I don't normally like to discuss politics. To be quite honest I have been totally grossed out by this year's presidential nominees. I don't like either candidate, and I believe both have MAJOR MAJOR flaws.
But this post isn't about politics specifically, and I don't want to get into it. But ever since Mr. Trump's VP choice has been announced, people have been googling and wikapeding all about this Mr. Pence. The thing that stuck out to me first was that he once called himself an Evangelical Catholic.
What is that?
According to Wikepedia: "The term Evangelical Catholic is used by Christians who consider themselves both "catholic" and "evangelical" (meaning "gospel-centered"). Evangelical catholic (catholic is the noun with evangelical modifying) can refer variously to: evangelical Protestant Christians who consider themselves catholic Christians that identify with the historic Christian Church, who believe that the early general councils and the Protestant Reformation were both part of the progressive illumination of the Holy Spirit; and members of the Catholic Church who, in continuity with the long tradition of the Church and empowered by Pope Benedict XVI's proclaimed New Evangelization, stress the centrality and salvific universality of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the necessity of proclaiming it.
That. Sounds. Awesome.
That's what I want to be called.
I want to be known not just as a Catholic who attends Mass every Sunday, to fulfill some obligation that my parents instilled in me was important. But a Catholic who really really gets it. A Catholic who believes in both the teachings of the church, and the importance of LIVING it. A Catholic who isn't just thinking about God for a few minutes on Sunday, but who is LONGING, and DESIRING God 24/7. (Or at the very least, desiring to desire GOD 24/7.)
My husband was feeling a little uneasy by the term. You see he considers himself an Evangelical. And I am not quite sure he likes Catholics using this term. But the problem doesn't lie in us using the term. The problem lies in the fact that my poor husband, like so many other Evangelicals, have never seen Catholics being evangelical.
They have never experienced a Catholic retreat where we are filled with the Holy Spirit and singing and praising God with out any inhibitions. Where men and women are laying hands over one another, and speaking in tongues, and resting in the spirit, and really consumed by love for our God.
These other Evangelicals have never heard Catholics who know their bible, and study it furiously because no matter how many times we study a book, we always realize there is more to learn, and more to peel, and more layers of wisdom and mind blowing truth that knocks even the most knowledgeable bible geek off their feet.
These non-catholic evangelicals are offended by our use of the word evangelical, because they have never witnessed Catholics being truly gospel centered and proclaiming it to the world as Christ himself commanded.
Or maybe they have, and they are just blind to it, because of their prejudice of Catholics.
No matter what the real reason for this widely unknown term, "Evangelical Catholic" getting some recent press, I couldn't be more pleased that maybe, just maybe the Holy Spirit is doing His Thing. The thing that he quietly moves in love to convince people of the truth.
I pray that whoever is elected in this next presidential election, that they will allow the Holy Spirit to guide him or her in all their decisions. And God be with us all!!!
