On Being Catholic in a Non-Catholic World

My darling son is finishing up his school studies for the year and we came across a section in the Appendix of The New St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism 2 that really struck me:

The best way to win non-Catholics was given us by Christ when He said, "By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13, 35). If non-Catholics see Catholics who are truly kind to one another and are interested in all men, even those outside the Church, even their enemies, even those they do not like, this is bound to make an impression and to encourage them to examine the Catholic Church more carefully. 

If Catholics live like pagans, are kind to their friends, and unkind to those they do not like, then no amount of fine reasons will ever convince non-Catholics that the Catholic Church is really the true Church of Christ. 

What does this mean? We need to define terms here - "love" and "kind" and "interested".

• Interested: concerned for eternal salvation as defined by Christ 
• Love: calling names and over-turning tables is not outside the realm of "tough love" as provided by Jesus Christ Himself. 
• Kind: Sometimes the kindest thing is the Truth, even if it hurts. That certainly doesn't mean "cruel" - I would argue it is more cruel to lie, put on a false face and leave someone in their sin that removes them from eternal salvation. 

Just some ponderings. Nothing fleshed out yet.