As a person who was an adult through Vatican II, my life is split in two! In the first half of my life, I was a person of “law and order.” I tried to be good; I tried to obey the law. I was oblivious of my baptism and its consequences. To be a Catholic meant Mass, confession, and no meat on Fridays and during Lent. I didn’t really know who I was.
In the second half of my life, I have tried to take to heart the message and vision of Vatican II. Our understanding of morality and Christian living must be renewed. This demands a return to Scripture. There, we will discover the nobility of our baptismal vocation in Christ and our obligation to live in love for the life of the world. (See Decree on Priestly Formation [Optatam Totias], 16.)
We as Catholics have a wholly renewed sense of who we are as people and how we should live as Catholics. It’s a breath of fresh air, but it’s also quite a challenge! Jesus is the heart of life. Jesus is at the heart of every person, every thing. Jesus is at the heart of every relationship, every experience of community. Jesus is at the heart of every event, every experience.
Only through the “eyes of faith,” as St. Thomas Aquinas said, are we able to see this, to experience Jesus in every human experience. He is ever there, loving and calling us into deeper union and greater love of neighbor. The way we choose to respond to the call of every situation is the way we respond to Jesus. Paul says we must “live in a manner worthy of the call you have received” (Ephesians 4:1). To live “in Christ Jesus” every day through the grace of our baptism is, in every way, to be a Catholic.
Excerpted from Catholic Update, “Baptism: Our Lifelong Call” by Fr. Nicholas Lohkamp, OFM (C0607A). Available from Liguori Publications. To order, call 800-325-9521, or visit Liguori.org.