All my life, I have felt it is stylish to be viewed as countercultural, but I’ve also concluded that if we really want to be countercultural, we just need to embrace our Catholic faith authentically and unapologetically. A dictionary will explain that this word is the adjective form of counterculture, which it defined as a culture with values that run counter to those of established society. The dictionary gave the “hippie culture” of the 1960s as an example of counterculture.
I’m old enough to remember the 1960s and the cultural struggles of those times. I recall my grandparents, farmers who lived in upstate New York, grumbling about the giant traffic jam on the New York Thruway because of the 400,000 or so people heading to the Woodstock Festival in the summer of 1969. They did not live very close to the site of the festival, but my grandmother weighed in on it anyway. Her salty description of that traffic jam was funny – I still hear her words and earthy voice, but the specific phrasing of her diatribe is not suitable for this forum. I’ll leave that to the readers’ imaginations.
Many people of that time had strong ideas that ran counter to the predominant culture in America, a desire to see an end to wars and other forms of hatred, the dawn of an era when people got along with each other much better than in the past. It was a noble goal, and their hearts were in the right place, but the expression of those goals at places like the muddy hillside in New York during that famous rock festival and elsewhere were not the same as Christian love and peace. Another and further step toward God is needed.
So, let’s delve more deeply into that idea of being countercultural and consider the idea of rebuilding our world in ways that build God’s kingdom. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that, “For the sake of the joy that lay before him he (Jesus) endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God. Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart (Heb 12:2-3).”
The letter’s author also speaks of a cloud of witnesses on behalf of God’s Word that surrounds us so that we can “persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith (Heb 12:1).” These words call us to remain faithful in the face of opposition and persecution as we strive to live authentically as disciples of Jesus.
What does Jesus tell us about all this? “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! (Lk 12:49).” He did not come to make the world a placid utopia. Not at all. Jesus wants us burning with the Spirit, a special kind of fire that only God can light in minds and hearts. A world on fire with the Spirit would overflow with people open to God and living the life of faith authentically, not giving into the prevailing currents of society.
Think of St. Teresa of Calcutta. St. John Paul II. St. Therese of Lisieux. St. John Vianney and Padre Pio. Our current Holy Father Pope Leo XIV. Consider any other saintly person who comes to your mind who is a hero of the Catholic faith and who helped set the world on fire – maybe in big ways, maybe in little ways – with the Spirit through their words and actions.
Take hold of those examples of saintly life. Read about them. Understand them. Let their example become a deeply ingrained aspect of your daily faith life. Find out what set them apart: their undying and steadfast faith in the face of a world that can push us away from the life of faith and their steadfast loyalty to the Church.
Though they ran against the prevailing currents of society, true saintly people were not and are not renegades forcing their own personal views on others. They were and are patient and caring, absolutely clear about what Jesus taught and truly open to the teachings and guidance of the Church, not striking out strictly on their own. Today, we can do the same. We can share in the joy of the saints, of the author of the Letter to the Hebrew, of Jesus Christ Himself.
This joyous life I’m talking about is not the easy way, but it is the right way, it’s the path from this world to the eternal joy of salvation. It’s a path of marching to the beat of a different drummer, the drumbeat of the examples Jesus Christ gave us, that the saints gave us, willing not to fit into the easy roles and modes of popular society but a humble life of loving and dedicated discipleship. Let us go forth into each day rejoicing in accepting this challenge and committed to the most radical countercultural act of the 21st century: to live a life of faith based on doing as Jesus Christ taught and did when He walked in our world and continues to call us to every day we live.