A Catholic Convert says welcome home to the tens of thousands in America and hundreds of thousands worldwide who become Catholic tonight

Welcome Home, Fellow Converts, and May Truth Sustain You Always!

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by Scott Eric Alt 03/26/2016                                 

I extend a very happy “Wel­come Home” to all those who will be received into full com­mu­nion with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil Sat­ur­day evening. As an RCIA team member, I have lis­tened to the emo­tions of new Catholics, after the Vigil, as they recalled mak­ing their first Eucharist. In them there is one feel­ing, unmis­tak­able and com­mon to them all: joy, often to the point of tears that would not be refused. I have not met, in my years working with RCIA and after, the Catholic con­vert who does not expe­ri­ence that same joy. Nor have I met the con­vert who, even after many years, does not get a glim­mer of that same joy in their eyes when recall­ing their own con­ver­sion story.
When I received the Eucharist for the first time, a brand-​new con­vert, on April 23, 2011, I had no clue what I should pray when I returned to my pew to kneel. I had heard the sto­ries of con­verts who broke down in tears of joy; I had heard the sto­ries of con­verts who had got­ten lost in pro­found med­i­ta­tion. But at the moment I had no tears nor pro­found med­i­ta­tions; I merely gave in to the irre­sistible urge to whis­per “Thank you” over and over again. I think it was Meis­ter Eck­hart who said, “If the only prayer you say in your whole life is Thank you, that is enough.” So I trust that my first prayer as a Catholic was enough.
For a while after­ward, when­ever I would return to my pew after receiv­ing the Eucharist, I would have no spe­cific prayer, but I would med­i­tate on Gala­tians 2:20: “Now it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” I didn’t real­ize it at first, but it struck me even­tu­ally that there is a great deal of Eucharis­tic the­ol­ogy in those words of St. Paul’s. St. Paul under­stood the Real Pres­ence.
So I say it as well to those con­verts new to the Catholic Church this year: Easter Vigil, and the days and weeks and months after it, will for­ever be an unfor­get­table peak expe­ri­ence in your Catholic life. You have come a long way, and many of you have sac­ri­ficed greatly, to be where you are now. It is right, it is fit­ting, it is proper, to have the joy that you now have. It is right to give way to tears when you take Com­mu­nion. It is right to look for­ward to the shiv­ers of being enthralled by the Real Pres­ence. Take this peak expe­ri­ence, as long as you have it, for the gift from Christ that it is.
God’s bless­ings, new Catholics, on being received into the full­ness of the faith.
But per­mit me to cau­tion you. Though your Catholic life is new, and just now on the moun­tain­top, your Catholic life and faith will not be sus­tained there. The shiv­ers go away. The fire gets dim­mer. You return from the moun­tain­top to the flat­lands. In a very impor­tant sense, it is right that this hap­pens; for oth­er­wise, your per­sis­tence as a Catholic would depend on your feel­ings at any given moment. And the Church is not about feel­ings but about Truth. Feel­ings come and go, and come again, and go again. But only truth is last­ing. It is truth that must sus­tain you.
Well, look. If you think it is about your feel­ings, then what are you going to do when all of a sud­den the hom­i­lies are bor­ing? Or when Fr. Soandso says some­thing in the con­fes­sional that grates you? Or when—as inevitably does happen—you return to your pew after the Eucharist and can only think, “Well, here I am”? These dis­ap­point­ments can—unless your eye remains firmly fixed on truth—ultimately ruin your Catholic life.
But I hope that none of you have become Catholic because it feels good, or sat­is­fies some emo­tional need, or because it is con­ve­nient, or helps you accom­plish some goal. I hope you have become Catholic because the Catholic Church alone pos­sesses the full­ness of truth. Boston Col­lege phi­los­o­phy pro­fes­sor Peter Kreeft put it best, start­ing with a quo­ta­tion of C.S. Lewis from Mere Chris­tian­ity:

“Above all you must be ask­ing which door is the true one, not which pleases you best. The ques­tion should never be, Do I like that kind of ser­vice? but, Are these doc­trines true? Is there holi­ness here? Does my con­science move me toward this?” Now, that’s very sim­ple, but that’s the essen­tial advice to give in mak­ing any hon­est choice. There’s only one rea­son why any­body should hon­estly believe any­thing: because it’s true. If you think dif­fer­ently than that, let’s get that set­tled before we do any­thing else.

If I would impress any­thing upon your minds, it would be that Truth alone mat­ters, and Truth is not an emo­tion (how­ever beau­ti­ful it may be) but a Per­son. When every­thing else has gone, it is Truth alone—it is Christ alone—that will sus­tain you. Here is the fun­da­men­tal dif­fer­ence between the Catholic Church you have just joined, and all the tens of thou­sands of other Chris­t­ian eccle­sial com­mu­ni­ties: The rest talk about Christ; but the Catholic Church has Christ. For He is present in the Eucharis­tic sacra­ment, and you may encounter Him there, every day if you like.
The Real Pres­ence mat­ters. It is the one thing that sets us most apart. When the good feel­ings and the peak expe­ri­ence start to fade, find refuge in the sacra­ment. Find refuge in the Eucharist; find refuge in Ado­ra­tion. These aren’t magic bul­lets that will sud­denly make you feel a surge of eupho­ria, but they will keep you focused on the one thing that mat­ters: Truth; for Christ is Truth.
Eupho­ria does come. But I have learned in my five years as a Catholic that it is unpre­dictable, and comes and goes with­out warn­ing. I am grate­ful for the eupho­ria when it comes. But I can not, I must not, rely on it. In Christ alone is the Truth that will sus­tain us through the ebb and flow of our unpre­dictable feel­ings.
So here then, to all the new con­verts to the Catholic Church, is my prayer for you: May truth always sus­tain you.
Wel­come home, dear broth­ers and sis­ters.

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