Tradition!

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a long time, and the previous one before it, know that Peter and I have wanted to work in missions for a very, very long time. You've probably seen us go through trials and frustrations as we pursued missions up and down every avenue. Finally, we became Catholics, and this burning vision to evangelize "out there" became a little bit less important as we learned to humble ourselves and find peace in the situations God had put us in for now. We didn't need a big, visual ministry and hundreds saved each day. We just needed to make an impact in the communities where God called us to live, and we pray that one day God will call us to make an impact in a community that isn't here in North Carolina, and that He will use our language skills and my cultural sensitivity in a way that glorifies Him.

That being said, I got the distinct impression the other day that God is training and preparing us for just that mission. We live with my father in law, now, and he is not a Catholic. He's a nondenominational Christian... by which I mean that he doesn't identify with any major Christian group, but rather has his own "quirks" in his style of worship, theology, and beliefs. He is a tried and true believer, a friend of Christ, and I am so thankful for that.... it's a wonderful example to his own kids and to his grandkids. He delights in praying with the Children, listening to Christian radio shows with them, and reading Bible stories to them in the rocker. It's a true gift.

However, he also has those ever-so-present protestant distastes for all things truly Catholic. While he understands and accepts (and believes!) the Catholic approach to and doctrines about Mary, for example, he is wary of "too much Mary" and is constantly trying to push my Marian daughter out of that. I tell him till I'm blue in the face that she SHOULD trust Mary with all her heart, because the real Mary will ALWAYS point her towards Jesus, but it makes him squirm. He isn't a fan of us doing family devotions in front of the family altar.. and much prefers that we do them in the kids' room. He doesn't often comment on it, but when he does, he makes it clear.

Likewise, he is notorious for getting worked up about his inability to recieve Communion. Which is fine, because on days when he is being reasonable and thoughtful, he is both respectful and understanding of our Catholic differences. It's only on days when he is short on patience that he likes to periodically "stick it to us," so to speak and makes snarky comments intended to bruise, if not wound, our Catholic faith.

Because he has been so understanding, I didn't think that we would have too many repurcussions for the kids living in the house with him. But I'm realizing that I'm going to have to be somewhat vigilant in this area because there IS some distrust on his side. It's not that I have ANY problem with him teaching the kids about faith-- I LOVE it! It's that I don't want him teaching the kids that their Catholic faith is wrong. I don't want him to undermine Sacred Tradition, the Communion of Saints, the Eucharist, or any other doctrine that makes us different.

He spends a lot of time at Walmart, and from the day after halloween Walmart has been full of Christmas decorations. This got him thinking-- he hadn't EVER decorated the house for Christmas, and this year, this was something he wanted to do for our kids. I was honored and excited-- until I heard him mention that he was going to get started this weekend. Suddenly, it dawned on me that we were going to have to fight it out to have a Catholic Advent, and I was broken hearted over it.

You see, Catholics begin by celebrating Advent. It's a period of four weeks in which we prepare our hearts and homes to recieve the incarnation... we focus internally on good works and repentance, we decorate with decorations that symbolize penitence and waiting in anticipation, and we make it a point to fully PREPARE for the coming of our Lord on Christmas Day. Practically, this means that we don't decorate for Christmas (tree, lights, etc) until the day before Christmas Eve, and we keep our Christmas Decorations up for the entire Christmas Season, which ends in February, after the day we celebrate the visitation of the 3 wise men.

It is important to me that we observe these things... they are worthy traditions which I believe will draw our family into an atmosphere of hushed anticipation for the coming King, creating a magic seed which set me ablaze with love for Christ when I was young and did the same. But when I brought it up, my father in law completely shut down. He asked a lot of questions, I explained it as best I could, and he shook his head incredulously and made hilarious comments like this:

Me: following the liturgical year helps us to live OUT the Christmas story as if we were there.
Him: Well, not me, that sounds like a lot of RELIGIOUS nonsense.

Once he came back, calmed from his miffed misery that he wouldn't be able to put up Decorations the day before thanksgiving and take them down before new years day, he agreed to "work with me" as long as what I was asking was "reasonable and feasible."
Gee, thanks.

I hadn't really thought much about the repurcussions of living with a non-Catholic because we've been going through ordinary time-- there hasn't been a ton to "do" around the house to mark the Christian year lately. But now we are faced with my favorite Christian traditions, and our family, children and all, must serve as a beacon of light to invade the closed mind and mental darkness in this good man's daily life. It's a mission, and it's a lot harder and less romantic than we think of when we think of missions across the globe! But it's good, and it's practice, and it's wonderful to be faced with this challenge so that we can be that much more grateful for our beautiful faith!