Why
be Catholic?
John 9 tells us that Jesus used mud to cure the blind man. Why mud?
In the Old Testament, Jeremiah was told to go to a potter’s house to
watch the potter mend his pot, and Jeremiah was supposed to proclaim that God
would mend
The fundamentalist worldview is that the Spirit is good and
matter is evil, and that between them lies a huge
canyon. When Jesus came, He bridged the
gap, so that man could be saved. This is
why many fundamentalists preach against worldly things, such as alcohol and
gambling. In the Catholic worldview, God
and man are separated by a canyon, due to original sin. But when Jesus comes, he not only bridges the
gap, he fills the canyon, so that
there is no longer separation between God and man. Hence 2 Corinthians 5:18: “Now all these things are from God, who
reconciled the world to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation.” For Catholics, matter
is just another channel of God’s grace.
We need the sacraments because we’re made of matter.
Matter is used in four main ways as a channel of grace:
- Jesus. John 1:14: “And the World became flesh,
and dwelt among us…” Jesus is the
ultimate sacrament: God became a part of his creation, in order to save us
and show his love for us. The
opening prayer at Easter Vigil Mass mentions the ‘necessary sin of Adam.’ If we had not fallen through original
sin, then we would not know redemption.
We are better off now because we have experienced our Creator on
the earth.
- The Worship of the
Catholic Church (the “smells and bells” Church) – in the Liturgy, God impacts
us on all levels. He reaches our
eyes through the different colors worn during different times of the
liturgical year. He reaches our
ears through the music and words of the
- The Sacraments – we
need these because we have bodies.
We need the Eucharist because we need more than just a mental act
of receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Baptism cleanses our bodies as well as our souls. The Sacrament of Confession is necessary
because we, as humans, need to hear a human voice tell us that we’re
forgiven.
- The
Church: we are sacraments for each
other. We must love one another as
Christ loves us. Consider this
analogy: you’re trying to hammer a
nail into a board. You miss the
nail and hit your finger instead.
Immediately the other parts of your body start ministering to it: your feet walk toward the refrigerator,
your other hand pulls out a piece of ice, and perhaps your finger uses
your mouth for comfort too. We are
the Body of Christ: we are what we eat—the Eucharist!
Reasons
to consider Catholicism:
1.
“The Unity and
the Legacy of the Catholic Church: How Many Churches Did Jesus Establish?”
Michael Matthews had trouble
evangelizing to Muslims. He would tell
them to believe in Jesus, and they would ask him “Which Jesus? The Baptist Jesus? The Methodist Jesus?
The Catholic Jesus?...” They were referring to the many different
denominations of Christianity present today.
“Upon this rock I will build my Church.”
- “Church” is singular in these words of Jesus. In John 17, Jesus prays
“Father, let them be one, as we are one.”
We are to be one as the Trinity is one. 1 Cor
1:10: “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made
complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Later in that chapter, Paul rebukes the
Corinthians for being divided in their faith: and this division was merely
among different sects of the Catholic Church! Imagine how much more angry Paul
would have been had he known of the division the Church would face two
millennia later.
Jesus only established one Church –
does that Church exist today? Yes, the
Catholic Church can trace itself undivided back to the time of Jesus. Once a new church breaks away, they start to
fragment. The Catholic Church gave us
the New Testament, and formulated the core doctrines of Christianity. The New Testament was not finalized for over
300 years after the Resurrection, but there was still a Church. The Catholic Church has the fullness of truth
– Protestants are separated brethren, whom we believe will also inherit the
2.
“Reverence of
Sacred Scripture: Whose Book Is It Anyway?”
The Bible was a Catholic book for
1500 years before Protestantism existed.
Every Mass has at least three scripture readings (Old Testament, Psalm,
and Gospel), and sometimes four (those three plus an Epistle). If you could go to Mass every day for three
years, you’d hear virtually the whole Bible.
Not many Protestant denominations can make that claim. The same Church that ratified the Bible has
the authority to interpret it.
3.
“Works of
Justice and Charity: Who speaks for God?”
The Catholic Church takes seriously
the fact that we are Christ for the world.
It has alleviated more human suffering than any other institution in
history. The first hospitals, schools,
leprosaria, and insane asylums were all run by Catholics. Fundamentalists do works of charity so that
they can share the gospel. Catholics do
works of charity because it’s a part of
the gospel. In Matthew 25, Jesus
differentiates between lambs and goats: those who performed works of charity
and those who did not. Also, St. Francis
said “Preach the gospel at all times: if necessary, use words.” We are the
voice of Christ in the world. We have
stood firm on abortion, contraception, and euthanasia (we’re against them),
where no one else has. We practice what
we preach.
4.
“The
Catholicity of the Church”
The Mass of the Catholic Church
follows the same cycle everywhere in the world, but it incorporates local
culture as well. Many Protestant
Churches don’t worship with respect to the different cultures. In the Catholic Church, there are different
customs in different countries, but we are one in worship.
5.
The Communion
of Saints
The Church extends to Heaven. The Book of Revelation describes a Mass being
celebrated in Heaven. When we
participate in the Mass, we are partaking in eternity. For an in-depth analysis of the Mass, read
Scott Hahn’s The Lamb’s Supper.
6.
“The Holy
Eucharist: Did Jesus Really Mean That?”
John 6:51-71 tells of Jesus’
description of the Eucharist, and of the difficulty that disciples would have
with that doctrine. It’s curious that
fundamentalists tend to take Scripture literally, except for this passage. The doctrine of the Eucharist is probably the
reason that Judas betrayed Jesus, and it’s also how he lost the most
disciples. On Holy Thursday, many
Protestant services use 1 Cor 11:23-26, but they
don’t read on to verse 27, which says “Therefore whoever eats the bread of
drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and
blood of the Lord.” For 1500 years, no
one questioned the Real Presence. No one. In the early
Church, not a single apostate who forsook the faith due to threat of torture or
death or anything else ever denied the Real Presence. The early Church Fathers
called it the “Medicine of Immortality.”
Jesus loves us so much that he becomes a part of us. It doesn’t get any better than the Eucharist.
We must be diligent about communicating our faith to others. There is a post outside of St. Peter’s
Basilica that is stained with the blood of thousands of martyrs, killed in the
Coliseum. It reads, in Latin, “Christ
has come, Christ has conquered, Christ rules.” The Catholic Church survived, and did not bend
to political pressure, when it was against the law in the