WHAT
THE TRUE BELIEVERS WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE TRUE CHURCH(CATHOLIC CHURCH)
ESTABLISHED BY OUR GOOD LORD
WHETHER or not you are Catholic, you
may have questions about the Catholic faith. You may have heard challenges to
the Catholic Church’s claim to be the interpreter and safeguard of the
teachings of Jesus Christ.
Such challenges come from
door-to-door missionaries who ask, "Are you saved?", from peer
pressure that urges you to ignore the Church’s teachings, from a secular
culture that whispers "There is no God."
You can’t deal with these
challenges unless you understand the basics of the Catholic faith. This article
introduces them to you.
In Catholicism you will find answers
to life’s most troubling questions: Why am I here? Who made me? What must I
believe? How must I act? All these can be answered to your satisfaction, if only
you will open yourself to God’s grace, turn to the Church he established, and
follow his plan for you (John 7:17).
Jesus said his Church would be
"the light of the world." He then noted that "a city set on a
hill cannot be hid" (Matt. 5:14). This means his Church is a visible
organization. It must have characteristics that clearly identify it and that
distinguish it from other churches. Jesus promised,
"I will build my
Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matt.
16:18). This
means that his Church will never be destroyed and will never fall away from him.
His Church will survive until his return.
Among the Christian churches, only
the Catholic Church has existed since the time of Jesus. Every other Christian
church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches
broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The Protestant churches were
established during the Reformation, which began in 1517. (Most of today’s
Protestant churches are actually offshoots of the original Protestant
offshoots.)
Only the Catholic Church existed in
the tenth century, in the fifth century, and in the first century, faithfully
teaching the doctrines given by Christ to the apostles, omitting nothing. The
line of popes can be traced back, in unbroken succession, to Peter himself. This
is unequaled by any institution in history.
Even the oldest government is new
compared to the papacy, and the churches that send out door-to-door missionaries
are young compared to the Catholic Church. Many of these churches began as
recently as the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. Some even began during your
own lifetime. None of them can claim to be the Church Jesus established.
The Catholic Church has existed for
nearly 2,000 years, despite constant opposition from the world. This is
testimony to the Church’s divine origin. It must be more than a merely human
organization, especially considering that its human members— even some of its
leaders—have been unwise, corrupt, or prone to heresy.
Any merely human organization with
such members would have collapsed early on. The Catholic Church is today the
most vigorous church in the world (and the
largest, with a billion members: one sixth of the human race), and
that is testimony not to the cleverness of the Church’s leaders, but
to the protection of the Holy Spirit.
If we wish to locate the Church
founded by Jesus, we need to locate the one that has the four chief marks or
qualities of his Church. The Church we seek must be one, holy, catholic, and
apostolic.
Jesus established only one
Church, not a collection of differing churches (Lutheran, Baptist, Anglican, and
so on). The Bible says the Church is the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:23–32). Jesus
can have but one spouse, and his spouse is the Catholic Church.
His Church also teaches just one set
of doctrines, which must be the same as those taught by the apostles (Jude 3).
This is the unity of belief to which Scripture calls us (Phil. 1:27, 2:2).
Although some Catholics dissent from
officially-taught doctrines, the Church’s official teachers—the pope and the
bishops united with him—have never changed any doctrine. Over the centuries,
as doctrines are examined more fully, the Church comes to understand them more
deeply (John 16:12–13), but it never understands them to mean the opposite of
what they once meant.
By his grace Jesus makes the Church
holy, just as he is holy. This doesn’t mean that each member is always holy.
Jesus said there would be both good and bad members in the Church (John 6:70),
and not all the members would go to heaven (Matt. 7:21–23).
But the Church itself is holy because
it is the source of holiness and is the guardian of the special means of grace
Jesus established, the sacraments (cf. Eph. 5:26).
Jesus’ Church is called catholic
("universal" in Greek) because it is his gift to all people. He told
his apostles to go throughout the world and make disciples of "all
nations" (Matt. 28:19–20).
For 2,000 years the Catholic Church
has carried out this mission, preaching the good news that Christ died for all
men and that he wants all of us to be members of his universal family (Gal.
3:28).
Nowadays the Catholic Church is found
in every country of the world and is still sending out missionaries to
"make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19).
The Church Jesus established was
known by its most common title, "the Catholic Church," at least as
early as the year 107, when Ignatius of Antioch used that title to describe the
one Church Jesus founded. The title apparently was old in Ignatius’s time,
which means it probably went all the way back to the time of the apostles.
The Church Jesus founded is apostolic
because he appointed the apostles to be the first leaders of the Church, and
their successors were to be its future leaders. The apostles were the first
bishops, and, since the first century, there has been an unbroken line of
Catholic bishops faithfully handing on what the apostles taught the first
Christians in Scripture and oral Tradition (2 Tim. 2:2).
These
beliefs include the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, the Real Presence of Jesus in
the Eucharist, the sacrificial nature of the Mass, the forgiveness of sins
through a priest, baptismal regeneration, the existence of purgatory, Mary’s
special role, and much more —even the doctrine of apostolic succession itself.
Early
Christian writings prove the first Christians were thoroughly Catholic in belief
and practice and looked to the successors of the apostles as their leaders. What
these first Christians believed is still believed by the Catholic Church. No
other Church can make that claim.
Man’s
ingenuity cannot account for this. The Church has remained one, holy, catholic,
and apostolic—not through man’s effort, but because God preserves the Church
he established (Matt. 16:18, 28:20).
He guided the Israelites on their
escape from Egypt by giving them a pillar of fire to light their way across the
dark wilderness (Exod. 13:21). Today he guides us through his Catholic Church.
The Bible, sacred Tradition, and the
writings of the earliest Christians testify that the Church teaches with
Jesus’ authority. In this age of countless competing religions, each clamoring
for attention, one voice rises above the din: the Catholic Church, which the
Bible calls "the pillar and foundation of truth" (1 Tim. 3:15).
Jesus
assured the apostles and their successors, the popes and the bishops, "He
who listens to you listens to me, and he who rejects you rejects me" (Luke
10:16). Jesus promised to guide his Church into all truth (John 16:12–13). We
can have confidence that his Church teaches only the truth.
Jesus chose the apostles to be the
earthly leaders of the Church. He gave them his own authority to teach and to
govern—not as dictators, but as loving pastors and fathers. That is why
Catholics call their spiritual leaders "father." In doing so we follow
Paul’s example: "I became your father in Jesus Christ through the
gospel" (1 Cor. 4:15).
The apostles, fulfilling Jesus’
will, ordained bishops, priests, and deacons and thus handed on their apostolic
ministry to them—the fullest degree of ordination to the bishops, lesser
degrees to the priests and deacons.
Jesus gave Peter special authority
among the apostles (John 21:15–17) and signified this by changing his name
from Simon to Peter, which means "rock" (John 1:42). He said Peter was
to be the rock on which he would build his Church (Matt. 16:18).
In
Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, Simon’s new name was Kepha (which
means a massive rock). Later this name was translated into Greek as Petros
(John 1:42) and into English as Peter. Christ gave Peter alone the "keys of
the kingdom" (Matt. 16:19) and promised that Peter’s decisions would be
binding in heaven. He also gave similar power to the other apostles (Matt.
18:18), but only Peter was given the keys, symbols of his authority to rule the
Church on earth in Jesus’ absence.
Christ, the Good Shepherd, called
Peter to be the chief shepherd of his Church (John 21:15–17). He gave Peter
the task of strengthening the other apostles in their faith, ensuring that they
taught only what was true (Luke 22:31–32). Peter led the Church in proclaiming
the gospel and making decisions (Acts 2:1– 41, 15:7–12).
Early Christian writings tell us that
Peter’s successors, the bishops of Rome (who from the earliest times have been
called by the affectionate title of "pope," which means
"papa"), continued to exercise Peter’s ministry in the Church.
The pope is the successor to Peter as
bishop of Rome. The world’s other bishops are successors to the apostles in
general.
As
from the first, God speaks to his Church through the Bible and through sacred
Tradition. To make sure we understand him, he guides the Church’s teaching
authority—the magisterium—so it always interprets the Bible and Tradition
accurately. This is the gift of infallibility.
Like the three legs on a stool, the
Bible, Tradition, and the magisterium are all necessary for the stability of the
Church and to guarantee sound doctrine.
Sacred Tradition should not be
confused with mere traditions of men, which are more commonly called customs or
disciplines. Jesus sometimes condemned customs or disciplines, but only if they
were contrary to God’s commands (Mark 7:8). He never condemned sacred
Tradition, and he didn’t even condemn all human tradition.
Sacred Tradition and the Bible are
not different or competing revelations. They are two ways that the Church hands
on the gospel. Apostolic teachings such as the Trinity, infant baptism, the
inerrancy of the Bible, purgatory, and Mary’s perpetual virginity have been
most clearly taught through Tradition, although they are also implicitly present
in (and not contrary to) the Bible. The Bible itself tells us to hold fast to Tradition, whether
it comes to us in written or oral form (2 Thess. 2:15, 1 Cor. 11:2).
Sacred
Tradition should not be confused with customs and disciplines, such as the
rosary, priestly celibacy, and not eating meat on Fridays in Lent. These are
good and helpful things, but they are not doctrines. Sacred Tradition preserves
doctrines first taught by Jesus to the apostles and later passed down to us
through the apostles’ successors, the bishops.
Scripture,
by which we mean the Old and New Testaments, was inspired by God (2 Tim. 3:16).
The Holy Spirit guided the biblical authors to write what he wanted them to
write. Since God is the principal author of the Bible, and since God is truth
itself (John 14:6) and cannot teach anything untrue, the Bible is free from all
error in everything it asserts to be true.
Some Christians claim, "The
Bible is all I need," but this notion is not taught in the Bible itself. In
fact, the Bible teaches the contrary idea (2 Pet. 1:20–21, 3:15–16). The
"Bible alone" theory was not believed by anyone in the early Church.
It is new, having arisen only in the
1500s during the Protestant Reformation. The theory is a "tradition of
men" that nullifies the Word of God, distorts the true role of the Bible,
and undermines the authority of the Church Jesus established (Mark 7:1–8).
Although popular with many
"Bible Christian" churches, the "Bible alone" theory simply
does not work in practice. Historical experience disproves it. Each year we see
additional splintering among "Bible-believing" religions.
Today there are tens of thousands of
competing denominations, each insisting its interpretation of the Bible is the
correct one. The resulting divisions have caused untold confusion among millions
of sincere but misled Christians.
Just open up the Yellow Pages of your
telephone book and see how many different denominations are listed, each
claiming to go by the "Bible alone," but no two of them agreeing on
exactly what the Bible means.
We know this for sure: The Holy
Spirit cannot be the author of this confusion (1 Cor. 14:33). God cannot lead
people to contradictory beliefs because his truth is one. The conclusion? The
"Bible alone" theory must be false.
Together the pope and the bishops
form the teaching authority of the Church, which is called the magisterium (from
the Latin for "teacher"). The magisterium, guided and protected from
error by the Holy Spirit, gives us certainty in matters of doctrine. The Church
is the custodian of the Bible and faithfully and accurately proclaims its
message, a task which God has empowered it to do.
Keep
in mind that the Church came before the New Testament, not the New Testament
before the Church. Divinely-inspired members of the Church wrote the books of
the New Testament, just as divinely-inspired writers had written the Old
Testament, and the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit to guard and interpret
the entire Bible, both Old and New Testaments.
Such
an official interpreter is absolutely necessary if we are to understand the
Bible properly. (We all know what the Constitution says, but we still
need a Supreme Court to interpret what it means.)
The magisterium is infallible when it
teaches officially because Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to guide the
apostles and their successors "into all truth" (John 16:12–13).
Jesus promised he would not leave us
orphans (John 14:18) but would send the Holy Spirit to guide and protect us
(John 15:26). He gave the sacraments to heal, feed, and strengthen us. The seven
sacraments —baptism, the Eucharist, penance (also called reconciliation or
confession), confirmation, holy orders, matrimony, and the anointing of the
sick—are not just symbols. They are signs that
actually convey God’s grace and love.
The sacraments were foreshadowed in
the Old Testament by things that did not actually convey grace but merely
symbolized it (circumcision, for example, prefigured baptism, and the Passover
meal prefigured the Eucharist. When Christ came, he did not do away with symbols
of God’s grace. He supernaturalized them, energizing them with grace. He made
them more than symbols.
God constantly uses material things
to show his love and power. After all, matter is not evil. When he created the
physical universe, everything God created was "very good" (Gen. 1:31).
He takes such delight in matter that he even dignified it through his own
Incarnation (John 1:14).
During his earthly ministry Jesus
healed, fed, and strengthened people through humble elements such as mud, water,
bread, oil, and wine. He could have performed his miracles directly, but he
preferred to use material things to bestow his grace.
In his first public miracle Jesus
turned water into wine, at the request of his mother, Mary (John 2:1–11). He
healed a blind man by rubbing mud on his eyes (John 9:1–7). He multiplied a
few loaves and fish into a meal for thousands (John 6:5–13). He changed bread
and wine into his own body and blood (Matt. 26:26– 28). Through the sacraments
he continues to heal, feed, and strengthen us.
Because of original sin, we are born
without grace in our souls, so there is no way for us to have fellowship with
God. Jesus became man to bring us into union with his Father. He said no one can
enter the kingdom of God unless he is first born of "water and the
Spirit" (John 3:5)—this refers to baptism.
Through baptism we are born again,
but this time on a spiritual level instead of a physical level. We are washed in
the bath of rebirth (Titus 3:5). We are baptized into Christ’s death and
therefore share in his Resurrection (Rom. 6:3–7).
Baptism cleanses us of sins and
brings the Holy Spirit and his grace into our souls (Acts 2:38, 22:16). And the
apostle Peter is perhaps the most blunt of all: "Baptism now saves
you" (1 Pet. 3:21). Baptism is the gateway into the Church.
Sometimes
on our journey toward the heavenly promised land we stumble and fall into sin.
God is always ready to lift us up and to restore us to grace-filled fellowship
with him. He does this through the sacrament of penance (which is also known as
confession or reconciliation).
Jesus
gave his apostles power and authority to reconcile us to the Father. They
received Jesus’ own power to forgive sins when he breathed on them and said,
"Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and
whose sins you retain are retained" (John 20:22–23).
Paul
notes that "all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through
Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation. . . . So, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as if God were appealing through us" (2 Cor. 5:18–20).
Through confession to a priest, God’s minister, we have our sins forgiven, and
we receive grace to help us resist future temptations.
Once we become members of Christ’s
family, he does not let us go hungry, but feeds us with his own body and blood
through the Eucharist. In the Old Testament, as they prepared for their journey
in the wilderness, God commanded his people to sacrifice a lamb and sprinkle its
blood on their doorposts, so the Angel of Death would pass by their homes. Then
they ate the lamb to seal their covenant with God.
This lamb prefigured Jesus. He is the
real "Lamb of God," who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29).
Through Jesus we enter into a New Covenant with God (Luke 22:20), who protects
us from eternal death. God’s Old Testament people ate the Passover lamb. Now
we must eat the Lamb that is the Eucharist. Jesus said, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you
have no life within you" (John 6:53).
At the Last Supper he took bread and
wine and said, "Take and eat. This is my body . . . This is my blood which
will be shed for you" (Mark 14:22–24). In this way Jesus instituted the
sacrament of the Eucharist, the sacrificial meal Catholics consume at each Mass.
The Catholic Church teaches that the
sacrifice of Christ on the cross occurred "once for all"; it cannot be
repeated (Heb. 9:28). Christ does not "die again" during Mass, but the
very same sacrifice that occurred on Calvary is made present on the altar. That’s
why the Mass is not "another" sacrifice, but a participation in the
same, once-for-all sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Paul
reminds us that the bread and the wine really become, by a miracle of God’s
grace, the actual body and blood of Jesus: "Anyone who eats and drinks
without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on
himself" (1 Cor. 11:27–29).
After
the consecration of the bread and wine, no bread or wine remains on the altar.
Only Jesus himself, under the appearance of bread and wine, remains.
God strengthens our souls in another
way, through the sacrament of confirmation. Even though Jesus’ disciples
received grace before his Resurrection, on Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to
strengthen them with new graces for the difficult work ahead.
They
went out and preached the gospel fearlessly and carried out the mission Christ
had given them. Later, they laid hands on others to strengthen them as well
(Acts 8:14–17). Through confirmation you too are strengthened to meet the
spiritual challenges in your life.
Most people are called to the married
life. Through the sacrament of matrimony God gives special graces to help
married couples with life’s difficulties, especially to help them raise their
children as loving followers of Christ.
Marriage
involves three parties: the bride, the groom, and God. When two Christians
receive the sacrament of matrimony, God is with them, witnessing and blessing
their marriage covenant. A sacramental marriage is permanent; only death can
break it (Mark 10:1–12, Rom. 7:2–3, 1 Cor. 7:10–11). This holy union is a
living symbol of the unbreakable relationship between Christ and his Church
(Eph. 5:21–33).
Others are called to share specially
in Christ’s priesthood. In the Old Covenant, even though Israel was a kingdom
of priests (Exod. 19:6), the Lord called certain men to a special priestly
ministry (Exod. 19: 22). In the New Covenant, even though Christians are a
kingdom of priests (1 Pet. 2:9), Jesus calls certain men to a special priestly
ministry (Rom. 15:15–16).
This
sacrament is called holy orders. Through it priests are ordained and thus
empowered to serve the Church (2 Tim. 1:6–7) as pastors, teachers, and
spiritual fathers who heal, feed, and strengthen God’s people—most
importantly through preaching and the administration of the sacraments.
Priests care for us when we are
physically ill. They do this through the sacrament known as the anointing of the
sick. The Bible instructs
us, "Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. . . . Is any one among
you sick? He should summon the presbyters [priests] of the Church, and they
should pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the
prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he
has committed any sins, he will be forgiven" (Jas. 5:14–15). Anointing of
the sick not only helps us endure illness, but it cleanses our souls and helps
us prepare to meet God.
One of the most important activities
for a Catholic is prayer. Without it there can be no true spiritual life.
Through personal prayer and the communal prayer of the Church, especially the
Mass, we worship and praise God, we express sorrow for our sins, and we
intercede on behalf of others (1 Tim. 2:1–4). Through prayer we grow in our
relationship with Christ and with members of God’s family (CCC 2663–2696).
This family includes all members of
the Church, whether on earth, in heaven, or in purgatory. Since Jesus has only
one body, and since death has no power to separate us from Christ (Rom.
8:3–8), Christians who are in heaven or who, before entering heaven, are being
purified in purgatory by God’s love (1 Cor. 3:12–15) are still part of the
Body of Christ (CCC 962).
Jesus said the second greatest
commandment is to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:39).
Those in heaven love us more intensely than they ever could have loved us
while on earth. They pray for us constantly (Rev. 5:8), and their prayers are
powerful (Jas. 5:16, CCC 956, 2683, 2692).
Our
prayers to the saints in heaven, asking for their prayers for us, and their
intercession with the Father do not undermine Christ’s role as sole Mediator
(1 Tim. 2:5). In asking saints in heaven to pray for us we follow Paul’s
instructions: "I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and
thanksgivings be made for everyone," for "this is good and pleasing to
God our Savior" (1 Tim. 2:1–4).
All
members of the Body of Christ are called to help one another through prayer (CCC
2647). Mary’s prayers are especially effective on our behalf because of her
relationship with her Son (John 2:1–11).
God
gave Mary a special role (CCC 490–511, 963– 975). He saved her from all sin
(Luke 1:28, 47), made her uniquely blessed among all women (Luke 1:42), and made
her a model for all Christians (Luke 1:48). At the end of her life he took her,
body and soul, into heaven—an image of our own resurrection at the end of the
world (Rev. 12:1–2).
Old
catechisms asked, "Why did God make you?" The answer: "God made
me to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this world and to be happy with
him forever in the next." Here, in just 26 words, is the whole reason for
our existence. Jesus answered the question even more briefly: "I came so
that [you] might have life and have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).
God’s
plan for you is simple. Your loving Father wants to give you all good
things—especially eternal life. Jesus died on the cross to save us all from
sin and the eternal separation from God that sin causes (CCC 599–623). When he
saves us, he makes us part of his Body, which is the Church (1 Cor. 12:27–30).
We thus become united with him and with Christians everywhere (on earth, in
heaven, in purgatory).
Best of all, the promise of eternal
life is a gift, freely offered to us by God (CCC 1727). Our initial forgiveness
and justification are not things we "earn" (CCC 2010). Jesus is the
mediator who bridged the gap of sin that separates us from God (1 Tim. 2:5); he
bridged it by dying for us. He has chosen to make us partners in the plan of
salvation (1 Cor. 3:9).
The
Catholic Church teaches what the apostles taught and what the Bible teaches: We
are saved by grace alone, but not by faith alone (which is what "Bible
Christians" teach; see Jas. 2:24).
When
we come to God and are justified (that is, enter a right relationship with God),
nothing preceding justification, whether faith or good works, earns
grace. But then God plants his love in our hearts, and we should live out our
faith by doing acts of love (Gal. 6:2).
Even though only God’s grace
enables us to love others, these acts of love please him, and he promises to
reward them with eternal life (Rom. 2:6–7, Gal. 6:6–10). Thus good works are
meritorious. When we first come to God in faith, we have nothing in our hands to
offer him. Then he gives us grace to obey his commandments in love, and he
rewards us with salvation when we offer these acts of love back to him (Rom.
2:6–11, Gal. 6:6–10, Matt. 25:34–40).
Jesus
said it is not enough to have faith in him; we also must obey his commandments.
"Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not do the things I
command?" (Luke 6:46, Matt. 7:21–23, 19:16–21).
We
do not "earn" our salvation through good works (Eph. 2:8–9, Rom.
9:16), but our faith in Christ puts us in a special grace-filled relationship
with God so that our obedience and love, combined with our faith, will be
rewarded with eternal life (Rom. 2:7, Gal. 6:8–9).
Paul
said, "God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to
desire and to work" (Phil. 2:13). John explained that "the way we may
be sure that we know him is to keep his commandments. Whoever says, ‘I know
him,’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in
him" (1 John 2:3–4, 3:19–24, 5:3–4).
Since
no gift can be forced on the recipient—gifts always can be rejected—even
after we become justified, we can throw away the gift of salvation. We throw it
away through grave (mortal) sin (John 15:5–6, Rom. 11:22–23, 1 Cor.
15:1–2; CCC 1854–1863). Paul tells us, "The wages of sin is death"
(Rom. 6:23).
Read
his letters and see how often Paul warned Christians against sin! He would not
have felt compelled to do so if their sins could not exclude them from heaven
(see, for example, 1 Cor. 6:9–10, Gal. 5:19–21).
Paul
reminded the Christians in Rome that God "will repay everyone according to
his works: eternal life for those who seek glory, honor, and immortality through
perseverance in good works, but wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey
the truth and obey wickedness" (Rom. 2:6–8).
Sins
are nothing but evil works (CCC 1849–1850). We can avoid sins by habitually
performing good works. Every saint has known that the best way to keep free from
sins is to embrace regular prayer, the sacraments (the Eucharist first of all),
and charitable acts.
Some people promote an especially
attractive idea: All true Christians, regardless of how they live, have an
absolute assurance of salvation, once they accept Jesus into their hearts as
"their personal Lord and Savior." The problem is that this belief is
contrary to the Bible and constant Christian teaching.
Keep in mind what Paul told the
Christians of his day: "If we have died with him [in baptism; see Rom.
6:3–4] we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with
him" (2 Tim. 2:11–12).
If
we do not persevere, we shall not reign with him. In other words,
Christians can forfeit heaven (CCC 1861).
The Bible makes it clear that
Christians have a moral assurance of salvation (God will be true to his word and
will grant salvation to those who have faith in Christ and are obedient to him
[1 John 3:19–24]), but
the Bible does not teach that Christians have a guarantee of heaven. There can
be no absolute assurance of salvation. Writing to Christians, Paul said,
"See, then, the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who
fell, but God’s kindness to you, provided you remain in his kindness,
otherwise you too will be cut off" (Rom. 11:22–23; Matt. 18:21–35, 1
Cor. 15:1–2, 2 Pet. 2:20–21).
Note that Paul includes an important
condition: "provided you remain in his kindness." He is saying that
Christians can lose their salvation by throwing it away. He warns, "Whoever
thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall" (1 Cor.
10:11–12).
If
you are Catholic and someone asks you if you have been "saved," you
should say, "I am redeemed by the blood of Christ, I trust in him alone for
my salvation, and, as the Bible teaches, I am ‘working out my salvation in
fear and trembling’ (Phil. 2:12), knowing that it is God’s gift of grace
that is working in me."
All the alternatives to Catholicism
are showing themselves to be inadequate: the worn-out secularism that is
everywhere around us and that no one any longer finds satisfying, the odd cults
and movements that offer temporary community but no permanent home, even the
other, incomplete brands of Christianity. As our tired world becomes ever more
desperate, people are turning to the one alternative they never really had
considered: the Catholic Church. They are coming upon truth in the last place
they expected to find it.
How can this be? Why are so many
people seriously looking at the Catholic Church for the first time? Something is
pulling them toward it. That something is truth.
This much we know: They are not
considering the claims of the Church out of a desire to win public favor.
Catholicism, at least nowadays, is never popular. You cannot win a popularity
contest by being a faithful Catholic. Our
fallen world rewards the clever, not the good. If a Catholic is praised, it is
for the worldly skills he demonstrates, not for his Christian virtues.
Although people try to avoid the hard
doctrinal and moral truths the Catholic Church offers them (because
hard truths demand that lives be changed), they nevertheless are
attracted to the Church. When they listen to the pope and the bishops in union
with him, they hear words with the ring of truth—even if they find that truth
hard to live by.
When they contemplate the history of
the Catholic Church and the lives of its saints, they realize there must be
something special, maybe something supernatural, about an institution that can
produce holy people such as St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Mother
Teresa.
When
they step off a busy street and into the aisles of an apparently empty Catholic
church, they sense not a complete emptiness, but a presence. They sense that Someone
resides inside, waiting to comfort them.
They realize that the persistent
opposition that confronts the Catholic Church—whether from non-believers or
"Bible Christians" or even from people who insist on calling
themselves Catholics—is a sign of the Church’s divine origin (John
15:18–21). And they come to suspect that the Catholic Church, of all things,
is the wave of the future.
Over the last few decades many
Catholics have left the Church, many dropping out of religion entirely, many
joining other churches. But the traffic has not been in only one direction.
The traffic toward Rome has increased
rapidly. Today we are seeing more than a hundred and fifty thousand converts
enter the Catholic Church each year in the United States, and in some other
places, like the continent of Africa, there are more than a million converts to
the Catholic faith each year. People of no religion, lapsed or inactive
Catholics, and members of other Christian churches are "coming home to
Rome."
They are attracted to the Church for
a variety of reasons, but the chief reason they convert is the chief reason you
should be Catholic: The solid truth of the Catholic faith.
Our
separated brethren hold much Christian truth, but not all of it.
We might compare their religion to a stained glass window in which some of the
original panes were lost and have been replaced by opaque glass: Something that
was present at the beginning is now gone, and something that does not fit has
been inserted to fill up the empty space. The unity of the original window has
been marred.
When, centuries ago, they split away
from the Catholic Church, the theological ancestors of these Christians
eliminated some authentic beliefs and added new ones of their own making. The
forms of Christianity they established are really incomplete Christianity.
Only
the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus, and only it has been able to preserve
all Christian truth without any error—and great numbers of people are coming
to see this.
Your tasks as a Catholic, no matter
what your age, are three:
Know
your Catholic faith. You cannot live
your faith if you do not know it, and you cannot share with others what you do
not first make your own (CCC 429). Learning your Catholic faith takes some
effort, but it is effort well spent because the study is, quite literally,
infinitely rewarding.
Live
your Catholic faith. Your Catholic faith is a public
thing. It is not meant to be left behind when you leave home (CCC 2472). But be
forewarned: Being a public Catholic involves risk and loss. You will find some
doors closed to you. You will lose some friends. You will be considered an
outsider. But, as a consolation, remember our Lord’s words to the persecuted:
"Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven" (Matt.
5:12).
Spread
your Catholic faith. Jesus Christ wants us to bring the
whole world into captivity to the truth, and the truth is Jesus himself, who is
"the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). Spreading the
faith is a task not only for bishops, priests, and religious—it is a task for
all Catholics (CCC 905).
Just before his Ascension, our Lord
told his apostles, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matt.
28:19–20).
If
we want to observe all that Jesus commanded, if we want to believe all he
taught, we must follow him through his Church. This is our great challenge—and
our great privilege.