Authentic Christianity
It has been almost six years since I entered the Catholic Church through baptism and confirmation and first holy communion, all in one day. As I pause to reflect on that period, and it seems so short, I can say I have learned a lot more, and today I am more sure than ever that I am home.
Father Mitch Pacwa’s sermon in my previous post reminded me of the place that I was before I became Catholic. I knew that I could only worship God, and that my salvation could come only through Jesus Christ. There was a period of time when I had examined a number of the various philosophies and pagan religions and had seriously considered them. Now I can hardly imagine why. But God held me back until I came to the point where I realized that the teaching of my youth, namely that Jesus Christ was the way, the truth and the life, was still true and I could no more toss that aside than I could fly to the moon.
So the quest began for the right “brand” of Christianity, my own little church comparison shopping adventure began. And, I worked my way back to the Reformation, having come from a Protestant upbringing, it seemed the only place to start. But when I got back to Luther and the Lutherans, and saw the simulation of a liturgy that looked almost Catholic I was surprised. So not having the slightest doubt that I would never darken the door of a Catholic Church I began to examine the Orthodox. There I found two things. First, a sacramental Christianity and a serious liturgy, and second, a whole lot of in-fighting and nationalism between various Orthodox branches. Perhaps I looked in the wrong place first, but I was somewhat disappointed, to tell the truth. But the door was open to a sacramental economy, and liturgy that was more than a habit or convention, but determined very specifically from ancient rites, for very specific reasons.
I picked up a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in a used book store, partly out of curiosity and partly because it was such a good deal. From there it was Catholic apologetics and study and so on until I realized that I had found what I was looking for and also realized what it was that I had been looking for. That was authenticity. I realized that authenticity could only be determined by an authority, and the Catholic Church claimed that authority. And through study I began to realize that she does indeed have the authority that she claims. Moreover, where I was and where I had come from was a truncated and (I must say it) erroneous version of the real thing.
That was not the end of it. Truly, I could have sat on that knowledge for some time, content in the intellectual conclusion. But faith is so much more than an intellectual exercise. At some point we have to act, and that is a result of the working of the Holy Spirit within us. Without getting into the details, I experienced a conversion of heart, a return to Jesus Christ, characterized by repentance and a deep desire to be reconciled with God through Jesus and become a part of his bride, the Church. And so I could not rest until I spoke to a priest and asked to be baptized (I had never been) and received into the Church.
And today, I would say all the more that the Catholic Church is the authentic Church started by Jesus Christ.
I have heard it said by so many non-Catholic Christians, that they find their particular brand, denominational theology, or doctrinal convictions in the Scripture. They virtually all make the same claim, and yet they are deceiving themselves if cannot see that they have been taught a tradition, and they may have even changed traditions in their life-time, perhaps more than once, and yet when they claim that they got it from Scripture, what they should say is that they know how to use Scripture to back it up. But the doctrinal framework came first.
In other words, regardless of the doctrine of Sola Scriptura that most Protestants hold to, it is a very rare case that someone reads the Bible without any prior knowledge, becomes a Christian and starts a denomination or doctrinal group, building it straight out of the Scripture, from the ground up, so to speak. And to cap it, even that Sola Scriptura doctrine itself is a tradition of men. It came about as a result of the very need that I was trying to fulfill, that is, a need for an authority, and since the Reformers had rejected the authority of the Catholic Church, it was only natural to seek that authority in what they had left, and that was the Scriptures.
I discovered the Catholic Church in the Book of Acts, and when I found her there I looked to the disciples of the Apostles and the succeeding generations and found the Catholic Church there as well. The shock of realizing I was out of sync with Christ and his Church was like an earthquake. I had to take the Catholic Church seriously. And I realized that the objections that I had been taught in my youth were based in doctrinal disagreement and not in any ancient connection to the Church seen in Acts of the Apostles nor in any authority but the authority of a group of people who wish to decide doctrine for themselves.