Homeless Catholics Are Real

For believers not fully tethered to a faith expression — which includes the hesitant, and with sincere urgency toward the skeptical

Who are these Homeless Catholics? From a two millennia view, all Christians sluffed away from, feathered out of, or fell off an apostolic fold. Catholic, in my loose definition, gathers all from The Way, the Christ-followers of 30-50 AD up to those separated and homeless this very week. Even the fourth, tenth, and fiftieth generation of solidly named schismatics account for the separated, and therefore homeless. It sounds like hubris, but I only mean it as the Holy Spirit’s far-reaching umbrella.

We believers all desire roots which connect us each to a Jesus-centric Christian faith. Christianity, honest in the most basic of logic, centers on Jesus the Christ. Antagonists need not feel pressure to correct our premise. We’re firmly in place on that subject. You are welcome here, though. Faiths limited to only the Father or the Holy Spirit will eventually be introduced to Jesus. We are Trinitarians or lean that way. Curiosity is in our nature, so all others may find nuggets here.

Believers with homeless faith issues, whether Catholic, Evangelical, Mainline, Fundamentalists, or star-gazers find the same answer when discovering a faith expression. “Plug into God,” we are told. OK, but the prongs many of us have don’t fit into the plugs we see. The innumerable holy folks gathered in prayer, with their eyes upon the Trinity, soon (and forever) manufacture unique membership receptacles. Those of us traumatized by corrals recoil at a filtered intimacy to the divine. That failure to reflect God’s love with our willing acceptance to be welcomed is ours. God does not fail. It must be us.

The recognition that God knows us and holds us tightly, even if we can't recognize him all the time, keeps drawing us together. Faith enhances our roles as loving parents, grandparents, sons, or daughters, thus kindling our desire to be authentic, prayerful children of God. We can grow a little less homeless every day, and be better prepared to walk fully into the Kingdom. If that is, we compromise with each other. Can we do that and keep a grip upon God’s intimacy?

Is this concept of a God who uses religion to gather us just another overworn formula? That’s what derailed most of us from our practiced faith life in the first place. The formulas of practices, devotions, studies, and liturgical dedication skirted our relationship to God. I am not speaking for those with proper and happy connections — a pox on me if that seems the intention. You lucky stiffs bring tears to my eyes with happiness for your life with God in a faith family. For me, intimacy with God hobbled by clothing plastered upon my eyes and heart sets aside my first love of God. That core of intimacy with God disappears under these otherwise holy covers. I am in grief, not angry at the holy ones nor God.

How, then, must a homeless Christian without formulaic answers live? Be hopeful with the misty Kingdom at hand because of the mystical Kingdom to come. Such is the right answer. Again, though, homelessness sees wrapping upon God as we cower in the alleys and steal from the bins of faith when no one’s looking.

We are not just a handful, though. The proof of the vacuous hold of formulae and form is in our historical schismatic and disparate faith. We see that starting another religion is simply a well-worn ruse. Worse, fracturing from holy folks to be another kind of holy will recruit no one of any maturity of faith to your ministry.

Nope. We’ve got to find our love relationship with God first. We can see what unhappiness, or blindness, did to our families. What happened to our children, parents, or our grandchildren? How do we deal with their avoidance or outright dismissal of our faith? Especially those who no longer call themselves Christ-followers and have chosen another path.

Was it us? What did we do wrong?

I can’t fix that or even attend to the band-aids. We cut straight to the intimacy here at this homeless catholic space in SubStack. If we get it right, then the skirts, the covers, and the wrapping can be lovely. Even the suffering will make sense.

I am convinced intimacy is where we must be successful in all things.

This is not a new religion, a way to bend your plugs to fit into a receptacle, nor a setting for worship to replace a righteous gathering where we can probably belong.

Find more on this topic at www.homelesscatholic.com

I have exciting news to share: You can now read Homeless Catholic Community in the new Substack app for iPhone.

With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for my Substack and any others you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never cut-off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.

The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here.

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