When most people join the Church, they remember the exact moment they decided to become Catholic. Arlea Swager’s “aha” moment can be attributed to St. Peter.
“Jesus giving the keys to the kingdom to St. Peter — that was it for me.”
“Yep, it all started with Peter,” she says.
This Easter Vigil, (April 3) more than 100 people from across the diocese will enter into full communion with the Church — either as candidates — those who have been baptized before; or as catuchemens, those receiving the sacraments of baptism and confirma-tion. Each of their stories is their own.
For many, such as Arlea, who be-came Catholic in 2010, the journeyculminating in the beautiful Mass on Easter Vigil includes instruction and participation in RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) at their parishes. However, in Arlea’s case, she joined her parish’s RCIA classes determined not to be Catholic.
“I was very adamant I wasn’t join-ing the Church,” she explains with a laugh. “I promised my husband, Adam, that we would raise our chil-dren Catholic. So I joined RCIA [at her husband’s home parish, St. Martin of Tours, Vicksburg] to learn the ins and outs of the faith — not to become Catholic. I was a relunctant student by far and was hard on people with my constant questions of ‘why?’”
Arlea’s upbringing hadn’t been totally void of religion. Her single mother raised her in the Protestant faith, and she was confirmed in the Methodist Church.
“I grew up in Christianity though there were definitely a few years in my young life I was agnostic.”
She eventually found her way back to church, going each Sunday to service but not really doing much in addition to that.
“I believed Christianity was real,” explains Arlea. “But there were so many denominations and so many conflicting rules.” Arlea found it frus-trating. “I knew Jesus was true but I didn’t know which Church was true.”
It was during her time serving in the military she was reintroduced to the Catholic Church through her (now) husband, Adam, then friend and fellow solider. As a child, Arlea had gone to Mass a few times with friends and remembers being drawn to the Catholic atmosphere.
“Even when I was a Protestant — I always felt like there was something holy going on but I didn’t know what it was.”
It was Adam’s steadfast faith that attracted Arlea.
“We were friends first,” she remembers. “And what I loved about Adam was just how [matter-of-fact and nonthreatening] he was about going to church. Every Saturday, he’d be like: ‘hey, I’ll be going to church if anyone wants to come.’; He always went to Mass when he could and al-ways opened it up to others to join him and he wasn’t all holier than thou about it.”
Arlea credits Adam’s witness for making her more open to Catholicism, but she stresses that her decision was her own — with more than a little help from St. Peter and a few, very patient catechists.
“When I realized that Christ gave the keys to Peter — that was it. I’m a very pragmatic person — maybe it’s my military background. And I thought, well — Jesus gave the keys to Peter and this is where Peter is, so this is where I’m going.
“This scripture from Matthew says it all for me: ‘And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’” (Mt. 16:18-19)
Arlea laughs remembering how challenging she was as an RCIA student.
“I was a pistol. I had all these combatitive questions — ‘what about Mary; y’all worship Mary — you can’t tell me all those people I see kneeling in front of statues aren’t worshipping.’”
It was delving into Church teachings, with the assistance of her patient teachers, she explains, that helped her make her decision to become Catholic.
“It’s what I love about the Church — if you look into the teachings and writings of the Church fathers, you can see that they’ve had these questions before and answered them to the best of their ability.”
The other, perhaps unique influence on Arlea’s faith journey, was the time she spent being exposed to other cultures and other religions while serving overseas in Iraq. Her new friends came from a variety of backgrounds from Muslim to Jewish to agnostic.
“Being around other cultures made me realize how important my faith was,” she says. “I also learned a lot about how much I didn’t know about the Bible, how ignorant I was, and it made me want to study my faith more.”
Arlea served nine years with the Army and concluded her time when her first-borns, twins Dominick and Xavier, were babies. Today, she juggles her time homeschooling them along with their siblings, Victor, Jack and Josephine.
She’s grateful for the Catholic resources she’s exposed to from being a homeschooler and in her role as a 4th/5th grade catechist for her parish. But it was falling in love with the Bible as a newly confirmed Catholic that ignited her love of the faith and history.
“Right after I became Catholic, a parishioner suggested I do a Bible study and so I completed Bible Timeline with Jeff Cavins — it really woke up my love of history.
“I probably understand the Bible so much more today just because it brought the people to life for me and made them real.
“As a kid, you don’t really learn all the messiness of the people in the stories — and so I saw them all as perfect, more characters in a story.
“I really started realizing that the biblical figures were human beings just like us and God still honored his covenant regardless of the sinfulness of Man — that helps me.
”Armed with her new faith, Arlea still has questions and knows her children will too, someday.
“I tell my kids — I’m raising you to understand your faith — but you’ll have to embrace it someday for your-self — I can show you the way to heav-en, but only you can get yourself there.
“In the future — they’re going to need to talk about their faith and not have it be rote — this world is not go-ing to be easy — there’s a true religious stigma happening and you need to be able to live your faith with confidence.”
And what’s a new Catholic’s advice for the Church?
“We really need the Church to stand strong with families and be brave. People of faith need to know where they can go and that the Church supports them
“The Church can provide a sanctuary; a place where everyone knows, here we follow the dictates of the Church; we love God and we love the sacraments.”