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I remember the Jerry Maguire movie had that famous phrase,
"You complete me". It was a phrase that touched the hearts of many young lovers,
myself included. It is a phrase that sounds good in the context of a movie but can
really cause troubles in a relationship when it is taken to heart. It is impossible
for another person to complete me; my completion can only come in Christ. Others can
compliment who I am, but never complete me. When we look to another person to complete
us we are putting unrealistic expectations on another human being. There are parts of
us that are always going to be unfulfilled while we are on this earth. St. Augustine
wrote that, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Him."
The secular media, which has its own definition of love,
presents another struggle. Many times their love lies in the giving of material
gifts rather than the sacrificial gift of self. Their definition of love tells us
that a relationship is built around sex, when in reality; love is truly shown when a
couple is able to sacrifice their physical desires for the greater good of the other.
Those are struggles that are universal within any relationship.
Being a black Catholic in the world brings the added struggle of trying to find a needle
in a haystack. I believe with all my heart that the Catholic Church is the fullness of
God's revelation and that I am called to follow and obey the Catholic Church; however, there
aren't many in my community that share my sentiments. In the Church, in general, there really
aren't many people who are really striving to live out their Catholic faith in more than just
a nominal way. There are about six billion people in the world. Out of that six billion, two
billion are Christian. Out of that two billion, a little over fifty percent are Catholic.
Out of that fifty percent, about ten percent go to church. Out of that ten percent, one out
of twenty are living a "Catholic Life", meaning they fully believe in the Church teachings and
take part in the sacraments, maintain a prayer life, etc... If you take that small number and
try to figure out how many of those are black americans, the number will go down even lower.
If we go to the neighborhood Church on a Sunday and count the amount of black people in the
congregation, or look at the people who are leading most of the ministries in the Catholic
Church, we can get a feel of this number.
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