What makes Catholicism "Living Christianity?"

C.S. Lewis wrote what has become a very famous book concerning the basics of Christian doctrine.  He called it Mere Christianity, because he meant it to concern the essence of Christian doctrine which is common to all denominations.  But as Lewis stated very clearly in the introduction to the book, there is no such thing as churchless Christianity.  Nor is there such a thing as a lone Christian.  It is "where two or three are gathered in my name" that God is to be found."  All Christians need other Christians with whom to pray; all Christians need a church to call their home.

It is in honor of Lewis's influential little book that I have named this website Living Christianity, because, as I hope to illustrate, it is in Catholicism that the "Mere Christianity" Lewis wrote about takes root and grows into a living, supernatural entity.   The Catholic Church deserves the title of "Living Christianity" for several reasons.

I. THE CHURCH IS THE BODY OF CHRIST

All Christians are part of the body of Christ, and Christ is the Head of the Church, but it is in Catholicism that we see the body under the control of the "central nervous system." 

Not all living things have a central nervous system, of course.  Amoebas don't.  Sponges don't.  Plants don't.  But is the Church an amoeba or a plant?  No.  It is the Bride of Christ. It has seperate organs, Paul tells us, which must work together. And in order for these parts to work together, they must have some direction.  We can think of Christ as the brain of the Church, and we can think of the Holy Spirit's influence as the electrical impulses that pass through the nervous system -- but what is the nervous system of the Church?  How do messages get from the brain to the fingers and toes?

I propose that the nervous system is the hierarchy of the organizational Church here on earth.  It is not that God does not speak to us in other ways: He certainly does.  But it is the organizational Church which connects all the parts of the body. Messages are passed through the "nervous system" of the Church. 

When all the parts of the human body are connected with the central nervous system, things go well.  But when the connection is completely severed, paralysis occurs!  This is what happens when a group breaks away from Christianity altogether.  And when one part of the body "ignores" messages coming to it from the nervous system, it may go into spasm.  When parts of the body are in spasm, things do not go well!

If the Church is the central nervous system, then we as the members of the body are obliged to listen to the Church.  When all members of the Church are listening together, things go very well indeed!  Only Catholics in union with Rome are in complete connection with the "central nervous system" because the Pope, bishop of Rome, has a special role in the Church.  So while other Christians are certainly part of the body of Christ, only in Catholicism does one find the living organism of the Church behaving healthily.  For this reason, Catholicism uniquely deserves the name "Living Christianity."

II.  THE CHURCH IS LIKE A MIGHTY TREE

According to Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed that grows into a mighty tree.  If we look at the history of the Church, we can see that the Church has certainly grown from a handful of followers to the faith of billions.  But is that all He meant?

Consider a mustard seed and a tree.  They do not look the same, do they?  Yet the seed contains all of the information that will be later expressed in the seed.  If you could slice the seed open, isolate a chromosome and study its DNA, you would find a map for the complete organism. 

Now look at the New Testament Church, and at the Church today.  Not only is today's Church very much larger than the New Testament Church, it is much more developed.   Some people cite this as evidence that the Catholic Church as become corrupted, that it has "added on" to the early Church.  But  Catholics maintain that all the doctrines of the Church today can be found in the embryo of the early Church.  They may not look precisely the same at the first glance, because they have developed, but they have developed according to the "blueprints" that were delivered "once and for all to the saints." 

Many religions deny that doctrines can develop in such away; others allow doctrine to "develop" in defiance of the blueprint for Christianity set down in the Bible and in Apostolic Tradition.  The first alternative leads to a stunted, dwarved shrub.  The other leads to a  twisted, tumorous monstrosity.  Neither bears any resemblance to the glorious mustard tree described by Christ.  Only the Catholic Church resembles that tree: it allows for doctrinal development, but it does not allow development to deviate from the correct path.  It is the Holy Spirit, working through the organizational Church, that prevents that from happening.  Catholicism is living Christianity, therefore, because it can grow without being warped.

III. CATHOLICISM IS FAITH FOR AN ENTIRE LIFE

You've just been baptised.  You're now an adopted child of God, full of sanctifying grace. You've been born again of water and the spirit!  Now your new life with Christ is ready to begin . . .  now what?

In some churches, the emphasis is all on "getting saved."  But in Catholicism, salvation is not viewed as a one-time event.  Rather, it takes a life time.  It begins with baptism -- the process of being born again into God's family.  But it doesn't stop there.  Catholics continue receiving sacramental graces all their lives through the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion.   Some Catholics are called to special roles, and these roles may be marked by the Sacraments of Marriage or Holy Orders.

Catholicism is living Christianity in this sense because it is a faith that lives with you.  It is there at every step along the way of life. It is there to pick you up when you have fallen, to nourish your hungry soul.  It is there to mark a child's step into adulthood, and there to celebrate the union of two lives.  It is there to celebrate the "calling out" of men who are chosen to serve God as his priests, and it is there on the sickbed, to heal and to comfort.  The Sacraments are natural aspects of life endowed with supernatural grace.  As such, they enable us to live lives of faith in a faithless world, because grace is God's divine life with in us.  We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us; and the Sacraments -- most particularly the Eucharist -- are our primary means of drawing closer to Christ.

IV.  A WHOLE RELIGION FOR A WHOLE PERSON

In most churches, people are encouraged to go to church on Sunday. There they pray and sing together, and listen to the Bible.  They are encouraged to read the Bible on their own, to pray, to help those in need, to serve as living witnesses of their faith to those without faith, and to raise their children in the faith.  Catholics do all of these things, too.

But Catholics have something that most other Christians are lacking: the Sacraments and Sacramentals. While Sacraments are channels of Christ's saving grace, the Sacramentals are signposts that lead to Christ. 

Sacramentals are symbols which do not confer grace; however, sacramentals serve as physical, tangible reminders of intangible realities.  When we were baptised, we were washed of our sins. And every time we walk into a church and dip our hands in holy water, we remind ourselves of the miracle of our baptism.  Likewise, when the priest sprinkles the congregation with water during Easter Mass, he is reminding them of the cleansing grace they received at baptism.

Some forms of Christianity restrict worship to the mental or the verbal level.  You pray to God out loud or silently; you read the Bible, you sing songs.  Catholicism goes further, including the senses of touch and smell.  A Catholic worships not just with his mouth and mind, but with his whole body, when he kneels during the Consecration, bows his head during the recitation of the Creed, blesses himself with holy water, or crosses himself before beginning a prayer.  A high Mass may include incense, symbolizing our prayers rising to God (see the book of Revelations).  When Catholics pray, they may pray silently, on their knees -- or they may slide the beads of a Rosary through their fingers as they pray.  They may pray the stations of the cross and walk by each station, physically and mentally following Christ on his journey to Calvary.

Why is this so important?  This is important because human beings are not just minds, that we should pray in utter silence. Nor are we just minds with mouths and ears.  We have whole bodies, and these bodies are good!  We know that, because God said so when He designed human beings. The sacramentals allow us make use of our whole bodies in worshipping God.   Furthermore, they allow our faith to pervade every aspect of our lives.

Drive past a Catholic home, and you may say a statue of Mary or of Jesus in the front yard.  Walk into the dorm room of a Catholic student, and you may see a crucifix and holy cards on the wall.  These images are there as constant reminders of the presence of God in our lives. The images of sains show us examples of holy lives which we should follow.

Many Catholics wear a medal, a scapular, or a crucifix, around their neck as a constant sign of their faith.  Such things may seem superstitious to non-Catholics. In fact, they serve as reminders of God's presence in our lives and pledges of our devotion to Him.   These physical pledges of our devotion allow us to glorify God more fully.  Because Catholicism is faith for all aspects of one's life, Catholicism is Living Christianity.

LIVING FAITH FOR A NEW MILLENIUM

Put it all together and you may see some practical reasons why Catholicism has been so popular  for the past two thousand years.  But there is one more vital reason why Catholicism is still around while empires and whole civilizations have fallen:  Christ promised that the Church would not fail. Because of this promise, we know that whatever problems it faces now or in the future, Catholicism will still be alive long after this age has passed away.