I recently read, ok devoured, the biography of Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko, a contemporary Polish martyr and one quote that has really resonated with me since is this:
“Truth, too, must cost something. Truth that does not cost anything is a lie.”
For Jerzy it cost his life. For us, as we live out the Catholic faith through our individual vocations and ongoing discernments the costs are perhaps on a different scale but they’re still there.
It might be the family members who don’t understand our decisions and sometimes, fail to support us in them. The offhand comments that insult or offend us, or the lack of consideration they may have for the way we live or intend to raise our children.
Maybe it is the family members and friends who have estranged themselves from us because of our stance on different issues, or make things difficult for us when we do meet up and try to ‘convert’ us to their way of thinking.
It might be the comments and exaggerated eye rolls as we announce to people that yes, we are expecting again. You know the ones that grate more for their lack of originality than anything else. Yes, we are expecting again, and yes it will be our sixth – shock and horror – but actually we’re excited about it, thankful for the blessing and your negativity only makes a hormonal woman teeter on the edge of sanity.
Perhaps it’s the comments in the workplace that denigrate or belittle our choice to live out the faith in its truest sense.
Maybe it’s the stereotyping of ourselves and our families based on our faith practices – traditional, liberal, extreme or lukewarm – from other Catholics even within our own parish.
It could even be the simple sacrifices that big families have to make financially in order to make ends meet, or giving up on the dream of owning your own home, or being forced to work outside the home in order to pay the bills when you’d much rather be at home with the kids.
These small grievances and annoyances are the costs for our faith, for the truth and though they can at times get us down it is important to remind yourself when the hurts run deeper than normal or we’re more sensitive to their sting; they are proof that we are on the narrow path.
We might feel like that narrow path needs resurfacing and clearing but as we trip and fall along the way, or snag our sleeve on the branches that overhang, these are the scars that prove our fidelity to the truth.
Let’s face it, the truth is not PC and our contemporaries would rather smooth over the surface in the name of tolerance in inclusion and ignore the undercurrents below. But we can’t afford to do that or the truth will sink below, harder to retrieve and less palatable to those around us.
But if the truth doesn’t cost us, it must be a lie.
And I’m not prepared to live a lie just to have a mirage of peace and goodwill in this life.
Originally posted 2020-01-14 05:22:40.