Recently my parish challenged a group of us volunteers to come up with a two-minute “elevator pitch” to use if we needed to give a short-and-sweet response to the question: Why are you Catholic?

 

Pondering that, I realized I would start by saying that God is real. He exists, is infinite and almighty, and knows everything. He is someone, not some force or thing. He creates, He cares about each person, and He can provide peace and joy to us in circumstances where they normally would not exist.

 

I’ve experienced His nudges, His humor, His gentleness and His kindness. His discipline also, which always, somehow is necessary — although I may not realize why I must do thus-and-so until I do it, and only then begin to realize “why.”

 

God’s Son, our Lord Jesus, walked in history on this earth and rocked the world with His teachings and His sacrifice. I simply believe all that Jesus says because even what sounds very strange at first turns out to be true. His Truth will outlast any and all of the relative “truths” that people dream up these days.

 

He is All-Wise, and knows our hearts and motivations. He always helps when I have to scream out my prayer from my heart, and He is indefatigably polite when I hold Him at arm’s length, even as I grip Him, so I can catch my breath or get over a pout. His knock is gentle; He never pushes in uninvited.

 

My experiences of the Holy Spirit include Him swooping through a group of us college students during an encircled prayer, leaving us gaping at each other, wide-eyed. He has jack-hammered and dynamited stony walls within me, bubbled up energy within when I really needed it (I wish He’d do that more often), and He has a way of making everything fall into place so God’s will can be done. I’ve talked to several people who have had similar, domino-like experiences.

 

If my listener had a bit more patience, I could add: I am a Christian because I believe in Jesus. I am a Catholic because this original Church is a huge help to me in life and in faith. Our Catholic Church has very practical means to help its fallible human membership — more tools than other churches.

 

We have more sacraments, for example. The Eucharist keeps me anchored and nourished. It is a God-gift that keeps me alive. Marriage vows are sacramental, and the sick can be anointed. Sacraments are powerful, and we have all of them.

 

We have the pope, and God uses whoever is in that position to benefit the Church and be the unenviable the-buck-stops-here guy. The bishops fill that role closer to home, and priests do so at an even more immediate level. All of them are human, and a few “Judases” are sprinkled in, along with the “Peters” and others … but God uses them all to advance His will.

 

We have the saints. Other Christians have saintly members too, but their inspirational stories are not shared to the same extent. We can learn from sainted men and women, young and old, in all centuries. And we know they, and all the unknown saints, pray for us and are cheering us on from heaven.

 

We have 2,000 years of intelligent, Spirit-driven, holy people who have pondered Jesus, who have sacrificed their time, talents, treasures and their lives, who have organized and codified structures and procedures and provided systems that usually work well, so when people die or retire, fall away or transfer elsewhere, the structure — the “bones” of the Church and faith — can continue on through most circumstances. 

 

Even when the Church seems obliterated by a government or other oppressive disaster, seeds of faith still seem always to be able to grow when an opportunity arises.

 

In other words, God is with His Church through all times and places. It could not have endured without Him for all these centuries through plagues, persecutions, human idiocy, vanity and weakness. Jesus inspires and strengthens and continues to teach through His Church, with His Father and Holy Spirit.

 

And it is all ours for the asking. What a gift!

 

What might your Catholic “elevator pitch” be?