During my sophomore year of high school, my Latin teacher gave our class the assignment to write a Valentine's Day card in Latin. The English translation would then be read aloud and judged by the senior class. As I finished writing the Latin Valentine's Day poem for my card, I knew what I wrote was bound for first place - it was creative and downright hilarious.
I was proud of the poem I created and I could not wait for others to hear it. In my mind my poem was headed for greatness, but there was a minor problem. Even though I put much effort into my poem, I did not put any work into creating an attractive card to contain my poem. As a result, my card looked horrible even though it had a great poem inside.
When the day came for the seniors to choose from over 50 Valentine's Day cards written by my class, they had little time to listen and make their discussion. As the teacher would read each card, the class knew just by looking at the card who had worked hard and who just hastily put a card together. Thus, the senior class would often yell for the teacher to skip the card if it looked like junk, since they felt that the poem would most likely reflect the same lack of effort.
When my card came up to be read, the class took one look at the card and told the teacher to skip it, but she told them that they should hear it. Even though they wanted to discard my Valentine's Day card based on its appearance, in the end they voted my card first place. When I heard this story from my teacher, I could hardly believe that the appearance of my card almost caused the senior class to never hear what would be the first-place poem.
As I enter into my priesthood, I cannot help but feel the same way about my Catholic faith. To me, the Catholic faith is a beautiful poem everyone should read. Sadly, many men and women never get the opportunity to read this magnificent poem because people simply toss it aside due to the appearance of its card.
Just like the incident from my high school days, I cannot believe that the appearance of the card can cause so many not to hear this beautiful poem. As for me, I am a Catholic who loves his faith and believes whole-heartedly that this is the church that Jesus established 2,000 years ago and the Holy Spirit has guided ever since Pentecost. I will devote my life to creating cards that encourage others to read this poem.
Why are there people who do not embrace the Catholic faith? What are the reasons others leave the Catholic faith? When people leave the faith, it's probably not because of the poem, but because of the attractiveness of the card.
As Catholics, how can we attract others to this wonderful poem? May I remind you that I am not talking about changing the poem so that it can be more attractive, because how can you improve perfection? I am talking about creating different cards to reach different people. Would a card for kids look the same as a card for adults or a card for a person entering marriage look the same as a card for a person mourning a death?
No, everyone is in different places, has different needs, and what attracts one might not attract another.
The possibilities are endless, but I as a priest and we as Catholic Christians must search for how we can develop cards to help draw people to read this God-given poem that will change and transform anyone's life.
Father Kevin Muniz has been appointed parochial vicar for Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Decatur, effective July 1.