Starting Place

People ask me why I am still a Catholic.  I like to think of my church as my starting place in the spiritual journey to who I call God.  Everyone has a starting point.  It is usually given to us when we are young or discovered by us when we are finally open to the search for deep meaning and purpose in our life.  But you don't want to stay where you start.  It would be like staying in the first grade.  The spiritual start is usually about "believing" something as the truth.  We like it if our initial belief is the whole truth and no one else has anything unless they believe what we believe.  There may be some ritual/worship early on as part of the teaching.  None of this is about transformation or the sacrifice necessary to make the world a more holistic place.  In my case, I believed in Jesus as God and worshiped him.  I did not follow him.  I did not ponder the New Testament Gospels that give me the meaning of his life for me.   I was told how to get to heaven.  Obey rules and avoid breaking commandments.  All other religions were not worth the time.  They were hopelessly wrong.  My Catholicism has moved on into something much more contemplative and interfaith.  I seek wisdom wherever I can find it, including pondering what the sayings of Jesus mean for me to do.  Not believe, but do.  I am still a Catholic but not a first grade one.  The Pope's encyclical on environment is about doing.  Most of us would rather keep our toys and stay with "belief" and worship.  I spend less time worrying about creeds and more time struggling to live as Jesus taught me.  The Borgias, the Renaissance Popes, believed but did not follow Jesus.  The reformation was a about creeds, and so we went on killing one another.  I suspect the Sunnis and Shiites are having the same inability to grow up in their faith.