As I get older, I have an increasingly difficult time tolerating people who don’t know what the AF they’re doing, but they act like they do, they profess they do, and they talk down to you, as if they do. But they really, really don’t. A significant part of my whitehotfury is directed at hypocrites who say they are something, but really, truly, breathtakingly, are not. This time of year in particular, that specific nerve is plucked by “good Christian” folks who are God fearing, and Jesus loving, and are racist misogynistic bigots. These are the Keep Christ in Christmas people who lose their minds when you espouse a more inclusive holiday greeting (because there are, in fact, at least a dozen holidays (religious holidays from Buddhist to Zoroastrian, and cultural holidays like Kwanzaa). RC kids and other Christian kids don’t get dibs on December. Sorrynotsorry.

I realized that yesterday (since I’m posting this a day later than expected) that it was the feast of Francis Xavier, and I was thinking about not-yet-Saint FX was sent as the Papal Nuncio (a diplomatic ambassador of the Vatican) to India in the 1500’s.

When he got to India, there was a colony of Portuguese Catholic settlers. Folks that weren’t missionaries, although there were clergy amongst them. They were sailors and prisoners and others who were getting out of Portugal for a fresh start elsewhere. And that’s OK. But the problem was that they were acting decidedly un-Catholic. Or, worse, they’d taught the locals that they were Catholics, and the locals didn’t know what the faith actually meant. And St. Francis was horrified that these settlers were besmirching the Catholic faith. I get that. I feel that to the core of my being.

If you don’t want to act like good RC kids, then don’t fly the RC flag while you’re out in the world being a a deplorable human. Or, I dunno, maybe consider not being a deplorable human. If you don’t want someone to think you’re an asshole, don’t act like an asshole, that’s all I’m sayin’.

This Advent, may my thoughts and my words reveal the kind of person I want to be. And perhaps even more than that, may my actions be louder than my mouth.