided at all costs. We of all people should lead the way in demonstrating through our own actions the charity and love we know so profoundly and so personally.

Easier said than done, but with God all things are possible. I will be praying for the grace of charity and love during the remaining days of Lent, so that I too, though a Catholic, yet still a sinner, might know God more deeply and might allow God's grace to shine through me in word and action. May we all pray for that grace.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.


Banana Dessert Recently Enjoyed by a Bunch of Catholic Converts and a Patient Methodist


Ingredients
1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 (4-serving) package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cups (1 pint) heavy cream
36 vanilla wafers
3 medium bananas, sliced and dipped in lemon juice