Interview with a Sister...

Ever wanted to know what a high school student would ask a religious Sister?
Here is the question and answer interview and I thought the questions she asked were very thought provoking

1. Why did you/ how did you become a nun?   I became a sister (a nun or sister, I am technically a sister, is a Spouse of Christ. She gives her life to Jesus in love for all eternity) because Jesus called me. During my college years, I was living in very profound darkness and from this darkness came a thirst for something more. I didn’t know what the call would be but I wanted to a live a deep, authentic life. When I heard Jesus call me, I said “yes”.

2. Do you feel that you are going against societal values in your calling? I do feel and believe very strongly that a life of authentic discipleship of Jesus goes very much against societal values. Society values money, power, fame, egotism, a misuse of sexuality, domination and control. As I follow the life of Jesus, His life is not about any of these “societal values” but a life lived in truth.

3. When were you called to act according to your conscience and choose this career path? Religious life and the priesthood (along with marriage) is not a “career path” although, sadly, many people in these walks of life think it is.

     These realities are a vocation- a calling, not an occupation- a job. The difference    may seem small to many people but it is foundational in understanding our destiny. It wasn’t until after I graduated from college that I distinctly heard Jesus call me.

4. Do you think that it is ever justified to break a law in order to stand up for what you think is right? Or in other words, is civil disobedience with a purpose justified? The question of civil disobedience is a good question because it makes one think. The laws of society are supposed to help guide and govern man to his true good and end. Laws are not ends in and of themselves. Laws are called to be objective in the governance of all people and should adhere to reason and the dignity of the person.

     We are faced in today’s society with certain laws and movements that although declared “legal” are not moral. Since the passing of Roe Vs. Wade, the American courts declared it a “legal right” to kill 53,000,000 unborn children in the wombs of their mothers.

      This could hardly be considered a “just” law or a “right”, for in our nation’s beautiful document The Declaration of Independence (where we, as a free people, declared independence from a controlling and dictatorial government) we declare the God-given (not man-given) right of ALL people to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

       We, especially as Catholics (although the right to life is a human rights issue and not merely a religious issue, as the popular media would have us believe) must stand up in defense of these unjust laws that destroy and decimate life.

          However, as we have a right to assemble and protest, we can never descend into using violence and hatred as a means to carry our message.

5. How have you personally acted in contrast to society? One of the ways I act in contrast to society is by living a celibate life totally devoted to God and speaking to others, especially young people, about the truth of their dignity and destiny.

     We were not created by God to be mere consumers of material goods or to be used as tools in the great economic “machine”. We were not created by God only to destroy ourselves by the misuse of our sexuality and the use of others. Our dignity and destiny is that we are eternal, created in the image and likeness of God, created for love, to give the gift of ourselves in true love.

      The wearing of a religious habit is a powerful sign of this commitment.

6. In your opinion, what is freedom? When considering my opinion on such monumental matters as the subject of freedom, I have to go to God to learn the truth. For my opinion may not be the truth and this is a topic that I cannot personally afford to be misinformed of, for what I believe about freedom will affect my life profoundly and those around me.

          True freedom is the ability to a) identify what is good and b) choose that good.

          True freedom is not being able to do whatever I want to do, whenever, with whomever and however I want. This is a great error. For this is not full freedom, it is license.

           Just because I can do something, does that make me free if I were to choose to do that? Just because I could, technically, steal a car, does that mean I am a free person if I have to steal the goods of another person? No.

            There is a saying- “If you do whatever you want to do, there will come a day when you will do the things you never thought you would.”

The journey to freedom, interior freedom is the foundation- not operating under compulsion, is a life-long process. As we heal within on a daily basis from our sin and darkness, we become freer to choose what is truly good—Love Himself.

7. In your opinion, what is oppression? Oppression, as I understand from the definition of freedom, would be the suppression of what is good and the ability to choose that good. We can experience interior and exterior oppression. An ordinance that would prohibit a person to worship according to their conscience would be an example of exterior oppression or a person being forced to submit to a government health care plan that they did not want is not in keeping with the dignity of a person.

          Sin oppresses us from within and keeps us from living in true freedom and happiness. The deeper we are in sin, the less free we are.

8. What would be your advice to people who feel like society is going against what they believe to be just? My advice to people who find that society is going against what is seemingly unjust is to educate themselves and pray for wisdom. We need to know our faith, we need to know who we are and where we came from. We need to know the teachings of Christ- who He is as a person. We need to know the Bible- the living Word of God and the Catechism of the Catholic Church where we learn how to implement and incorporate divine truth. We need to receive the Sacraments, especially Reconciliation and the Eucharist, as they heal and strengthen us to fight this fierce battle.

           We, as Americans, must know our true history and what this nation stands for. We must personally read the documents of our foundation and see the gift of this nation and how to live that out.

          We simply cannot afford to be ignorant of any of these things or else we will be swept away with the tide of relativism, consumerism and hedonism. I heard someone say, “If we don’t know where we came from and where we are going, we will be easily manipulated” and this is very true.

      Because so many of us, even though we profess to be Christian, have not found our true identity in Jesus Christ; the Center of all humanity, we have been easily led astray by society and we have bought into and live out lies rather than the truth.

       It is not enough to spout opinion and tout it as truth, we must allow our opinions to conform to the beauty of truth and speak the truth always in love.

       When we, in truth, find things in society that are unjust, then we can assemble and peacefully speak out and protest the injustice, always recognizing the dignity of every human person.