This is a guest post from a young acquaintance
of mine who works in one of the large financial institutions of the City of
London. It’s great to get the perspective of someone trying to live the
Catholic Faith in an environment that has a whole different set of suppositions
about what makes us happy and successful.
The City, or
Square Mile, is London’s much-demonised financial centre, where professionals
from all over the world, of all races, cultures and beliefs, work hard as
bankers, auditors, lawyers, etc. I have had a number of jobs here and it has
become my professional home, where success is gauged by the pace that you
maintain and not the peace which you attain.
Having worked
on projects for banks, insurers and brokers and now as part of a global
investment company, I would prefer to keep my identity unknown, at least for
now, and I’ll explain why. Despite being an environment which prides itself on
being a meritocracy where you are rewarded for your skill, ambition and hard
work (to an extent) regardless of beliefs, I feel I am at a stage of my career
where openly taking stances deemed to be socially conservative and in line with
Church teaching could land me in trouble.
1. Work Hard, Play Hard
I did not
simply wake up one day and decide to take my faith seriously. It was a slow
process and I think it followed quite a predictable path. Having spent most of
my life until the age of 21 going to Church and trying to do the right thing, I
felt like I had reached a stage where I could turn the Catholicism down a notch
or two and enjoy life a bit more, with the proviso that I attended Mass
every Sunday.
As I embarked
on my professional journey, I felt I could finally enjoy a “work hard play
hard” lifestyle, with all its perks. And by lowering my moral standards started
enjoying a degree of success with women: one became two, then a third etc. This
all seemed like great fun to me, and in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the
City there is never any shortage of alcohol or members of the opposite sex in
bars on any night of the week. I thought I was having the best of both worlds:
living it up with the ladies during the week and a box-ticking nod to God on
a Sunday morning. However, as time went on I found that it was
getting more and more difficult to see myself as a genuinely practicing
Catholic, something on which I had always prided myself. Was this sustainable?
At what point would I become undistinguishable from all the other City boys?
2. Saying What You Think
As ridiculous
and naïve as it may sound, I soon found out it’s far from easy being a
Catholic! On the rare occasions when morality came into conversation, I found
it very difficult to openly state my beliefs, for fear of being deemed a
hypocrite (which would have certainly been an accurate assessment) but also for
fear of being ostracised. When invited by a corporate memo to celebrate the
legalisation of gay marriage by taking part in celebrations in the canteen, I
felt it would be out of the question to answer “I believe marriage is for man
and woman alone”. After all, Jesus himself affirms: a man shall leave
his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.
I got away with
not celebrating by claiming, as was accurate, that I had a lot of work to get
done by the end of the day. However, this was the first of many times when I
was left with a lingering thought: like Peter, I pretended not to know Our Lord
to avoid embarrassment, trouble or both.
It was at the Ash Wednesday Mass of last year that I
heard a strong word of encouragement at the homily and an exhortation:
"May you truly change your life this Lent and let God guide your
steps". Finding myself rather lost at that point, I thought I had nothing
to lose but to give it a go. Slowly and not without failures along the way, I
have started taking my faith more seriously and found this doesn't
automatically mean I can't have fun. We are asked to seek the Truth, be guided
by the Gospel, and live accordingly.
I have since
strived to find a way, in the elaborate maze of political correctness, not to
shy away from the moral dilemmas of our time: gay marriage, abortion,
euthanasia, you name it… I have become convinced that I am called to evangelise
by carefully and calmly engaging in these difficult conversations, rather than
shoving Catholic teaching down others’ throats, Bible-bashing-style.
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