I had thought I’d be prolific and come up with 40 reasons for coming home to the Catholic Church, one for each day of Lent. Well, Lent is over and you can see I haven’t quite finished (but will!). And I experienced more humility when I found this:
So here I am left in the dust! If you visit the site the author, Dave Armstrong, lists all these many reasons. They are primarily in an apologetical vein distinguishing Catholicism from Protestantism. That is related to my work here but a little more doctrinally specific that I have chosen to be. Nevertheless, a hat tip to Dave Armstrong for his work!
Reason # 36 Catholicism upholds the “incarnational principle,” wherein Jesus became flesh and thus raised flesh and matter to new spiritual heights.
One of the beauties of the Catholic Faith is the way that all creation is summoned to praise God. In the sacraments we use water, bread, wine, and oil. In the Liturgy we use candles and incense. Our bodies are very involved in worship as we stand, sit, kneel, even prostrate at times. Our Churches (at least the traditional ones) make use of beautiful stained glass, wood, marble and stone. Music is rich and varied from the haunting Chant, to joyful polyphony, from the mighty pipe organ to the unaccompanied voice. For us as Catholics we expect to encounter our faith in what is, in the world around us. The liturgy is no mere lecture or just intellectual ideas and values. It is creation in action, the Word become flesh. When Jesus took on flesh God joined with his creation and elevated it. Jesus made frequent use of creation and often spoke of it in his parables.
Obviously some of the things I have mentioned above have diminished in Catholicism in recent decades as many of our older church buildings were stripped and many of our newer buildings are minimalist in their design. But traditional architecture is making a comeback and some of our older buildings are being tastefully restored.
Why is this a reason to come home? Because faith is not merely an abstraction that exists only in our minds or a televised message. Faith is found in our church buildings, in the people who gather there, in the sacraments and liturgies that are celebrated there. Place and time are important dimensions to faith. Here there is an intersection between the good, the true and the beautiful. It is like the old family home. Our memories are not just stored in our brains but on the worn back stairways of the house, in the pictures on the wall, little trinkets that have been collected over the years, in the magnets on the refrigerator door, and at the kitchen table. Our churches are like this, the old familiar statues, the altar, the meeting rooms, the smell of candles and incense in the air, the rituals and sacraments that call us home. Come home. Faith is not merely an idea, it is an old familiar place, it is sacraments and rituals that literally touch you, it is about an incarnation, something tangible, and touchable, something familiar. The Catholic Church does all this well. We may have forgotten some of it for a time, but we never fully lost it. Catholicism upholds the “incarnational principle,” wherein Jesus became flesh and thus raised flesh and matter to new spiritual heights. So come home and reconnect with Jesus, the Word made flesh.
Many people like to say that “fundamentalists” or Evangelicals read the Bible literally and Catholics do not. It is not really that simple though. There are many passages that Evangelicals do not read literally. For example, when Jesus says, “This is my Body” they do not interpret these words literally but, rather, conclude that the Jesus should be understood to be speaking symbolically. And we Catholics, who are not usually said to read the Bible literally, do interpret these words quite literally. Another example, When Jesus says that he will build his Church upon Peter whom he declares to be rock, Catholics take these words quite literally to mean that Peter is in fact the Rock upon which Jesus will build his Church. Evangelicals however interpret the rock here to be faith and so the text, which plainly says Peter is the Rock, is interpreted by them to mean that the rock is symbolic for faith. And so on….
So, a simple declaration that Evangelicals and Fundamentalists read the text literally and Catholics do not is simplistic. However, it remains true that Catholics and Evangelicals do have a different interpretive keys. Catholic theology and Tradition has a rather nuanced position in regard to Scriptural interpretation that gives great emphasis to the genre and context of a passage. Some texts which are plain doctrinal statements or historical narrative are interpreted rather literally. However, there are other texts in Scripture which are clearly in the genre of poetry or allegory and hence these should be interpreted that way. Scripture is not merely one book, it is a collection of books written in many different styles. This will affect the interepretation of such books. To a world that wants a simple “slogan approach” to understanding Biblical interpretation a nuanced approach is difficult to stomach. And yet the Catholic approach, though nuanced, is wise since it respects it respects genre, style, and context.
Here are a couple of videos that make rather plain the Catholic approach to Biblical interpretation. The first video is from John Martignoni and is a very brief description of the Literal vs. Literalist interpretation. The second vido is from Fr. Robert Barron and details two key Catholic interpretive principles: the importance of Genre and that Jesus Christ is the interpretive key to to understanding the whole Bible.
There is a lot of good apologetics material out there. Apologetics is not the art of apologizing for Catholic teaching but rather is the science of explaing Catholic Teaching and defending it.
One teaching of the Catholic Church that is often attacked is that of the perpetual virginity of Mary, a teaching that goes back as far as we can remember in Catholic Tradition and Dogma. But Scripture does mention “brothers” of Jesus. What are we to do with all this? The following video answers the question. Pay attention it moves quickly but John Martignoni does a pretty good job of tackling the question in just about a minute.
Reason # 35 – A Fitting Thanksgiving – In the Book of Psalms the psalm writer asks, “What return can I ever make to the Lord for all the good He has done for me?” The very next verse of the psalm answers the question: “The cup of salvation I will lift up and I will call on the name of the Lord (Psalm 116:12-13). So God has already indicated the way in which he would like to be thanked.
For a Catholic this request of the Lord ought to seem pretty stright-forward when we think of the Cahlice being elevated at every Mass and we make our act of faith in the true presence of Jesus. As a proper thanksgiving God wants us to participate in the Holy Eucharist.
As you may know, the Eucharist means, “Thanksgiving.” It is the perfect act of praise, thanksgiving and worship of the Father by Jesus. We as members of his body participate in that perfect thanksgiving every time we particiapte in Mass. We “take up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” just as God asks in Psalm 116.
So here is another reason to come home. You owe great thanks to God, you owe infinite thanks to God! How can you ever render your debt? He has told you how: take up the cup of salvation, attend Mass.
Reason # 34 – Mary. We could go on for a long time about Mary the Mother of Jesus and I could spend pages refuting claims that we worship Mary (we do not – that would be a very serious sin!) or that it takes away from honor due to Jesus (It does not since true devotion to Mary leads us to a better relationship with Jesus). On and on we could go.
But here is the essence of what I want to say as a reason to come home: The Scriptures indicate that every generation would call Mary blessed. Luke 1:48 says of Mary: Henceforth every generation will call me blessed, for God who is mighty has done great things for me.” Now the last time I checked we’re supposed to fulfill Scripture, not ignore it or oppose it. Thus to those who criticise the Church I can only say that we are following what Scripture says when we call Mary blessed and honor her. And then comes my question for my worthy opponent:
“Why aren’t you fulfilling Scripture in this regard? Don’t you think you ought to honor Mary?Scripture calls her “Blessed,” full of grace,” says “the Lord is with her.” Scripture says she is blessed above all women and calls her the “Mother of my Lord.” Shouldn’t a few of these phrases occasionally escape your lips? Isn’t it a good thing to fulfill Scripture and quote Scripture?”
So here is another reason to come home to the Catholic Church: We are fulfilling Scripture in regard to Mother Mary. We are obeying and repeating what Scripture says. Almost every other denomination outright refuses such fulfillment. But Scripture says we would and should call Mary blessed. Now don’t listen to all that stuff about Catholics worshipping Mary. We do not do that, it would be a terrible sin of idolatry to do so. But we DO honor Mary and we DO fulfill Scripture. Come home, it’s always good to fulfill Scripture isn’t it?
Reason # 33 – All the Gifts There are many gifts that Christ gave to his Church as he established it. Among these are: Scripture, Apostolic Authority, Seven Sacraments, Tradition, infallibility (no errors in faith and morals), indefectability (will always be here), Saints, Mary, the Liturgy, and so forth. Only the Catholic Church can claim to have all these. Many of them we have already discussed in some detail. This is not to say that other denominations don’t have any of these gifts, but only the Catholic Church has all these gifts. A certain non-denominational chapel many have good music, and preaching but does not have the priesthood, the Eucharist, devotion to Mary and so on. A certain Protestant Communion may have a lovely liturgy but has not confession, or apostolic authority.
Only the Catholic Church has all the gifts which Christ gave and intended for his Church to have. Now if you have a job to do, don’t you want all the tools? If you have a problem to solve don’t you want all the experts and resources? Come home to the Catholic Church. There’s work to do and and a soul to be saved (yours). You need all the resources you can get. So do I.
A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1800)
The Catholic Church puts a lot of emphasis on our conscience. It allows us and even invites us to wonder, question, and disagree. So what exactly are we supposed to do when our conscience disagrees with Church teachings?
The answer again comes from the Catechism:
A well-formed conscience will never contradict the objective moral law, as taught by Christ and his Church. (Catechism, #1783-5, 1792, 2039)
This echoed what a priest said at a retreat I attended two weekends ago. Someone asked the priest what we’re supposed to do if we disagree with something the Church teaches. He said, “Assume the Church is right, first of all. Then ask yourself where in your line of thinking you start to diverge from what the Church teaches. Take that one point, and learn more about it through diligent reading and talking to your spiritual director.”
Does this mean that in the process of forming our conscience and learning about the moral law, Christ and his Church, our disagreement will cease? Yes! We make a pretty bold statement when we say that Church teachings are infallible, that the Church is the fullness of the Truth, and that if we gain knowledge of that Truth we will end up in line with Church teachings, but that’s what we believe!
So if we have questions about and disagreements with what the Catholic Church teaches, we must ask, study, and pray! Obviously, learning our faith and forming our moral conscience is a daily and lifelong process. Thankfully we have the lives of the saints to give us hope and encouragement!
FWI: This website offers a concise and valuable explanation of moral conscience.
