Letting the lion out of the cage

I RECENTLY READ of a man who had a powerful conversion experience and decided to follow Jesus Christ. He set about looking for a church to belong to, but was put off Catholicism because 'Catholics seemed tentative and timid about their faith. The Bible spoke of Christians who were willing to risk martyrdom for their belief in Christ. The Catholics I met didn't even seem willing to risk embarrassment for their beliefs.'
I've never understood it. We have willingly chosen this path, but heaven forbid we should have to admit it. It doesn't really add up, does it? (I apologise to those people who are open about their faith, but I think, regrettably, you're in the minority - especially amongst my generation and certainly in England.)
It's easy to justify ourselves with excuses of not wanting to be misunderstood, not wanting to sound judgmental etc., but the bottom line is that we are called to be witnesses, and we should not underestimate the impact of our witness on others.
The man quoted above was eventually received into the Church, but many like him would not have made it. And who can blame them? I wouldn't be drawn to a church whose members were too embarrassed to speak of it. It hardly makes a compelling case, does it?
I'm not suggesting that we preach the gospel of salvation to everyone we meet, but simply that we have the courage to be honest when it comes to the crunch, which means doing away with that old chestnut of not quite lying, but avoiding the truth. You know the thing: someone asks you what you're doing at the weekend, and you're actually going on a retreat, so you say you're going away with friends (which is true - but it's not the right answer).
(Ironically such trepidation is a victim of itself. If we are obviously embarrassed, our witness is less credible, and so the object of ridicule. But if we can confidently stand up for what we believe, that confidence will - more often than not - gain us respect).
It is hard. A priest once told me he understood my fear of standing up for what I believed in because quite often we are 'crucified' by our peers on account of it. Such 'crucifixion' may only come in the form of ridicule but anyone on the receiving end of such ridicule will know how excruciating it can be.
But it is not as excruciating as the persecution endured by other Catholics around the world, who are imprisoned, tortured or killed for their faith. We have been given much and the Parable of the Talents reminds us that much is also expected of us.
There are many people around us who may have the courage to swim against the tide, if only they see others do so - and that's where our role becomes all the more vital. We are not mere victims of peer pressure, but the very people who can help counteract that pressure for others.
Honest answers to embarrassing questions or bowing out of unchristian behaviour resonate limitlessly. I will always remember a handful of incidents that encouraged me tremendously in my Christian life. The reassurance that others were leading a certain kind of life quite simply gave me the confidence to follow suit. Had it not been for them, maybe things would have turned out very differently for me.
Small things are all it takes. I have heard it said that the faith is like a lion: it can defend itself, but we need to be prepared to let it out of the cage in the first place. Letting it out will never be easy, but that's not the point. The point is the massive implications our witness (or the lack of it) holds for others.