Tag Archives: Catholicism

None of Us Christians Do What the Bible Says

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Imagine that there are two or three Christians having a discussion (or an argument) about doctrine (not hard to imagine).  How can they settle the dispute?  Someone will likely suggest that they open a Bible to see what it says.  The problem with that idea is that the Bible will not “say” anything.  The Bible will sit there quietly on the table waiting for someone to read it and interpret it.  Once it has been read and interpreted, some person (or persons) will do the “saying.”  Hence, opening the Bible will usually result in multiple, competing interpretations about what the Bible supposedly “says.”  Opening the Bible does not work well in resolving disputes or creating unity among Christians.

The fact is, all of us Christians base our doctrines and beliefs on what some other person or people say that the Bible “says.”  There are many voices to choose from, such as the Pope, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, Charles Stanley, Mother Theresa, Billy Graham, Thomas Merton, Beth Moore, Joel Osteen, (insert your favorite preacher here), or even our own, personal opinions.  There are over 30,000 Christian denominations whose differences are supposedly based on what the Bible “says.”

Consider what happened when Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”  Jesus got a bunch of different answers.  “Some say, Elijah, some say John the Baptist or one of the prophets,” etc.  When Jesus asked them, “Who do you say that I am?” it was Peter that spoke up and said, “You are the Christ.”  Jesus told Peter he was not only correct, but he was blessed because his answer was given to him by God, not by some person.  This was validation of the special anointing Peter had from God, not just some lucky guess on Peter’s part.

It is amazing that, in the midst of many voices and opinions, God decides what the answer is and appoints the person to say the correct thing.  God did not stop there with Peter.  In Peter’s anointing, Jesus established a unique office with authority.  When Peter died, the office was filled by another.  That’s who the Pope is.  Peter was the first Pope.  The other apostles also had special authority given to them.  Their successors are the Bishops.  The Pope is simply the head Bishop.  These men not only have the God-given authority to interpret the Bible, they also had the authority to say which books belonged in the Bible when it was assembled.

But why do Christians even need such an authority?  Why can’t we just open up a Bible to see what it says?  Because the Bible doesn’t “say” anything.  To quote G.K. Chesterton, “You can’t place the Bible on a witness stand.”  It sits there quietly on the shelf, waiting to be read and interpreted.  For example, is water baptism necessary for salvation?  Is the Lord’s Supper really Christ’s body and blood, or is it just a symbol?  The word “Trinity” is not in the Bible, so, is God really a Trinity?  Nowhere is it written in the Bible to, “Accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior and you will be saved.”  Who came up with that phrase?   Is that really how to be saved?  These are all interpretations told to us by various people.  But which of those people are occupying authoritative offices established by Jesus?

Of course, you and I can and should read the Bible.  Christians are supposed to read and study the Bible.  We just have to remember that both right and wrong conclusions can be drawn from it.  Even Peter wrote that there are things that are hard to understand.  We need the correct standard to apply things to.  That’s why we need the authoritative Pope and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.  Jesus formed it that way.  Humans can’t re-form the authority that Jesus formed.  That’s called fashioning God into our own image.  It’s backwards.  Despite good intentions to correct some abuses, the Protestant Reformation fractured and fragmented the Church rather than “re-forming” the Church.

The Bible is the Living Word of God, but it does not stand alone as a sole authority.  It co-exists with the life and authority of the Church.  The two cannot be compartmentalized and distanced from each other.  As Christians, we are not really going by what the Bible alone “says.”  We are either going by what the authority Jesus established says, or by what someone else says (even if that someone is ourselves).  In other words, every Christian either has a pope, or has become their own pope.  Yet, like it or not, there’s only one Pope that occupies the Chair of Peter and has his authority from Christ.  He and the other Bishops in union with him have much to say about what is written in the Bible.  Are we listening with humility?

We Are Not The Walking Dead

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More than a few times I have heard Catholics and non-Catholics comment on the outward appearance of Catholics receiving Holy Communion.  The common theme is that Catholics appear to be too casual and unmoved by the experience of receiving the Blessed Sacrament.  This is probably true in some cases.

Catholics will often point out that, since we are receiving the greatest gift available to humanity, the Lord, God, Jesus Christ Himself, we should show a bit more enthusiasm and appreciation for what we are receiving.  Too often we shuffle up the aisle like zombies, or like people waiting in line at the supermarket to buy a pack of gum.  We need to appreciate what we have been freely given, and what it cost.  The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life.  It is how God chooses to feed us and give us spiritual life.

Non-Catholics will often conclude that the doctrine of the Real Presence must be false.  After all, how could anyone approach and receive Jesus Christ Himself with a lack of enthusiasm?  Some will say, “If I believed what you Catholics supposedly believe, I would be at church every time the doors were opened falling on my face before Jesus!”  (Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn’t.  This could also be a veiled way of using lukewarm Catholics as an excuse to reject the doctrine.)  I recently heard a story about a non-Catholic man who was actively involved in a Catholic parish for many years because his wife was Catholic.  When asked why he never became Catholic he replied that Sunday after Sunday he saw people go to communion with long faces.  He didn’t see them being enthusiastic about what they were doing, so, he rejected the doctrine.

There are several reasons why people may seem unimpressed when receiving communion.  One reason is that many Catholics don’t really understand the truth of what they are doing.  American Catholics in particular have often been influenced by Protestant theologies that teach communion as merely symbolic.  Hence, many poorly catechized Catholics simply don’t understand and appreciate the reality of the Sacrament.

Some Catholics approach Holy Communion with reverence, humility and contemplation.  They may show little or no emotion externally, yet they are deeply moved and changed internally.  Only God knows the heart of a person.  As the Scripture says, “Man looks on the outward appearance, but God sees the heart.”

There are, of course, Catholics that have fallen into complacency and apathy.  They are like the Jews in the desert grumbling over the miraculous manna that God provided for food.  Initially, the manna was greeted with gratitude and enthusiasm.  After a while, human nature crept in and stole the joy.  As we see in John chapter 6, the Holy Eucharist is the flesh and blood of Christ who is the Bread of Life come down from Heaven.  He is the fulfillment of what the miraculous manna foreshadowed.  Unfortunately, like the Jews, Catholics can also succumb to human nature and complacency, even though the miracle is right before them.  Yet, just like the manna, their complacency does not negate the truth of the miracle which is the Blessed Sacrament.

There are also many Catholics that have reached a place of peace and serenity in their faith and, like the disciple Jesus loved, will simply lay their heads on Jesus and be at rest.  There is not necessarily any exuberant display of emotion observed when they receive communion.  They are calm, but not unimpressed.  There are charismatic Catholics as well.  Yet, we must never confuse emotion with Spirit.  Sometimes people mistakenly believe that the Holy Spirit is not at work unless someone is emotionally excited.

The bottom line is that truth cannot be determined by how people react to it emotionally, or by how many people believe it.  Truth is true because it is true.  There are indeed many Catholics that take for granted the gift they are offered.  There are also many that appreciate the Holy Eucharist for what it is.  To whom much is given, much will be required.  We all need to examine our own hearts and not be deterred by our perceptions of others.  Nor should we use any lack of emotional enthusiasm in others as an excuse for our own faithlessness.  Jesus waits for us.  The gift is there for all of us.  If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.

Christmas Is For Everyone

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To say that Christmas is for Christians and therefore excludes certain groups or individuals is to misunderstand what Christmas is.  When Christ was born the angels did not declare a holiday for Christians.  They declared peace and goodwill to all people.  When Christ was born, Christendom did not exist.  The birth of Christ was declared to Jews and Gentiles (i.e. everyone).  Some were happy about it (like the shepherds and magi) while some were furious (like King Herod).  Nevertheless, Christ came to all of them.  There were no exclusions.

The same can be said today, for Christ maintains an open invitation for everyone.  Whether Jew or Greek, bond or free, male or female, Christ excludes no one.  Whether or not you believe in Christ or even God is irrelevant.  Christ came for you, and the invitation remains open even if you throw it away every time it arrives.  So, Christmas does not exclude people, but there are people who choose to exclude Christmas.

Imagine throwing a party and inviting everyone in the whole world.  Everyone would get an invitation, but not everyone would come.  Now, imagine being in school and being the only student in your class that did not get an invitation to a party.  That would be exclusion.  At some point in life, most of us know how it feels to be excluded from something.  It can be hurtful.  But that is not how Christ operates.  He unceasingly invites everyone with open arms and people flee from Him.  He excludes no one.  They may freely choose to exclude themselves for a host of reasons.  But to claim that Christmas is not for everyone is to entirely miss the point of what Christmas is.

No Longer Afraid of Mary: Becoming A Momma’s Boy

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I am now 12 days into a do-it-yourself, 33 day retreat called, 33 Days To Morning Glory.  The focus is on Mary’s unique spousal relationship with the Holy Spirit and how that relationship applies to and includes us.  Much of the retreat is presented through the perspectives of four Saints of the Church, St. Louis de Monfort, St. Maximilian Kolbe, Blessed Mother Theresa and Blessed John Paul II.

My appreciation for Mary has been growing, even before beginning this retreat.  One resource I have found helpful is the phone app created by the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception.  The app is good at explaining a balanced approach to Marian doctrine.  In my spiritual journey through various forms of Protestantism and Catholicism, I have experienced what the Marian Fathers call the two extremes of understanding Mary: Marian excess and Marian defect.  Marian excess is “to think of Mary as if she were God.  She is not God.  She is a creature, and to think otherwise is to fall into idolatry.”  I’ve noticed this approach in some Catholics.  Marian defect “means to think of Mary as being ‘just like the rest of us,’ having no particularly special significance.”  This is what I experienced in most Protestant circles where the regard Mary is given is perhaps a nod of affirmation during a Christmas play, if any.

My 20+ years in Protestantism made me skittish about having a relationship with Mary.  I now understand that Mary is all about a relationship with Jesus (as is the rest of Catholic doctrine).  Her singular goal is to bring souls to her son.  She was and is the perfect disciple.  She was the first person to accept Jesus into her heart and into her body.  Knowing Mary and becoming close to Mary is not an obstacle or a distraction from a relationship with Christ.  The opposite is true.  The role of every Christian disciple is to bring people to Christ, not just by preaching or teaching, but through relationship.  No one had a closer relationship to Jesus than His mother.  To really know Mary and have a relationship with her is to know Jesus.  (Incidentally, that’s what the Rosary is all about.  It is not just a series of vain, repetitious prayers or some kind of superstitious incantation.  It is a spiritual meditation on the life and ministry of Christ through the eyes of His mother).

Some folks will claim that Jesus was dismissive of His mother and actually put her down and/or minimized her.  Don’t let such doctrines fool you.  The Scriptures they use to support such ideas are easily shown to be misapplied.  Imagine the sinless Jesus Christ going against one of the Ten Commandments to “honor thy father and mother” and you can begin to see how misled such claims against Mary are.  Catholic doctrines reveal the true and perfect honor that Jesus Christ, the sinless, obedient God-man bestows on His mother and Father.

I’m not afraid of Mary anymore.  I’m not the least bit scared that God will be offended if I love her and embrace her.  God loves and embraces her.  She is the chosen daughter of the Father, the spouse of the Holy Spirit and the mother of Jesus Christ.  If the Holy Trinity honors and loves her so completely and perfectly, how can I go wrong by honoring and loving her, too?  It’s not idolatry, it’s being godly.  I’m looking forward to the rest of this retreat.  I love getting to know my mother and her Son, my Brother.  Have you ever seen the bumper sticker that says, “Real men love Jesus?”  I would add, “…and real men are momma’s boys.”

The Ultimate and Original “Cloud”

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Before there was an iCloud to pull everything together, there was the “great cloud of witnesses” that Hebrews 12:1 says we are surrounded by.  The Feast of All Saints reminds us of this cloud and how all Christians, whether in this life or the next, are intimately connected in one Body with Christ as the Head.

One of my favorite things about being Catholic is that we do not view the Church as being just an earthly group of believers.  The Church on earth is called “The Church Militant” because we are waging a war against evil and spiritual wickedness.  Scripture calls Satan “the god of this world.”  As Christians, we are “in the world, but not of the world.”  It is a spiritual battle for souls here on earth and we Christians are spiritual warriors.

There exists a state of being between this life and Heaven where Christians may be purged of anything that cannot enter heaven, anything that is not pure and built upon Christ.  1Corinthians 3:11-15 describes this state of purging as a fire that burns away the wood, hay and stubble of our lives, yet leaves us saved with our good works of precious stones, gold and silver.  Since eternity is not limited by our time constraints, and God is outside of time, we cannot place any sense of time on this state of being.  Yet, few of us are perfect and ready to enter Heaven “right now” in this life.  We will be different in Heaven than we are “right now.” This means that a change takes place somewhere in between this life and Heaven.  Catholics call this state of being Purgatory, because it is a purging process.  Since the purging process is not a pleasant one (it is not easy to relinquish things our souls tend to cling to), the Christians in this state of purging are referred to as “The Church Suffering.”

Christians that are in Heaven are called “The Church Triumphant.”  This is the ultimate goal of Christianity, to triumph over Satan, sin, death and the evil in the world and in ourselves.  Heaven is where we are finally joined completely with Christ and “see Him as He is, for we shall be like Him.”  On the day of resurrection, even our physical bodies will be glorified and present with Christ.  No more sin or death.  Triumph!

All Christians are united in one body of Christ.  The Church Militant, The Church Suffering and The Church Triumphant are all the Body of Christ with Jesus as Head.  This is why the “cloud” that surrounds us is so awesome.  It is connected to us.  We in The Church Militant are not separated from Christians in The Church Triumphant.  Far from being dead, they are more alive than we are!  That is why we can call upon them to pray for us and intercede to God on our behalf.  In the same way that we ask other Christians here on earth to pray for us and with us, we can call upon the Saints in Heaven to do the same, for we are all one Body of Christ!  I am so glad to be able to call upon our mother, Mary, the Saints in Heaven, my earthly Christian brothers and sisters, and, most of all, Jesus, the One Mediator who makes it all possible by allowing us to share in His mediation through His One Body.  Thank God for “the cloud!”

Have a blessed Feast of All Saints!

Women’s Rights (?)

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None of us had the option of choosing who our parents would be.  We did not know the content of their character or the color of their skin.  We did not know if they were upstanding members of society or common criminals.  We did not know if they practiced any particular faith, or if they had any sense of morality whatsoever.  We did not know if they were going to nurture us or abuse us.  We had no sense of how they treated each other.  For all we knew, our fathers could have been rapists or ministers.  Our mothers might have been prostitutes or soccer moms.  We simply did not get to choose who our parents would be.  Yet, here we are, existing, and trying to make the best of it, because someone gave us a chance at life.

Life is the primary, inalienable right.  Without life, none of the other human rights make any sense.  Consider the rights of a woman, for example.  What good are her rights if she is not alive?  One of life’s greatest ironies is the killing of women in utero in the name of “women’s rights” (or, for that matter, the killing of any human in the name of “human rights”).

Incidently, it is sometimes claimed that, since I do not have a woman’s body, I am not allowed to say anything about women’s issues, particularly abortion.  Foolishness.  My very existence is due to a woman’s body and her choices, as is the existence of anyone reading this.  Furthermore, any woman would be glad to have the support of my opinion if it was in agreement with her own.  It is only when I disagree that my gender becomes an issue.

I cannot be supportive of “women’s rights” by excluding the weakest and most vulnerable of all women; those women still in the womb of other women.  They are living in what used to be the safest place on earth.  Now it is one of the most perilous places to exist.  Don’t tell me how important your  life and your female body are while the body living inside of you (possibly another female) is being destroyed.  They are both equally important.  They both deserve the right to live and have a chance to show their quality, no matter who the parents are.

 

Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, pray for us.

Visiting Where I Was Born Again.

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This past weekend I was back in my hometown to celebrate a wedding and a birthday.  I needed to go to Church Sunday morning.  The default location was St. Ignatius, the Church I grew up in.  My parents still attend there, and it would be a chance to visit with them for a bit.  This time, however, I decided to do something different.  I was not baptized at St. Ignatius but at St. Clare, and my family attended there until I was in second grade.  Since I had not been there since I was a second grader, I thought it would be interesting to visit.

While approaching the church and school buildings, it struck me how small everything appeared.  Things are magnified to a child’s eyes, and my memory was a child’s memory.  Then I noticed the front steps.  I recalled an old photograph of my family standing on those steps with a baby.  The baby was me at my baptism.  I haven’t seen that photo in years, but I remember it.  And I remember the steps.

Upon entering the church a flood of memories hit me.  It all started to come back.  Except for the scale of things, I felt like I was looking through my six-year-old eyes.  The sights, the sounds and the aroma were familiar and welcoming.  It was like a reunion with a long lost relative.  As I took in the details it occurred to me that more than forty years had left so much unchanged.  The corner stone read “1914.”  The building was almost one hundred years old.  I was baptized there near its mid-century period.  I ran my hand along the railing that I could barely reach as a child.

Meanwhile, I was helping my wife juggle two-year-old twins and trying not to disrupt the Mass.  I had to carry my daughter to the back of the church to settle her down.  I paced back and forth while she gradually fell asleep.  Then I noticed the statue of St. Clare off to the side.  I gazed at her for a while and my eyes were drawn to the focal point of the monstrance she was holding.  When the priest lifted up the Holy Eucharist, it really hit me.  All those years that statue had been standing there holding that monstrance.  I had left, but she had not.  Yet, it was only a fraction of the time that Christ had been steadfastly present in the tabernacle of that church and in every Catholic Church for two thousand years.  He stayed with us, like He stayed with the travelers on the road to Emmaus, present in the Blessed Sacrament.

Jesus said to my heart, “You were baptized here, Thomas.  This is where you became my own.  When you left My Church, I awaited your return with open arms.  I have always been here for you, even when you didn’t care.  Though you may leave me, I will never leave you nor forsake you.  I love you, and I am happy you finally came home to Me.”  Then, I felt the warmth of my daughter asleep in my arms, and I knew the same promise was for her and her brother.  “I will not leave you orphans.  I am with you until the end of the age.”

Spiritual But Not Religious (No Longer)

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Why do so many people say that they are “spiritual but not religious?”  Usually it has something to do with some degree of disenchantment with organized religion.  I can’t speak for everyone, but I know why I used to say it.  For me it was a way of avoiding the grunt-work of searching for truth.  It was a non-committal, relativistic place to sit on the fence and make no real decision.  It was almost an agnostic perspective.  Since I wasn’t sure what to decide, I would make no clear decision and just be “spiritual.”

I also believed it was a way for me to be non-judgmental of others.  Choosing any particular path would mean rejecting other paths.  I would have to admit that not all paths are equal.  Calling myself “spiritual but not religious” allowed me to be “broad” instead of “narrow.”  I would not have to confront the idea that, just maybe, someone was wrong.  That didn’t seem “nice” to me.  Who was I to say someone might be wrong about the path they were on?  I didn’t want to risk the arrogance of claiming to be correct.  “Religious” meant, “My path is the correct path” and “spiritual” meant, “All paths are correct.”  I wanted to be inclusive and avoid judging others.  I ran into problems, however.  For example, it simply is not possible for both monotheism and polytheism to be true.  But I had not yet allowed myself to confront such realities.  I had not come to realize that judging a path is not the same as judging the person on the path.

One principle I failed to grasp was invincible ignorance.  I was not considering that one could possibly be “wrong” about a religious path yet still gain eternal life.  Not until I returned to Catholicism did this principle hit home to me.  I had been steeped in a Fundamentalist Christian perspective that emphatically denied Heaven to people that had never even had an opportunity to hear about Jesus.  “Too bad,” they would say.  “No missionary reached them in time.”  Such thinking helped fuel my desire to distance myself from “religion” and just be “spiritual.”  In my own way, I was trying to give those poor, un-evangelized souls a fighting chance.  “Surely, they too are spiritual, whatever their religion might be,” I thought.  I didn’t realize that the Catholic religion I had been raised in and rejected was also giving them a chance.  This same principle (among others) would also help me when it came time to decide which brand of Christianity to commit to.  Again, I had to admit that not all Christians can be correct while teaching opposing doctrines.

It also took me a while to realize that, while most religions are about humanity’s search for God and/or eternal life, the Christian path is about God coming down to seek out humanity and offer eternal life.  This is a stark contrast.  It certainly does not place all religions on equal footing.  There were other choices to consider as well.  For example, if I decided on monotheism, would I become a slave to a harsh Master/Owner (Islam’s Allah) or a son to a loving Father (Christianity’s, Abba, “Daddy”)?

Being “spiritual but not religious” also turned me into the ultimate religious authority.  I could pick and choose which things seemed best and fashion my own eclectic “religion” out of all the parts.  I became the Pope, the priest, the minister and the congregation of my own little “church of Tom.”  It didn’t matter if I got any of it wrong or misinterpreted the Bible because I was being spiritual and, as far as I could tell, it worked for me.  So, Tom created God in his own image.  It was upside down.  I could pretend that it was all about love of humanity, tolerance and acceptance, but it was really about me and what I wanted (mostly comfort).  Ironically, I was just being religious in my own, private way while saying I was “not religious.”

The more I realized that I didn’t have to climb up to find God, but that God had condescended to find me, the more I fell in love with Christianity.  When I really delved into Catholic teachings I began to realize that abusive priests, atrocities of crusaders, inquisitions, etc. were about bad Catholics, not about Catholicism.  The more I learned about the Catholic blending of faith and reason, the beauty of the Catholic religion and the lives of the Saints, the more I wanted to be spiritual AND religious.  The more I understood about the history of Christianity and the different doctrines, the more I wanted to be a Catholic Christian.

Being “spiritual but not religious” was part of my journey, but not my destination.  My journey continues as a spiritual, religious Catholic Christian.  I’m still learning.  I don’t know everything.  No one does, except God.  I do know that I am not God, and neither are you.  We should all be glad about that!  The church of Tom has disbanded.  I have discovered that truth is not an idea but a person, Jesus Christ.  I have submitted to the obedience of faith, the religion of the God that is a loving Father, and the original Church founded by Jesus Christ.  I now call myself “spiritual and religious,” yet, I judge no one (that’s God’s job).

 

(A shout out to my buddy, Steve for partly inspiring this post)

Let Me Entertain You

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A few years ago a new church opened in my town.  I watched with interest as they converted an empty Walmart store into a church building.  They knocked a hole in one of the walls and installed a drive-through window for serving coffee.  They even had a catchy label above the window, but I can’t recall the exact words they used.  I think it was “Java for Jesus” or something like that.  One day, as I drove by the place, I noticed a new sign had been installed by the road and I had to do a double-take.  For a few seconds I thought I was looking at a sign for a new “gentlemen’s club.”  Then I realized it was the sign for the new church.

Well, I had to give them credit for at least trying to draw people to church.  The whole thing certainly got my attention.  About a year or two went by and I noticed that there didn’t seem to be as much activity.  The drive-up window didn’t have a sign anymore.  Today I decided to take a closer look and discovered that the building is boarded up and deserted.  Apparently, the church is gone.  I had not noticed it was gone because the sign is still mounted by the main road where I usually drive by.

I wondered if the church just moved to another building.  I looked them up online to see if they had a website.  They did.  The pastor even had a blog, but when I clicked on the link the blog was gone.  The website was from 2009, so I assume the church just never took off and had to close their doors.  Judging from their website and their sign they tried very hard to market themselves.  “Church like you’ve never seen it before!” The church was “not trying to be like the church next door.”  Gimmicks and marketing techniques were generously employed in an attempt to draw a crowd.  The website claimed that church attendance was at 2000.  It also stated a goal of reaching 12,000 with the Gospel (not sure why they would want to stop at that number).

I never attended the church and I’m just an outsider looking in, but it did get me thinking.  I have heard many Catholics say that the Church needs to do more to attract people, especially younger ones.  Perhaps, to a point.  The above church that is now boarded up seemingly did a lot of things to attract people, especially younger, “edgy” people.  Now they are gone.  It takes more than modern appeal, vibrant rock style entertainment and a celebrity type preacher to attract and keep people.  Lots of people even followed Jesus around in hopes of seeing him do a miracle.  To them it was entertainment.  As soon as Jesus placed demands on them such as, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you” they were gone.

The worship of Catholicism is not about entertainment.  Nor is it about modern appeal, hip preachers or rocking music.  It is about worshiping Christ the way Christ said to worship 2000 years ago, through the Eucharist.  We live in a society that cannot seem to get enough media and entertainment.  Consequently, many churches feel they have to deliver what the people want instead of focusing on what the people need.  People need the written Word, and they need the living Word, Christ in the Eucharist.  That is how Jesus said he would feed his followers.

I’m not making fun of the above church or glorying in its demise.  I just wish they would use all that creativity and energy to help people discover the meal Christ has prepared for them.  I wish they understood the Eucharist.  I want our separated Christian brothers and sisters to come home and stop trying so hard to reinvent what Jesus has already established.

The Catholic Church has nothing against glorifying God through media.  The cathedrals, paintings, sculptures and music from the past centuries illustrate the importance of appealing to the senses to inspire awe and wonder for God.  The difference is that no matter how grand or how small an individual Catholic Church may be, the meal is the same.  The meal is what sustains the Church.  It cannot be improved upon.  Anyone, young or old, that is bored with the Catholic Mass simply does not understand it.  The meal is Christ himself.  Without the Eucharist, there would be no Church.

Are you following Jesus around hoping for some entertainment?  Or do you yearn for The Bread of Life?  One is fleeting and the other eternal.

In Praise of Watermelon Seeds

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One of my favorite seasonal foods is watermelon.  I have lots of boyhood memories of Summer fun eating watermelon.  For a while, we had been purchasing the seedless variety.  It’s nice to cut one open and dig right in without worrying about picking around or spitting out the seeds.  There was only one problem.  It didn’t taste as good.  My wife, not being a big watermelon fan, didn’t notice much.

At first, I thought we were just bad at choosing good watermelons.  After a while, I began to get suspicious.  Yesterday I was at the grocery store and saw big boxes filled with watermelons.  I halfheartedly walked over to them thinking to myself about our track record of mediocre watermelons when I noticed a “seedless” sticker was only on some of them.  Then I saw the word “seeded” marked with a big, black Sharpie marker on the side of the box.  It suddenly became my mission to find a watermelon with seeds in the hope of reuniting my taste buds with a long, lost flavor.  I claimed a small, elongated one and headed home.

The next day after dinner I decided to cut my prize open to see how it tasted.  As I separated it in two I saw all those little black seeds in the way.  Undaunted, I maneuvered my spoon around the seeds and pulled out a red, juicy chunk and put it in my mouth.  I thought I had died and gone to Heaven!  My wife gave me one of her, “You’re goofy” looks as I made my yummy noises and joyfully announced, “This is what watermelon is supposed to taste like!”  As the sweet flavor and aroma triggered precious boyhood memories of childhood freedom and innocence, I decided then and there that dealing with the seeds was definitely worth the effort.  Spitting them out was half the fun of eating watermelon anyway, I recalled.

Today, while digging into the second half of my watermelon, a spiritual and life application occurred to me.  Making things easier does not necessarily make them better.  Every gain has a loss, and sometimes the loss is too much.  This is how we got the expression, “Throw the baby out with the bathwater.”  Maybe I’ll start saying, “Throw the flavor out with the seeds.”

I know people that left Catholicism in favor of a “simpler Gospel.”  They just wanted Jesus.  They didn’t want to deal with all the “stuff” that comes with being Catholic.  I know, because I used to be one of those people.  It took me a long time to realize what I had given up.  What I thought were just inconvenient “seeds” were actually important spiritual pieces of Christ’s authentic Church.  If those seeds are missing, the Church becomes something less than what it was intended to be.  These are not seeds to spit out, however.  These are seeds that provide growth when properly planted and nurtured.

I’m glad I rediscovered seeded watermelon, and I’m glad I rediscovered the Catholic Faith.  I’m no longer annoyed at the seeds.  They are a sign of authenticity and satisfying flavor.  Now I look for them and enjoy them.