FREEDOM!!

             Growing up and taking religion classes I had this idea that Christianity was just a list of rules. That to be a Christian was to just follow the rules…basically to take all the fun out of life. People often point to the Ten Commandments as proof of this…its just a list of don’ts, don’t do that don’t do this, or I guess in Biblical times "Thou shall nots." I thought Christianity was something that just enslaved people to rules and codes. I’ll be the first to admit that rules without relationship just leads to rebellion, and for the longest time that was exactly the case with me. 

              However as my man GK Chesterton put it; “The truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Ten Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted: precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden.” Imagine if instead of the Ten Commandments on the tablets it was the list of things you were allowed to do. You are allowed to marry a wife and have a family, you are allowed to climb a tree, you are allowed to drink beer, and you are allowed to enjoy the company of good friends. Ridiculous right? I mean that would be a really long list! Moses would have had to make a lot of trips up and down that mountain! 

            

You see the truth is that Christ sets you free to fully enjoy life.

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

That without Christ you are the slave of sin and not free at all.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)

        Think about sin and how much of it is actually slavery, and by that I mean an addiction: Pornography, premarital sex, Alcohol, drugs, and greed. Pornography is one of the greatest plagues of our society today and so many men are addicted to it that it destroys their perception of women, of the gift of sex and just what reality is. Alcohol and drugs are also a huge problem and often an addiction that destroys marriages, families, and lives. Let's not forget about greed, that voice that is always telling you that you need better clothes or a better car or that you have to outdo your neighbor or friend. It eats at you and takes joy out of your life. None of it provides what you were hoping it would...true fulfillment and joy.

       All sin is really a distortion and undervaluing of some good. For example premarital sex and adultery is taking for granted the gift of sex and the beauty of marriage. As Chesterton put it "Keeping to one woman was a small price for so much as seeing one woman. To complain that I could only be married once was like complaining that I had only been born once. It was incommensurate with the terrible excitement of which one was talking. It showed, not an exaggerated sensibility to sex, but a curious insensibility to it. A man is a fool who complains that he cannot enter Eden by five gates at once. Polygamy is a lack of the realization of sex; it is like a man plucking five pears in mere absence of mind.

      We all think we want this freedom to do as we please and that what we decide will give us true happiness and fulfillment. However this is a wrong notion of what real freedom is. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen said; “The true concept of freedom is "Freedom is the right to do whatever we ought," and ought implies goal, purpose, morality, and the law of God. True freedom is within the law, not outside it. I am free to draw a triangle, if I give it three sides, but not, in a stroke of broad-mindedness, fifty-seven sides. I am free to fly on condition that I obey the law of aeronautics. In the spiritual realm, I am also most free when I obey the law of God.” This is the heart of the problem in our society today, this misconstrued view of where true freedom is found. It is found in Christ.

Now notice how many verses there are that speak about freedom in Christ and slavery to sin:

“Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”  (John 8:34)

Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32)

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36)

In my anguish I cried to the LORD, and He answered by setting me free. (Psalm 118:5)

 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death (Hewbrews 2: 14-15)

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17)

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

These verses are supposed to be a slap in the face that wakes us up. To make us realize that Christ offers his infinite grace and love to us in exchange for all that sin and slavery in the world.  HE SETS US FREE. That is why Jesus says to us all to take His yoke upon ourselves.

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”(Matthew

11:29)

What is a yoke? A yoke is a piece of wood that is carved and shaped so that it fits over the neck of an animal (usually an ox, horse or mule), causing the animal to carry a heavy load in tow. 

  (These guys look thrilled!) 

                                                   

           In biblical times a yoke was often referenced with some form of slavery or bondage. In life we all harness ourselves to something; a job, a relationship, possessions, success, or experiences. What are you yoked to? What is your priority in life? To yoke ourselves to anything besides Christ will just leave us burdened and weary with struggles and anxieties as well as sin. Christ knows this and thats why He says this right before asking you to take His yoke upon you; "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." St. Peter writes "cast all your anxieties on Him for he cares for you." In other words what Christ offers us, is to yoke ourselves to Him because unlike the yoke of sin His burden is light and life giving! 

But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Romans 6:17-18)

           Everyone in life has to choose who is going to be his or her authority in life. Who are they going to serve? What are they going to do with their freedom? The Truth is we all really have freedom but we all give that freedom away to something. As Archbishop Fulton sheen stated it:

“Freedom is ours really to give away because of something we love. Everyone in the world who is free wants freedom first of all as a means: he wants freedom in order to give it away. Almost everyone actually gives freedom away. Some give their freedom of thinking away to public opinion, to moods, to fashions, and to the anonymity of "they say" and thus become the willing slaves of the passing hour. Others give their freedom to alcohol and to sex, and thus experience in their lives the words of Scripture: "He who commits sin is the slave of sin." Others give up their freedom in love to another person. This is a higher form of surrender and is the sweet slavery of love of which Our Savior spoke: "My yoke is sweet and my burden light""

Why FOCUS?

I have recently decided to accept a position as a campus missionary with the organization FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students). I was extremely blessed to have several opportunities for mission programs and teaching positions at different middle schools and high schools. However the Lord made it clear that FOCUS is where I am called.

What is FOCUS? It is a Catholic program that sends teams of missionaries (usually 2 guys and 2 girls) to a university somewhere in the U.S.  The missionaries first go through 5 weeks of summer training before being assigned to a team and campus. Once on campus they lead bible studies, evangelize on campus, disciple students one on one and help the local Catholic Church and Newman center to thrive. Just over a decade since its launch, FOCUS has grown from four missionaries serving one campus to over 260 missionaries serving nearly 60 campuses in 28 states across the nation. 

But why did I choose this over other options?

Well let’s look at some facts about college:

·    85% of Catholic college students do not attend Sunday Mass

·    Binge drinking, sexual promiscuity, moral relativism and academic hostility towards the Catholic faith

·    General lack of knowledge or understanding of faith

·    Scarcity of faithful young people to lead the Church into the future

As a Catholic myself, I fell away from my faith in college, joined a fraternity and was quickly living the “frat star” lifestyle (anyone seen animal house?).  A good friend of mine once said; “When I see the alcoholism and sexual promiscuity on college campuses I don’t necessarily see the evil in it, as much as I see the desperate search for identity that is only found in Jesus Christ.” That quote describes the majority of my four years in college. Students are searching trying to find themselves and trying to find happiness. This often leads to momentary pleasures such as drinking, sex and seeking material possessions. All these things seem to fulfill this desire for true happiness and true fulfillment but all leave you empty and just seeking more of it. As CS Lewis put it;

“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.” 

Let’s face it; College is probably the most pivotal time in someone’s life. Students are experiencing true freedom for the first time; they are faced with major decisions; choosing a major or career, maybe meeting their future husband or wife. This is also the time in people’s lives where they start asking those important questions; who am I? What do I want to do with my life? What do I believe? Is Christianity really true?  The college campus is truly the battle ground for Souls.  And no one is doing a better job of fighting this battle than FOCUS.

I had the opportunity to do a yearlong mission trip abroad or to go to Peru for the summer and then teach at a Catholic high school, but decided to do FOCUS instead.  I have always had a passion for mission trips and traveling and I will have opportunities through FOCUS to fulfill those desires. However, I felt the area I could be used best and would find the greatest fulfillment in serving was on a college campus. Mother Teresa during an interview once said: “The spiritual poverty of the Western World is
much greater than the physical poverty of our people. You, in the West, have millions of people who suffer such terrible loneliness and emptiness. They feel unloved and unwanted. These people are not hungry in the physical sense, but they are in another way. They know they need something more than money, yet they don’t know what it is. What they are missing, really, is a living relationship with God.”  Mother Teresa often dealt with hundreds of people wanting to come and help her and her sisters in Calcutta India. She would have so many people requesting to come abroad and help that she often had to turn down request. She would do so by encouraging the person to “find your own Calcutta.” Basically, saying, go and find your own area in the world that desperately needs to see the face of Christ. Anyone who has ever stepped foot on a college campus knows that it is a spiritual Calcutta that desperately needs Jesus. And as Dr. Bill Bright founder of Campus Crusade said, "If we can win the university today, we will win the world tomorrow.".....Why not FOCUS.

I had the privilege to attend the 2011 FOCUS conference in Nashville Tennessee and saw the type of impact FOCUS is making. That year they hosted four regional conferences with about 2,000 college students at each. This year they will be hosting a national conference in Orlando with 6,500 college students attending. Teaser below

Why I am Catholic Part 4: Mary...My Mother

         This blog will be the last (4^th) blog about why I am a Catholic. Over the past two years I have been studying and searching for the truth in Christianity. I have been praying for Jesus to guide and direct my paths and lead me to the truth and a deep relationship with him. I was born and raised a Catholic but decided that I was not going to just be Catholic because that's how I was brought up, I need to find the truth and own it for myself. I started reading the writings of Early Christians, the reformers, Protestant apologetics, Catholic apologetics, and visiting/attending different Christian Church's. With that being said I think my search is over, I think the Catholic faith is the true Church founded by Jesus himself, and below is why.

         The great writer and Christian apologetic GK Chesterton (convert to the Catholic faith) once said "The difficulty of explaining "why I am a Catholic" is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true." I will not cover here all the beliefs and doctrine of the Catholic faith, that would take forever. But I will tackle four of the biggest issues, The Eucharist (is it symbolic or is it Christ's actual flesh and blood), the protestant belief of Sola-Scriptura (that the bible alone is our sole authority), protestant belief in Sola-fide (Faith Alone) and the Catholic Church's teaching on Mary.

 

 After studying and researching what the Catholic Church truly teaches I have come to see that Archbishop Fulton Sheen was completely correct when he said "There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be."  I saw a blog titled “Almost not Catholic” and laughed because I came very close to buying into some of the anti-catholic beliefs and propaganda and was myself “almost not Catholic.” Even more so, after reading in depth about why the Church teaches what it teaches I have realized that Sheen was also speaking truly when he said "The Catholic Church is like a lion in a cage. You don't need to defend it, you simply need to open the door." With all this being said I would like to be very clear hear, I am not trying to attack or be negative towards any Christian denominations, I am simply stating why it is that I have come to believe in the Catholic faith. I have a great respect for my brothers and sisters in Christ that are not a part of the Catholic Church. I just think there are a lot of misconstrued views of Catholicism and many people don't understand why we believe what we believe.  "There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be."
— Fulton J. Sheen"There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be."
— Fulton J. SheenI will use scripture, the writings of the first Christians, and quotes from converts to the Catholic faith to make my case. It is my prayer that this will at least allow those who are not Catholic to come to a better understanding and respect for the Catholic faith. The fourth blog is about Mary.

Start off by watching this video on the Catholic Churches teaching on Mary. It sums it up and says it in such a simple way and in such a short span of time.

(You may want to click on the Youtube button on the bottom right to enlarge it so you can read it)





What’s the deal with the Hail Mary prayer?

Well let’s break down the prayer.

The first part: “Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with you.” Is simply the Bible verse Luke 1:28.

The second part: “Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” Is simply the Bible verse Luke 1:42

The third part: “Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”  Is simply stating who Mary is, and asking her to pray for us.

As Catholics we believe in the communion of saints and that we can ask saints and Mary to pray for us, just like I could go to one of my friends and ask him or her to pray for me. This does not take away from Christ, it unites us in Christ. 

Mary says in Luke 1:14 that “For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” That’s what praying the Hail Mary does, it calls Mary blessed and fulfills this prophecy she makes in scripture.

What about Mary’s Perpetual Virginity? Doesn’t the Bible say Jesus had brothers?

I mean after all there are numerous times in the Gospels where the brothers of the Lord are mentioned…well let’s examine the facts.

The well-known Protestant linguistic reference An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, by W.E. Vine, defines Adelphos as follows:

Adelphos: denotes a brother, or near kinsman; in the plural, a community based on identity of origin or life. It is used of: 1) male children of the same parents . . . ; 2) male descendants of the same parents, Acts 7:23,26; Hebrews 7:5; 3) people of the same nationality, Acts 3:17,22; Romans 9:3 . . . ; 4) any man, a neighbour, Luke 10:29; Matthew 5:22, 7:3; 5) persons united by a common interest, Matthew 5:47; 6) persons united by a common calling, Revelation 22:9; 7) mankind, Matthew 25:40; Hebrews 2:17; 8) the disciples, and so, by implication, all believers, Matthew 28:10; John 20:17; 9) believers, apart from sex, Matthew 23:8; Acts 1:15; Romans 1:13; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; Revelation 19:10 (the word 'sisters' is used of believers, only in 1 Timothy 5:2).

John 19: 26-27

This passage, where Jesus says to John at the foot of the cross “behold your mother” also points to the fact that Mary remained a virgin. What Jesus was essentially doing here is giving his mother into the care of his beloved disciple. If Jesus had other siblings they would assume the role of taking care of the mother. Jesus was the “first born” thus after His death, the next eldest would be assigned to take care of the Mother. This is a fact of how Jewish families worked.

What did the Reformers believe about Mary’s perpetual virginity?

Martin Luther:

When Matthew [1:25] says that Joseph did not know Mary carnally until she had brought forth her son, it does not follow that he knew her subsequently; on the contrary, it means that he never did know her . . . This babble . . . is without justification . . . he has neither noticed nor paid any attention to either Scripture or the common idiom.

{Pelikan, ibid.,v.45:206,212-3 / That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew (1523) }

“Christ . . . was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides Him . . . I am inclined to agree with those who declare that 'brothers' really mean 'cousins' here, for Holy Writ and the Jews always call cousins brothers.”

{Pelikan, ibid., v.22:214-15 / Sermons on John, chaps. 1-4 (1539) }

John Calvin:

“[On Matt 1:25:] The inference he [Helvidius] drew from it was, that Mary remained a virgin no longer than till her first birth, and that afterwards she had other children by her husband . . . No just and well-grounded inference can be drawn from these words . . . as to what took place after the birth of Christ. He is called 'first-born'; but it is for the sole purpose of informing us that he was born of a virgin . . . What took place afterwards the historian does not inform us . . . No man will obstinately keep up the argument, except from an extreme fondness for disputation.”

{Pringle, ibid., vol. I, p. 107}

“Under the word 'brethren' the Hebrews include all cousins and other relations, whatever may be the degree of affinity.”

{Pringle, ibid., vol. I, p. 283 / Commentary on John, (7:3) }

Zwingli:

“I firmly believe that Mary, according to the words of the gospel as a pure Virgin brought forth for us the Son of God and in childbirth and after childbirth forever remained a pure, intact Virgin.” (Zwingli Opera, Corpus Reformatorum, Berlin, 1905, v. 1, p. 424

Heinrich Bullinger:

'The Virgin Mary . . . completely sanctified by the grace and blood of her only Son and abundantly endowed by the gift of the Holy Spirit and preferred to all . . . now lives happily with Christ in heaven and is called and remains ever-Virgin and Mother of God.'

{In Hilda Graef, Mary: A history of Doctrine and Devotion, combined ed. of vols. 1 & 2, London: Sheed & Ward, 1965, vol.2, pp.14-5

John Wesley:

“The Blessed Virgin Mary, who, as well after as when she brought him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin.”

{"Letter to a Roman Catholic" / In This Rock, Nov. 1990, p.25}

Protestants find that even the reformers themselves up held this belief.

What did the First Christians believe about Mary’s perpetual virginity?

Hilary of Poitiers: If they [the brethren of the Lord] had been Mary's sons and not those taken from Joseph's former marriage, she would never have been given over in the moment of the passion [crucifixion] to the apostle John as his mother, the Lord saying to each, "Woman, behold your son," and to John, "Behold your mother" [John 19:26-27], as he bequeathed filial love to a disciple as a consolation to the one desolate (Commentary on Matthew 1:4 [A.D. 354]).

Athanasius: "Let those, therefore, who deny that the Son is by nature from the Father and proper to his essence deny also that he took true human flesh from the ever-virgin Mary" (Discourses Against the Arians 2:70 [A.D. 360]).

Epiphanius: “We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things, both visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God . . . who for us men and for our salvation came down and took flesh, that is, was born perfectly of the holy ever-virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit” (The Man Well-Anchored 120 [A.D. 374]).

Jerome: "But as regards Victorinus, I assert what has already been proven from the gospel—that he [Victorinus] spoke of the brethren of the Lord not as being sons of Mary but brethren in the sense I have explained, that is to say, brethren in point of kinship, not by nature." (Against Helvidius: The Perpetual Virginity of Mary 19 [A.D. 383])]

St. Augustine: "It is written (Ezekiel 44, 2): ‘This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it. Because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it...’ What means this closed gate in the house of the Lord, except that Mary is to be ever inviolate? What does it mean that ‘no man shall pass through it,’ save that Joseph shall not know her? And what is this - ‘The Lord alone enters in and goeth out by it,’ except that the Holy Ghost shall impregnate her, and that the Lord of Angels shall be born of her? And what means this - ‘It shall be shut for evermore,’ but that Mary is a Virgin before His birth, a Virgin in His birth, and a Virgin after His birth."

Protestants have very little historical precedent for the belief that Mary was not ever virgin besides a handful of 4th century teachers who were generally rejected as heretics.

So what’s the deal with the rosary?

I mean ten Hail Mary’s for every Our Father prayer…seems disproportional!  I admit that Mary was a big issue for me for the longest time. And the rosary scared me a little. But that’s because I failed to recognize its purpose and how the entire prayer was centered on Christ.

The Rosary is completely centered on the life of Christ.  Depending on which day of the week or what time of year, you say one particular set of mysteries.

The five sets of mysteries are:

The Joyful Mysteries

The sorrowful mysteries

The Luminous mysteries

The glorious mysteries

In each set there are five mysteries for five decades of the rosary. I will paste the sorrowful mysteries below.

The Sorrowful Mysteries

1. The Agony in the Garden
   Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before he dies.
2. The Scourging at the Pillar
   Jesus is lashed with whips.
3. The Crowning With Thorns
   Jesus is mocked and crowned with thorns.
4. The Carrying of the Cross
   Jesus carries the cross that will be used to crucify him.
5. The Crucifixion
   Jesus is nailed to the cross and dies.

So for each decade (10 Hail Mary’s) you are meditating on one of the mysteries.  Well where does this concept of meditating on the life of Christ through the eyes of Mary come from? 

“But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” – Luke 2:19

When you pray the rosary you are simply meditation on the Life of Christ through the eyes of Mary. You are “keeping all these things, and pondering them in your heart” just as she did. 

My personal favorite way to pray it is by scripture. Basically in between each hail Mary in a decade you read a line of scripture from that mystery. This way you can actually meditate on one verse per Hail Mary from that mystery. For example, below would be the set of scripture for the 5^th sorrowful mystery, the crucifixion.

 THE CRUCIFIXION

Our Father...

1. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing. (Lk. 23:34)
    Hail Mary...

2. One of the criminals said, "Jesus, remember me You enter upon Your reign". And Jesus replied, "I say unto you; this day you will be with Me in paradise."  (Lk 23:42-43)
     Hail Mary...

3. Seeing His Mother there with the disciple whom He loved, Jesus said to His Mother, "Woman, there is your son." (Jn. 19:26)
    Hail Mary...

4. In turn, He said to the disciple, "There is your Mother."  From that hour onward, the disciple took her into his care. (Jn. 19:27)
    Hail Mary....

5. Then toward midafternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud tone, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Mt. 27:46)
    Hail Mary....

6. Jesus realizing that everything was now finished, said to fulfill the Scriptures, "I am thirsty." There was a jar there, full of common wine They stuck a sponge soaked in this wine on a stick, and raised it to His lips. (Jn. 19:28)
    Hail Mary....

7. When Jesus took the wine, He said, "Now it is finished." (Jn. 19:30)
     Hail Mary....

8. Jesus uttered a loud cry and said, "Father; into Your hands I commend My spirit". After He said this, He expired. (Lk. 23:46)
   Hail Mary....

9. Darkness came over the whole land until midafternoon with an eclipse of the sun. The curtain in the sanctuary was torn in two. (Lk. 23:44-45)
    Hail Mary....

10. They took Jesus' body, and in accordance with Jewish burial custom, bound it up in wrappings of cloth with perfumed oils. (Jn. 19:40)
   Hail Mary....

Glory be to the Father...
0 My Jesus, forgive us our sins... 

"The Rosary is a way of contemplating the face of Christ, seeing him – we may say – with the eyes of Mary." - John Paul II

Kind of like this song does.

Further Reading:

I highly recommend you read this link below. It is to the first chapter of The Worlds First Love by Archbishop Fulton Sheen. It paints an incredibly beautiful picture of Mary and her role in God's Plan.

The World's First Love

Why I am a Catholic Part 3: Salvation

This blog will be the third of four blogs about why I am a Catholic. Over the past two years I have been studying and searching for the truth in Christianity. I have been praying for Jesus to guide and direct my paths and lead me to the truth and a deep relationship with him. I was born and raised a Catholic but decided that I was not going to just be Catholic because that's how I was brought up, I need to find the truth and own it for myself. I started reading the writings of Early Christians, the reformers, Protestants apologetics, Catholic apologetics, and visiting/attending different Christian Church's. With that being said I think my search is over, I think the Catholic faith is the true Church founded by Jesus himself, and below is why.

            The great writer and Christian apologetic GK Chesterton (convert to the Catholic faith) once said "The difficulty of explaining "why I am a Catholic" is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true." I will not cover here all the beliefs and doctrine of the Catholic faith, that would take forever. But I will tackle four of the biggest issues, The Eucharist (is it symbolic or is it Christ's actual flesh and blood), the protestant belief of Sola-Scriptura (that the bible alone is our sole authority), protestant belief in Sola-fide (Faith Alone) and the Catholic Church's teaching on Mary. After studying and researching what the Catholic Church truly teaches I have come to see that Archbishop Fulton Sheen was completely correct when he said "There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be."  I saw a blog titled “Almost not Catholic” and laughed to myself because I came very close to buying into some of the anti-catholic beliefs and propaganda and was myself “almost not Catholic.” Even more so, after reading in depth about why the Church teaches what it teaches I have realized that Sheen was also speaking truly when he said "The Catholic Church is like a lion in a cage. You don't need to defend it, you simply need to open the door." With all this being said I would like to be very clear hear, I am not trying to attack or be negative towards any Christian denominations, I am simply stating why it is that I have come to believe in the Catholic faith. I have a great respect for my brothers and sisters in Christ that are not a part of the Catholic Church. I just think there are a lot of misconstrued views of Catholicism and many people don't understand why we believe what we believe.  "There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be."
— Fulton J. Sheen"There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be."
— Fulton J. SheenI will use scripture, the writings of the first Christians, and quotes from converts to the Catholic faith to make my case. It is my prayer that this will at least allow those who are not Catholic to come to a better understanding and respect for the Catholic faith. This being the third blog is about Sola-Fide, the Protestant belief that we are saved by faith alone.

Let me just get this out of the way. Catholics do not believe we are saved by works! Nowhere in the Catechism does it say a man is saved by his works. Many people mistakenly believe that Catholics teach a works based salvation. THIS IS NOT TRUE.

Catechism:

1996 Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.⁴⁶

2002 God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul only enters freely into the communion of love. God immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. The promises of "eternal life" respond, beyond all hope, to this desire.

2007 With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for we have received everything from him, our Creator.

2008 The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man's free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man's merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit.

All clear? We do not teach we are saved by works.

However, we are also not saved by "faith alone" as Martin Luther mean't it. Let me explain.

If we take a concordance and look up every occurrence of the word "faith,"  (246 times in the New Testament, NASV) we come up with the undeniable fact that; the only time the phrase "faith alone" is used in the entire Bible is when it is condemned (James 2:24).

"You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone."

That fact is pretty clear. This is why Martin Luther during the reformation threatened to rip out the book of James from the Bible because he considered it "an epistle of straw."  He also went as far as to add the word alone after faith in his German translation of the Bible in the book of Romans.

St. Paul also says in Corinthians "and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." (1 Corinthians 13: 2)

"Who will repay everyone according to his works; Eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immotality through perseverance in good works,  But wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey the truth and obey wickedness " - Romans 2:6-8

And there is this passage in Matthew Chapter 25:

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'  37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'  40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' 41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'  44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'  45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' 46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” Matthew 7: 21

 

 

So what do Catholics teach?

            We teach that we are saved by faith, by grace, through Christ alone.  I had a great conversation with a Catholic friend of mine one day and we were laughing because we are both pretty sure that if most people actually read what the Catholic Church teaches on salvation and faith and works they would say "hey that's what I believe too!?!"

The one time Calvinist and Yale graduate who converted to Catholicism had this to say about the confusion of the reformation and salvation after studying the issue: (he says it so well)

“One crucial issue remained to be resolved: Justification by Faith, the central bone of contention of the Reformation. Luther was obviously right here: the doctrine is clearly taught in Romans and Galatians. If the Catholic Church teaches "another gospel" of salvation by works, then it teaches fundamental heresy. I found here however another case of misunderstanding. I read in Aquinas' Summa on grace, and the decrees of the Council of Trent, and found them just as strong on grace as Luther or Calvin. I was overjoyed to find that the Catholic Church had read the Bible too! At Heaven's gate our entrance ticket, according to Scripture and Church dogma, is not our good works or our sincerity, but our faith, which glues us to Jesus. He saves us; we do not save ourselves. But I find, incredibly, that 9 out of 10 Catholics do not know this, the absolutely central, core, essential dogma of Christianity. Protestants are right: most Catholics do in fact believe a whole other religion. Well over 90% of students I have polled who have had 12 years of catechism classes, even Catholic high schools, say they expect to go to Heaven because they tried, or did their best, or had compassionate feelings to everyone, or were sincere. They hardly ever mention Jesus. Asked why they hope to be saved, they mention almost anything except the Savior. Who taught them? Who wrote their textbooks? These teachers have stolen from our precious children the most valuable thing in the world, the "pearl of great price;" their faith. Jesus had some rather terrifying warnings about such things something about millstones.

Catholicism taught that we are saved by faith, by grace, by Christ, however few Catholics understood this. And Protestants taught that true faith necessarily produces good works. The fundamental issue of the Reformation is an argument between the roots and the blossoms on the same flower.

But though Luther did not neglect good works, he connected them to faith by only a thin and unreliable thread: human gratitude. In response to God's great gift of salvation, which we accept by faith, we do good works out of gratitude, he taught. But gratitude is only a feeling, and dependent on the self. The Catholic connection between faith and works is a far stronger and more reliable one. I found it in C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, the best introduction to Christianity I have ever read. It is the ontological reality of we, supernatural life, sanctifying grace, God's own life in the soul, which is received by faith and then itself produces good works. God comes in one end and out the other: the very same thing that comes in by faith (the life of God) goes out as works, through our free cooperation.

I was also dissatisfied with Luther's teaching that justification was a legal fiction on God's part rather than a real event in us; that God looks on the Christian in Christ, sees only Christ's righteousness, and legally counts or imputes Christ's righteousness as ours. I thought it had to be as Catholicism says, that God actually imparts Christ to us, in baptism and through faith (these two are usually together in the New Testament)." ( Kreeft) 

So, basically this is the way Catholics view salvation and the role works: (this is also the quote from Mere Christianity that Peter Kreeft was talking about above)

“[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” - C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

       We are not working to earn heaven; we are working because the first gleam of heaven is already inside us. We do not believe that salvation is a legal contract between man and God but that it is an ongoing event in ones soul and that we actually receive Christ and his grace transforms us here in this life and allows us to grow towards Him.   

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me" - Galatains 2:20 

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." - 2 Corinithians 5:17       

I think the big difference is that as a Catholic we believe that faith is not just a synonym for belief. As James states in his letter "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder" (James 2:19). Think about it like this; "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love."(Galatians 5:6)

Further Reading:

This link does an excellent job of explaining the Catholic teaching on Justification and Grace.
http://www.catholic.com/tracts/grace-what-it-is-and-what-it-does

Citations:

Below is the article by Peter Kreeft that I cited. If you have time, its well worth the read.

Hauled Aboard the Ark - Peter Kreeft