Holy Week and Redemptive Suffering

That same week, Holy week of 2003, I received two more painful rejections. One was from another homeschool group in a neighboring town, where I had sent an identical letter. A woman called me on the phone and read me a prepared statement: “Thank you for your interest in our group but we are not interested at this time in changing our Statement of Faith. We suggest you inquire into other groups.” Thank you, and goodbye! What she failed to realize -- but what I knew -- was that every, single homeschool group in the area was modeled after the Big One, that had already rejected my membership. They all had the same, identical Statement of Faith, the same bylaws, all with a different name and cover letter. None of them were willing to play with Catholics. Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, New Agers, divorced or homosexuals need not apply either.

The next rejection was far more personal and confrontational. My girls and I had been invited into a Protestant homeschool girl’s club called Keepers of the Faith – and I thought we’d try it because they needed friends, and there were no Catholic homeschooled girls in my area. We had been hanging out with this group for about eight months and while I liked them, I was very cautious around them because I had already experienced the sting of anti-Catholicism from others since moving back south.

We were standing in the kitchen one afternoon while one Mom was teaching the girls how to bake bread and I was visiting with one of the other Mothers. She had just spent the last 10 minutes extolling the virtues of her church and I finally said, “Well, what church is this?” She told me it was a Reformed Baptist church. “What is Reformed Baptist? I’ve never heard of them!” I said. And so she filled me in: they were the church that went back to the New Testament model.

Huh. Well, knowing that the Catholic Church followed the New Testament model (hierarchy and all), I said, “How interesting! The more I learn about my own faith and other’s, the more I realize how close we all are!”

Oh no! That did not sit well with her at all. She immediately screwed up her face with disgust and said in the most derogatory tone you can imagine, “Oh no! WE are NOTHING like the Catholic Church!” and proceeded to tell me all the things that my church taught that were so wrong. Scripture after scripture she quoted (another fine Christian using the Bible as a weapon), misunderstanding after misrepresentation of the Catholic Faith she presented. “Come Holy Spirit!” I cried in my heart as I tried to figure out how to get out of the tight spot I found myself in. At one point, when she told me that Catholics think they're saved by their "works" I looked at her and said, “We don’t believe that! We believe we are saved by the blood of Jesus!” to which she replied, “Oh no, you don’t! I’ve seen your church documents!” I informed her that I had a Catechism at my house (which I actually had not read) and no where did it say the things she was claiming.

Finally, when I realized she was not open to hearing anything I had to say I just said, “Well, I believe that we are all part of the Body of Christ!” She could not agree.

I cried for a week.

I called and poured my heart out to one of my Illinois Catholic friends – one of the ones who had sheltered me so well – and she thought it no coincidence that I was facing such rejection during Holy Week. She reminded me that they (the Jews) spit on Christ and He was battered and bruised and rejected as well. And she taught me how to unite my sufferings with those of Christ.

Now I had a little taste of what Jesus had suffered at the hands of His own people.