Why I'm staying

Our Sunday Visitor asked readers to submit their reasons for staying in the Catholic Church and published an abbreviated version of Br. Ray's response. Here is the complete version.

"To whom else shall we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life" (cf. John 6:68).

One afternoon, when I was ten or eleven, I was walking through the kitchen as shouts came up from the basement. It was my parents. Cautiously, I poked my head into the stairwell. I had never heard them fight like this before. Suddenly one of them screamed, “Why don’t you just leave!?” My heart leaped into my throat. Were my parents getting divorced!? I stood there, paralyzed, waiting for the reply.  Finally, “I won’t leave!! I won’t leave, because of the kids!” 

Thankfully my parents stuck together, and I was tremendously blessed because of it. But their fidelity also taught me an important lesson: true faithfulness must be founded in something far deeper than ourselves.

Almost 20 years later, I’m a religious brother and a campus minister, in part thanks to my parents’ “yes,” difficult as it sometimes was. And so I’m not about to leave the Church, no matter how difficult things can be. Why do I stay?

Because when the family is in trouble, that’s when faithfulness counts most.
Because I want to renew our Church for the next generation.
Because Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, has the words of eternal life.
To whom else shall we go?