Reflections on 'Some Are More “Other” Than Others by Dr Randall Smith'

Reversing the usual order for a post where I lead with the quote or story and then acknowledge the author I wanted to let all know first the author.

Dr. Randall Smith Department of Theology Associate Professor Born and raised near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Randall Smith also lived in Philadelphia and Chicago before attending college in Mount Vernon, Iowa, graduating with a BA in Chemistry from Cornell College. During his time at Cornell, he converted to Catholicism, and after college, went off to study his new-found Catholic faith. He subsequently earned a Master’s degree in theology from the University of Dallas and then completed a Master’s degree and doctorate at the University of Notre Dame. During his college and graduate school years, Dr. Smith took on a number of interesting part-time jobs, including various jobs in a hospital, concrete factory worker, telephone operator, security guard, donut baker, research technician for Frito-Lay Research and Development, gate agent for an airline, IT support, UPS box loader, and high school teacher. Of them all, perhaps his most interesting job was as a school bus driver. “My favorite vehicle to drive is a school bus,” says Dr. Smith.“When you drive a school bus, everyone gets out of your way. I once drove a school bus the wrong way down a one-way street in downtown Manhattan, and even the New Yorkers just got out of the way. If you break down by the side of the road in a bus, people will actually stop to help you. For me, there's just nothing better to drive than a school bus.” As much fun as driving a school bus was, Dr. Smith loved teaching more. His first university teaching position was at the University of Notre Dame, and in the fall of 2001, he joined the faculty at UST. Since that time, Dr. Smith has taught a number of theology courses including “Teachings of the Catholic Church” and “Modern Challenges to Christianity,” as well as the second Honors course, HNRS 1392, “From Empire to Christendom.” He always takes great pleasure in his job. “I love teaching. And I really love talking with my students. In fact, I love talking with just about anybody about things that really matter to them.”

Now to his column at The Catholic Thing (make sure to link to the article and read Dr Smith's column) where he concludes with the following:

"Catholicism is hard – it makes serious demands – and that’s never very popular. Still, perhaps there’s an opening here for today’s Church. Rather than trying to convince everyone that Catholicism is not in any way “strange” or “different” or counter-cultural, maybe we should be tacking in the opposite direction: trying to convince everyone that Catholicism is the strangest, most utterly “different” thing there is – that it is, in fact, the only real way to be truly “counter-cultural,” to be truly “other” than what the world tries to force us to be.

Not only would this approach have a least a chance of being better than the “Don’t-worry-about us-we’re-just-like-everybody-else” approach. It would also at least have the virtue of being honest." 

In the "Comment" section of the article you find:
written by Randall, June 24, 2012

Yes, that dialogue from the Monty Python film pretty much encapsulates what I've heard from a lot of people who aren't Catholic. 


As regards the strangeness of Catholicism - that's a large part of what attracted me to the Church and caused me to study it. The Church's "stick-in-the-mud" stance in the world, or in other words, the immovability of this Pillar of Truth in the world's mire, is why I eventually converted. 
Glory to God!

To the comment from a reader:

(Smith wrote:) "Rather than trying to convince everyone that Catholicism is not in any way “strange” or “different” or counter-cultural, maybe we should be tacking in the opposite direction: trying to convince everyone that Catholicism is the strangest, most utterly “different” thing there is . . ." 


Your observation certainly applies to vocations. Bishops and vocation directors take notice- there is a Carmelite convent near Lincoln, Nebraska that has the Mass and all seven offices in Latin, full habits, a very formidable grill, the ancient rule, and is being INUNDATED with vocations. The interest is unending. There have been about thirty-five entrances in the past five years. There'll be another one tomorrow, and another on the 13th of July. 


These young women want authenticity above all, the real thing, the Carmelite order as reformed by St. Teresa. They do not want to be involved in an ongoing experiment- the labyrinth, enneagrams, the spirituality of resentment and rebellion. They want to be saints. They don't want to dress like or live like everyone else. 


We have to abandon- and soon- what has become the unstated, but over-riding guiding principle in much of Catholic life: The Supreme Importance of Fitting In. I can well imagine, for example, the discussion that takes place in selecting bishops: Yes, yes, your eminence, I agree that Father X is a very holy and learned man, powerful in word and work, but . . .can he talk baseball? Can he come off as a regular guy at some level? Can he fit in? 


Similarly, it is very important for the powers that govern Notre Dame that it ape the Ivy League, lest we be laughed at, whereas it would have come to real glory and influence by being the most Catholic university possible. 


We Catholics have worked so hard to be accepted in this country, and God help us, we have become very like everyone else. But it is a firm principle of the spiritual life: seek applause and you will get disgrace. And we have had a bellyful. 


Could it be... that just maybe... our psychological well-being isn't about "fitting in," which is another way of saying that we need to be always seeking applause?  That our well-being isn't about being the mirror of 'this world' but rather, using a page from St Clare of Assisi, being the mirror of Christ.

In a letter to Agnes of Bohemia (Prague) St Clare writes:

"O most noble Queen, gaze upon [Him], consider [Him], contemplate [Him], as you desire to imitate [Him]".      

"Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!

Place your soul in the brilliance of glory!

Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance!

And transform your entire being into the image

of the Godhead Itself through contemplation.

So that you too may feel what His friends feel

as they taste the hidden sweetness

that God Himself has reserved from the beginning

for those who love Him" (3LAg 12-14).