Fighting for our faith…

Have you seen the movie “Spotlight?” You know, the one that won the Oscar for Best Picture? I talked my husband into watching it with me over the weekend despite his misgivings. I’m an Oscar fanatic – I try to watch as many films up for awards before the big night as possible so I can make “informed decisions” during the Academy Awards show (my favorite of the year). Of course Spotlight was the one movie I didn’t see beforehand (so it figures it won.) While I wouldn’t say Spotlight deserved to win Best Picture, I do think it was well done – and it did give you plenty to think about, if not fire up serious doubts about the Catholic Church that you may or may not have had already. If you don’t know, it’s about the Boston Globe’s investigation into the scandal of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and the cover up of it by various officials of the Church. While it’s hard to argue against the fact that the Church and its representatives hurt a lot of people, I find myself still defending my Catholic faith, even in the wake of the movie. Easy for me to say, I’m not a victim? Not really, because I was (although my case involved a Catholic school teacher). It took a long time for me to forgive and reconcile myself with God, my faith and the Church. Sometimes it’s easier to blame others or hold onto anger and resentments. But I know if I do I’m only hurting myself further. While seriously flawed at times, I still believe the Church is God’s house, both physically and spiritually, that it was given to us by Jesus Christ, and it still does a lot of good in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m failing at that defense when I debate with others, but when I find myself “fighting” internally, like I did after the movie, I realize my faith wins. As humans, not robots, we are meant to question and challenge, not just live in blind faith…it helps us grow. And often I find my faith gets even stronger when tested.   “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold.” (1 Peter 1:7) Like anything in life, I believe instead of focusing on the problems, we need to focus on solutions…to not turn away but to help build the Church and the Kingdom.