If Not You, Who? A Calling to the Fight for Our Culture
If God stood in front of you today, flesh and bone, and called you to follow Him, would you?
Over the last month or so, I’ve been making my way through the series “The Chosen.” In one of the episodes, a Pharisee named Nicodemus is shown speaking with Jesus. As their conversation goes on, Nicodemus begins to fully understand that the man sitting in front of him is the Son of God. Only God Himself could have performed the miracles he had been seeing. At the end of the meeting, Jesus says those simple but difficult words, “Follow Me.”
Later on we see Nicodemus, the man who just a few days prior saw the beauty and the freedom that was set before him, make it five feet away from following Jesus. He gives Jesus and his disciples money for their journey, but hides behind the wall. He makes the decision to not follow. The scene ends with Jesus saddened, saying, “You came so close.”
How many times in our lives does the Lord call out to us to follow Him? To trust in Him? To serve Him? Yet we do not go. How often does He ask us to take up our crosses, leave our comfort behind and follow Him, and we do not go? How many times does He just simply ask us to love those around us or speak up for the injustices we see, and we do not go?
We may not always feel it, we may not always see Him, but God calls out to every single one of us, everyday, begging us to follow Him.
But why don’t we?
WE’VE FORGOTTEN THAT WE’VE ALL BEEN CALLED TO FIGHT
At the end of the book of Numbers, we see the Tribes of Israel preparing to go into the Holy Land, but there are two tribes (Reubenites and Gadites) who ask to stay back, to not go. They found beautiful land that would work great for them. They found their inheritance, so they wanted to stop. In Numbers 32:6 Moses says to them, “should your fellow Israelites go to war while you sit here?” Eventually, they came to the agreement that the tribes could have the land, and come back to it, but they had to first go out and fight for the other Israelities. They had to go out and fight until everyone was brought their promised inheritance. If they wouldn’t have decided to fight, the other tribes would’ve stopped too. We are all called to be missionaries. Multiple times through the book of Deuteronomy God calls His people to care for the widows, orphans, and sojourners. The lowest amongst them must be cared for. The poor is referenced over 2000 times in the Bible. At baptism, we were all given a blessing to be prophets. We were given a blessing to go out and bring people to Christ. We were given a blessing to go out and serve those who cannot serve themselves. God calls us all to the fight. To fight for His nation, to fight for His kingdom, to fight for the ones who can’t fight themselves, the ones society says are least. I think a lot of times, the reason we don’t go out to fight is because we’re content in our own lives. But it’s not about that. It’s about fighting for others; fighting for each other. Because if we don’t fight, what should anyone else do? We all have a part to play in the redemption of the world. A part to play in the fight for the dignity of the human person. We have to make the decision to stop doing what is easy and comfortable, and push ourselves to fight.
WE’VE FORGOTTEN THAT WE BELONG TO EACH OTHER
How often are we quick to get defensive about political stances or someone who has a different opinion than us? How often are we quick to put up walls and defend ourselves? On the other hand, how quick are we to defend others? To defend the poor, or the ones society says are least. To defend our enemies. There’s a famous quote by Mother Teresa that says “Today, if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other – that man, that woman, that child is my brother or my sister.” She goes on to say that if we spent more time giving everyone water, food, clothes, shetler instead of building walls and guns, that the world would be a better place. At the end of the day, we were created to be in relationship with one another. To learn to love and see Christ through every human being on Earth, no matter how different from us they may be. We are so quick to love and fight for those who it’s easy. Those amongst us that society easily accepts. But every human being has dignity. Every human being is worthy of being known and loved, no matter their past, present or future. It is our job to uphold and remind people of that. To love others, to be in communion with them, to learn from them. Our society is quick to preach on independence. It promotes a culture where everyone is a lone island. A culture that believes our actions don’t affect other people, that we don’t need people, that we don’t need love. That type of mindset can lead to such a lonely and isolating life, because it goes against everything we were created for. We were made for each other. We were made to learn, and love each other.
WE LET OUR PAST DEFINE US
Often, what keeps us from fighting is a belief that we aren’t good enough. I used to get caught in a trap of “someone needs to do something,” but it couldn’t possibly be me. A belief that I wasn’t “Catholic” enough, that I was too far gone, that I wasn’t good enough to make a difference. But God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called. In the book of Matthew, we see Jesus return with wounds in His hand. Wounds so real, Thomas could touch them. God uses the wounds to bring people closer to Him. The same way God used Jesus’ wounds to convince Thomas it was Him, He uses our wounds to bring people closer to Him. In our lifetime, not all our wounds will be healed, but they will be redeemed and glorified. We just have to let God in and allow Him to do so. There is nothing that you’ve done, that’s been done to you, that you know or don’t know, that disqualifies you from serving the Lord. Abraham, Mr. Father of Faith, doubted the Lord MULTIPLE TIMES in the bible. Peter, the GUY WHO THE CHURCH IS BUILT UPON, doubted the Lord three times. God doesn’t call the perfect, He calls the sinners. He calls the imperfect. Because through Him, all our sins and imperfections will be redeemed and glorified. If you allow Him, He will use your imperfections to build a culture of love and dignity.
WE FORGET TO ASK GOD WHAT HE WANTS
I remember being on my knees last April, and for the first time in my life asking God what He wanted from me. For the first time I told Him I was ready to do His will, and I actually meant it. Flash forward a month and law school was out the door and I was on a flight to Pennsylvania to train to become a Culture Project Missionary. There are days where mission life gets the best of me, or I doubt myself, but I’ve never once questioned that what I’m doing right now is more important than anything I could be doing in law school. Right now I am fighting the biggest battle, a battle for the heart of the culture. I get to go into schools and parishes and tell middle and high school students, some of them for the first time in their lives, that they matter. So often in prayer we shout at God a list of demands. A long list of things we desire, hope for, dream for, want. And while we certainly should tell God these things, how often do we ask Him what He wants us to do? What path does he want us to follow? A lot of times we shy away out of fear. Mainly, because the path He asks us to take can look more daunting and is usually outside our comfort zone. Usually it can look like going against the status quo or our “plan”. But I promise whatever plan God has for you, is so much greater, more freeing and satisfying than the one you’ve pictured for yourself. So pray often, ask God what He wants, and have the courage to say yes.
A CALLING TO BATTLE
Whether you can hear or see Him, God is calling you right now.
Our culture is in trouble. Never before have we seen such widespread loneliness, isolation and use. Never before has the dignity of each human person been so far removed from the reality of the world. Today, 92% of teenage girls want to change something about how they look, every 60 seconds someone dies from an eating disorder, the average age of pornography exposure has dropped to 8 years old, every 30 seconds, someone becomes a victim of modern day slavery, 2363 lives are lost daily in the United States due to abortion. As a society we have stopped placing the dignity of the human person first. But worse, we’ve stopped fighting.
From childhood, we are taught to not speak about religion, politics, or any controversial subject. We have been taught that in order to love someone we have to agree. Our culture has taught us to stop talking about things that matter. It’s taught us to stop fighting.
But today I call you higher. I call you to start fighting. Because if you don’t fight, who will? If you don’t speak up for the defenseless, who will? If you don’t care for those lowest amongst you, who will? At some point we have to make the decision that this culture of loneliness and isolation and use stops with us. We have to stand up for what is right. We have to fight for love. And freedom. And for the dignity of the human person.
So whether that is applying to be a Culture Project missionary, or starting a pro-life organization at your school, joining a club or simply speaking up at the dinner table, change the cycle today. Join the fight. Because if you don’t, who will?
God is calling you to join the fight, will you?
