Softly & Tenderly

The rural Ohio area where I grew up is Non Catholic heaven. My small hometown, with a population of 600 people at that time (it is experiencing a boom at the moment with a Honda plant nearby) and now has grown to 900. But our little village has 4 non Catholic churches. When we were very young, our Mother would take us to the Quaker church just up the street. The only African American church in the county was Baptist, and even though my father was raised Baptist, he was non practicing. Mom held a deep prejudice for Baptists, the only discriminatory bone in her body. Finally, when I was about 8 years old, there opened a small African Methodist Episcopal church, Grace A.M.E., in the county seat of Bellefontaine (pronounced "bell fountain). So we started going there, but by that time I became vocal about my desire to go to a Catholic church. But I had also developed a deep affection for protestant hymns and gospel music, both country and black. My favorite was "Softly and Tenderly"'

The lyrics make my love for that hymn obvious:

"Softly & tenderly, Jesus is calling.
Calling for you and for me.
Though we have sinned,
He has mercy and pardon,
Pardon for you and for me.

Come Home, Come Home,
Ye who are weary come Home.
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling all sinners come Home. "

Now, for the Evangelical, Pentecostal and non denominational faiths, this is a funeral song. Same for Baptists & the Church of Christ parishioners. But, as a Catholic, I take from it so much more. I converted to Catholicism, and each time over the years when I have faltered, the confessor in the Sacrament of Reconciliation would remind me that I am always welcome. That is one of the beauties of Mother Church. You don't need an epiphany or sudden surge of the Holy Spirit. All you have to do is come home. Yes, you do need to make a confession, but as I have said before, that is my favorite Sacrament after the Eucharist. Moreover, each time I receive the Body & Blood of our dear Lord Jesus, I know I am home. That is one of my acts of answering his, "....calling all sinners, come Home". Indeed, it reaffirms for me why I am a Roman Catholic.

When I attended my first Mass, I knew I was home. Granted I was young and being the only "negro" child in the congregation, I garnered quite a bit of benevolent attention..... that certainly helped convince me that my call to Rome Sweet Home, as Scott Hahn would say, was real and legitimate. When one of my older sisters became Muslim, she and both of her ex husbands were baffled at my skill in Catholic Apologetics. I mean, it was a simple matter of the fact that I cannot really understand nor empathize with a faith where there is no Jesus. Yes, they acknowledge Him as a great prophet and venerate the Holy Mother, but they give the same argument that many Jewish Apologists give, that God doesn't have a family. To which I always reply, "Then, who are we to God?" That "mystical" question, that part of Christianity that they do not understand, just got me some very blank stares that seared right through my head. I am disaffected.

Then, my younger sister was "Born Again" and is now an Evangelical Christian. She had a change of heart, to some degree, after having a job working with a Catholic Social Service agency after Hurricane Katrina and then working with poor Hispanic immigrants. She finally acknowledged that Catholics are Christians, as before, she was led to believe it to be a cult. Moreover, she also finally admitted to me that she knows now, she was preaching to the choir when she was trying to convert me. She realized that I had been "saved" way before she was. And, I remind her that, yes, I was saved, I am being saved and I will be saved in the future. That beautiful ongoing process of the road to holiness Catholics enjoy and many take for granted.

As I work with two other Oblate Sisters of Mary Magdalene, Sr. Mary Magdalene and Sr. Clare Marie, we discuss the entrance process to becoming one of our sisters. I have decided, one thing we might do that is unorthodox, is welcome fallen away Catholics and, possibly, people of another Church. But they would first become lay associates. I would grant them the opportunity to wear the dress of our habit when attending common retreats, meetings & functions, but no veil. And, they could become a postulate and/or novitiate (depending on their progress to the goal I am about to mention), but part of their formation would be to attend RCIA or form a relationship with a good spiritual director who will assist them in listening to and actually hearing Jesus' call. The call that is delivered so softly and tenderly. Our sisters need a close relationship with Jesus and His Church, because to achieve that is critical to our way of prayer life. We imitate Christ. We pray without ceasing, even through a busy or difficult work day. It sustains us until we can receive Lord Jesus in the Eucharist. Our Holy Communion is what holds us together, not just as Catholics, but as Oblate Sisters of Mary Magdalene.

Yeah..... I know what you were thinking when you first began to read this. "Where is she going with THIS? Is she having another Senior Moment?" Well, I might be having just that. But even if that is so, it's part of my closer walk with Jesus, another non Catholic hymn! ;-)