Blue Fish
To be a good Catholic means you have to be a “blue fish.” When it seems all of society is swimming in one direction, you will be swimming in the opposite direction. The next step after the minimum required by the Precepts of the Church, would be to become a “blue fish.” And when you do, don’t expect it to be easy.
Picture by F. Frankhttp://www.newfishart.com/fishfile2/2007/blue-orange-fish-art.html
It’s not easy being a good Catholic. In order to be a good Catholic, it is necessary to become counter-cultural. In most cases you are going to be diametrically opposed to what society claims is the “ok” thing to do.
During one of my classes on the reasons for the Catholic Church’s stance on birth control, I closed with the images of a school of little fish on the whiteboard. In the middle was one fish going the other direction. When I first drew this little vignette, my choice of marker pen colors was pretty limited. I had black and blue, so the single fish became blue. From that day the blue fish became my metaphor for “doing the right or Catholic thing.”
When we are baptized into the family of God, we accepted the dual responsibilities of learning the teachings of the Church and living by them. Nobody suggested that if we didn’t like the teachings, or if they weren’t convenient at that time in our life, we were free to change them. Not one person ever said it would be easy. The fact is, they aren’t always easy but they are always doable.
During one of my classes on the reasons for the Catholic Church’s stance on birth control, I closed with the images of a school of little fish on the whiteboard. In the middle was one fish going the other direction. When I first drew this little vignette, my choice of marker pen colors was pretty limited. I had black and blue, so the single fish became blue. From that day the blue fish became my metaphor for “doing the right or Catholic thing.”
When we are baptized into the family of God, we accepted the dual responsibilities of learning the teachings of the Church and living by them. Nobody suggested that if we didn’t like the teachings, or if they weren’t convenient at that time in our life, we were free to change them. Not one person ever said it would be easy. The fact is, they aren’t always easy but they are always doable.
To be a good Catholic means you have to be a “blue fish.” When it seems all of society is swimming in one direction, you will be swimming in the opposite direction. The next step after the minimum required by the Precepts of the Church, would be to become a “blue fish.” And when you do, don’t expect it to be easy.
Picture by F. Frankhttp://www.newfishart.com/fishfile2/2007/blue-orange-fish-art.html
