Is it Worth Being Catholic?

Ever wonder if being Catholic is actually worth all the rules, guilt, and weird traditions? Yeah… me too. But here’s the thing—being Catholic literally saved my life. I’ve hit rock bottom, stared into the abyss, and somehow (thank God and my probably very confused guardian angel) made it out alive.

In this episode, I share my messy, very human journey: why the Church’s teachings actually make life a little simpler, how the sacraments and saints are basically your spiritual hype squad, and why sticking with Catholicism—even when it’s hard—can give your life purpose, direction, and maybe a little hope.

Spoiler: I’m still crappy at it. But that’s okay—because faith isn’t about being perfect, it’s about showing up, fumbling through, and trying to get it right.

Transcript

Is it really worth it to be Catholic? Is it really worth all this time and effort and and all the the the things you have to do to be Catholic? I'm going to say yes, but I'm also going to take it a step further and say being Catholic saved my life. And here here's what I mean. So years ago, I was at the worst point in my life. (00:21) My family was destroyed. I had no job or career. I had no money coming in. I couldn't have been at a lower point in my life. And I'm not proud to say this, but I I picked up a gun and I put it to my head, felt the metal on my my on my temple, and I thought, "This is the answer. That let's get this over with. This this is too painful. This is excruciating. (00:47) " And I can only imagine my guardian angel freaking out. It's like, "No, no, no, don't do that. Don't do that." Right? It was probably a soft voice says, "No, don't do it. Don't do it." Regardless, I didn't do it obvious because I'm sitting here talking to you right now. But it was that moment of desperation that kind of made me very thankful for what I have. (01:09) And here's what I mean by that. That that Sunday afterwards, I went to church. I went to confession and I told the priest about it. I said, "Father, I committed contemplated suicide. I had a gun up to my head. I wanted I wanted to blow my brains out." and all he said and I'll never forget he said if you do that you'll go to hell. Now this isn't judging people who have had who you know have committed suicide or have gone through it or whatever. (01:40) I'm not judging any of that. But for me in that particular instance it was a teaching of the church, right? It was a teaching of the Holy Roman Catholic Church about murder, about committing suicide because it is the ultimate in despair, not believing or trusting in God in any way, shape or form. (01:59) So for me in my circumstance, yeah, it was, you know, I meditated on it. I thought about it. I wanted to do it. It was basically a straight one-way ticket to hell. And I got to tell you, it it just just the fact as I step back from this is the fact that that what the church teaches is worth it because it makes so much of life just in many ways simpler and black and white because of the authority of the church and what she teaches and then how she passes it on and then and then you live by it. (02:31) I I got to say my life doesn't make sense without Catholicism when you when you get right down to it. You know the old catechism, I don't know if they still do it, but they talk about God in the very beginning and they say, "Why did God make you?" Well, God made you to know, love, and serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next. (02:54) What a relief. Think of all the people and all the books that are out there that are like, people are just they don't know what to do with their life. They're just so frustrated. What's the purpose and point of my life? There it is right there. It's to love God, to know God, to serve God in this lifetime. (03:12) And it makes life so much more easier. It's like, okay, what am I doing in my life that that's serving God so I know him? And just trusting that he's going to lead and guide you to what you need to do. It's being Catholic and Catholicism is not just a system of belief. It's a worldview. It's how you view the world in your life and how you know why you get up each day. (03:37) It's it's not about you. It's about God. It's about being in the world that has gone absolutely bananas. I mean, look around you. Stuff just doesn't even make sense anymore. So, what what is the worldview of those folks? Well, if there is no God, then what's the point of being nice to people? Or what's the point of not doing whatever I want? what's what's why shouldn't I worship myself? Why shouldn't I look in the mirror and do everything for myself? So it is it is a world view but it's based on a belief system that has been (04:10) handed down to us from the time of Christ. So that that means if it's true it matters more than anything. I think we're we're in a day and age where people think truth is relative. And I just it frustrates me that there's no such thing as capital T truth. Jesus Christ said, "I'm the way, the truth, and the life. (04:33) " Okay? So, if that's true, then you can't have your own truth. You can't it it it's insane. It's insane. If you go to different people and you can't even agree on what truth is, yet the Catholic faith gives us that truth and tells us this is true. This is worthy of belief. And I love that because it's just it's just such a guide for life. (04:55) The church has been around since the time of Jesus Christ who established it. And I know there's a lot of people who don't believe that and they get in, you know, fisticuffs and and and they go back and forth about, oh, this isn't true. And they they just question everything about the Catholic Church. But it is true because as Catholics, we can trace our lineage all the way back to the time of Christ to the first pope to an unbroken line of popes all the way up today, good and bad. (05:22) I mean, Jesus chose 12 12 apostles and and one of those was Judas. He he he wasn't the the best of apostles, was he? The church gives us sacraments. These are things that we can we can sense, we we see when we go to mass and there's the holy sacrifice, the mass, you have the the bread and the wine. (05:45) You see real elements of of the sacraments. It's our way of touching heaven. if if you want to look at it that way. And I think too for me, Catholicism is a family. And again, for for a lot of people, family was not the safest place to be. It was not the best place to be. And even when you're part of a Catholic family, right? If you go to a parish or you're part of a church somewhere and even those people may not be the best family, it might be a little, you know, off-kilter, a little dysfunctional, what have you. But you have your church (06:20) family of believers of those who are struggling to overcome their vices and their difficulties. And you know, you're not alone. You're always going to have the human element in church, at work, in your family, anywhere in life. So, you find the ones who are who are struggling like you, who can relate to you, who are working to get better, who are working on their vices. (06:46) So, it it is a family. Yeah. Sometimes dysfunctional, but but still family. And I love that because we do have those common beliefs or at least we should have those common beliefs, right? If we all believe the same thing, if we claim to be Catholic, then we've got to we got to believe the same thing. And I have to say that it's being Catholic is a challenge. It's not easy. (07:10) Um, a lot of the teachings, most of the teachings go against our our current culture and the culture throughout history to the point where like the very first Christians were were martyed. A lot of Christians have been martyed throughout history because of their beliefs that weren't that went against culture. (07:30) So it gives you something to stand up on and believe in on a firm foundation that just doesn't change with with the you know every which way the wind blows. It requires sacrifice and commitment. A lot of people don't want to sacrifice nowadays. They don't want to sacrifice their, you know, just the way they act and the way they live their lives. (07:52) It's a sacrifice to, for example, if you're, you know, gluttony, if you eat all the time and that's, oh, this is it. You've got to sacrifice by not eating or eating less. If you're struggling against lust, it's not that you're just going after someone's husband or wife. It's you're not even thinking about it. (08:11) You you get those thoughts out of your head, but it takes effort. And that effort leads to victory. That's what I that's what I love about it. You know, I think I I feel bad for all the people who aren't even trying to overcome or anything. What victory could there possibly be if you can't overcome yourself? If you can't conquer the things that are holding you back from being a a good Catholic, um a saint in the making who's going to heaven. So, it's worth it. (08:39) It's a challenge for those who like a challenge. It kind of forces you, well not kind of, it forces you to to face your own mess, you as a person. And it took me a while to understand this, but St. Terzus who talks about knowing your own nothingness, your own um misery, you you acknowledge this because we are we're broken. (09:07) We're we're big- time broken. And the more you realize that, the more you realize that you need God's help, the less you rely on yourself, the less it is about pride because you can't do anything on your own. Right? Scripture tells us that without God, you can do nothing. So, it's quite a journey to be humble or to look up to at a cruise fix and say, "Lord, I I can't do it. (09:31) I need your help." And it's the challenge that says, "I'm going to keep trying and I'm going to keep going." You know, Jesus carried his cross and if you ever saw the passion of the Christ, you see how hard that was. What a sacrifice that was. That was, you know, suffering, but he showed us the way that you've got to carry that cross. (09:49) You've got to you've, you know, no cross, no glory. And but, you know, I mean, you know, as you listen to this or you're watching this that everything of any value, anything that's worthwhile costs something. I'm always amazed that, you know, people talk about the, you know, whenever it comes time to the Olympics, they do biographies of what the Olympians go through, the the routines, the grueling routines of waking up early and the kind of diets they're on and and the physical regimens they do or for any sports team or any anybody that we admire, (10:26) what they actually went to for for earthly glory when you think about it, you know, for a medal or for an award or a trophy or whatever it So to me being Catholic gives you that opportunity to become an Olympic champion because you overcome you overcome yourself. You overcome your weaknesses. (10:44) You overcome your your passions. You overcome all the things that are holding you back to victory. And of course, let's let's face it. What's at stake is eternity. Is heaven or hell? And who doesn't want to be in heaven for all eternity? It's the promise of of eternal happiness. Eternity is a long time. I mean, think about when you're waiting at the DMV. (11:11) Oh, this is eternity, right? It takes so long. You just can't wait to get up there and get your stuff done and get out of there. But eternity is forever. I know it sounds silly, but it's, you know, so it's worth it in this life to go through the struggle. And I was talking to my wife the other day. We were talking about, you know, how at the end of your life or even now, you look back and you think, my gosh, you know, whether you've been on this earth, you know, 20, 30, 40 plus years, up up, and you look back at how quickly it's gone. It's all gone already, right? But (11:46) eternity is forever. So, that's what we're working for. This is going to be over before you know it. What I love about being Catholic and why I think it's worth it is because it gives me rules and guidance, doctrine and dogma that I can follow so that there aren't so that my my questions get answered. (12:07) I know a lot of people they, you know, they say they're Bible Christians and they just find the the answer in the Bible and I don't know, maybe they do. I can't tell you how many times I've looked in the Bible and I'm like, what does that mean? What what does this passage mean? What does this chapter mean? I don't always get those answers. (12:24) but for practical life and spiritual life and that's another thing not only do we have the teaching of the church we have the saints who have gone before us and that's where I find so much comfort as well you can look at the lives of the saints of what they've gone through and in many cases they've kind of gone through what you've gone through or you're going through they've gone through the struggles they they know what it's like and you can look at their lives and say okay what did they do how How did they get through it? Right? Prayer, penance, (12:55) sacrifice, the sacraments, all those things that got them to their eternal reward to to eternity, to heaven, to happiness. Is that worth it? Yeah. Because I can't stress enough that you're not alone. There's people on earth that you can work with who are on this struggle with you, but there are there's those who have gone before us who can help you get to heaven. (13:22) Isn't that awesome that you have this whole team in heaven of saints who are cheering you on that you know that they're they're like, "Man, come on. Come on, Mark. You can do it. Come on. Get through this. I know it's tough. You can do it." Think about a good football coach or a good, you know, any kind of coach of any movie that you've seen that's been very motivational, inspiring, right? The coach, the person that spurs on the person who just wants to give up so bad and they spur them on. (13:45) Hey, keep going. Hey, you can do this. That's what we have with the saints who are telling us, "Yeah, you can do this. We want you here here with us." So, is it worth it? Oh, heck yeah. You know, I call this channel the crappy Catholic because each day I I fall. Each day I'm like, I can't believe I did that. (14:08) I can't believe I didn't do that. I can't believe I haven't come over gotten over this or gotten through this personal vice or this thing that I'm working on. And Christ asked from us just just patience, patience and perseverance. And again, I get that through my Catholic faith because I have such a richness to dive into as I said that of of the saints, of the teachings of the church, of the sacraments that say keep going. There's always a whisper. (14:39) I think that's my guardian angel. I I I have no doubt that's who that is. Keep going. It's a struggle. Keep going. What if Jesus had been sitting in the Garden of olives and said, "I forget it. I'm not doing this. I can't do it. Not going to happen." And the Bible tells us that that an angel came to comfort him and help him. (15:01) We have that. We have the angels helping us. We have the the saints helping us. We have all that. Is the struggle worth it? Yeah, you won't know till the end of your life, will you? But you've got to believe it during your life that it that it is worth it. That heaven is worth it. That it's worth the effort. (15:17) It's worth the time. And there there's nothing I would rather fight for. I've I've been in the military. I've done the you know the grueling drills and the uh you know the privations and all things you have to go to to be a good soldier. Be a good Catholic soldier. Work really hard. Be the best at it. Study your faith. (15:39) know your faith and see how beautiful it is, but see how encouraging it is. See how many answers to life it offers you. It's it's where you run to for answers. Where are you going to go? The internet or the newspaper or the you know other other you YouTube v videos. I don't know. I'm saying for me it brings me a lot of comfort. And if you're struggling, you know, let me know. (16:07) we can, you know, we help each other out. We help ourselves get there, but I can't imagine any anywhere else I would run to that's worth it more than it is being Catholic. So, I don't know if that's helped. Making these videos has been a struggle for me of just what what do we even talk about? How can I be of help? But, I'm thinking that maybe just sharing some of my struggles will help. (16:30) But I can't stress enough that being Catholic is worth everything. It's worth the effort. It's worth the time. It's it's worth you being the best Catholic you could possibly be. And if you're not, investigate. Look at it. Turn it over. Look at look at, you know, history. But I'm here to help if you need it. (16:53) And I'm more than happy to be with you on this journey. So, is it worth being Catholic? your darn tootin."