Being a Catholic is weird to non-Catholics.

It's even weird to Catholics.

We live in a Protestant world, and sometimes taking Christian doctrine seriously involves a disorienting shift in perspective.

For example, we believe in the resurrection, but do we really?

I'm totally schizophrenic about relics, like this guy:

//I’d brought my pilgrims to this shrine. I’m the one who put it on the schedule. It was all my doing. But I’m not sure I expected this. As I walked in the long line, waiting to come and venerate his relics I had quite the conversation with myself. I knew that the veneration of relics was an ancient practice. But this just seemed weird – I was going to get to the front and then kneel in front of a body to pray.

The Catholic Church
But this wasn’t just a body. This body belongs to a saint. He is part of the universal Church. Yes, his congregation is gathered around the throne of God and not in a parish, but he is still part of the one Church. He, together with all the saints, prays for those of us who are still sojourning on this earth.

I didn’t have an emotional experience before his body, but I came to a new understanding of the Communion of the Saints and the Resurrection of the Body. At the end of time, St. John Neumann’s body will be resurrected. He won’t get a new body. He’ll get this body made new. The same goes for me and you and our bodies. His body is no less his even though his spirit does not currently inhabit it. His body is no mere shell, it is an integral part of him, and will be returned to him.//