It is a BLESSING to be Catholic! What a joy and gift from God when we really begin to enter into a deeper understanding of the Church and her teachings. So here I have put together a list of 7 reasons why I love being Catholic!
First, real quick. I have heard the question asked to Catholics, "Are you Christian?" Sometimes Catholics respond, "No, I'm Catholic."
Ah! What a mistake and misunderstanding! Catholics - we ARE Christians! We were the FIRST Christians! St. Ignatius of Antioch was one of the direct successors of the Apostles and reigned as the bishop of Syria from 75-110 A.D. He wrote a letter to the Smryneans and stated, "Wherever the bishop appears let the congregation be present; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church." Catholic is not meant to be "denomination" of Christianity; it became the name the Christians themselves began to use because the faith in the early centuries began to spread rapidly, universally, just as Christ had commanded. All Catholic means is "universal." This is the universal faith of all Christians. The catholic faith. There is further evidence in the writings and letters of the early Christians that attest to this.
Ok...back to the list of the 7 reasons why being Catholic is awesome:
1. We have the Eucharist! (My favorite part of being Catholic, for sure!). We dont' believe that the white host, that white piece of bread that we receive for Holy Communion is just a symbol of Christ. It actually IS! We are so blessed to received His Body and Blood when we approach Holy Communion! The God of the universe humbles Himself to unite Himself with us in a very real way. This is not a symbol! (I guess I'll have to elaborate more in another blog post because I could go on to explain this).
2. We have a mother, the mother of Jesus! Our Lord wants us to love her just like He does. She's not a detached entity that "merely" housed our Lord in the womb and raised Him in some kind of detached way...to be forgotten. Jesus and Mary have a very tender relationship with each other, as you could imagine the relationship between a mother and her son should be. Mary uttered the words in Sacred Scripture: "All generations will called me blessed" (Luke 1:48) So if this was a prophecy in Scripture, and we know the Bible is the Word of God and true, then this HAD to have come true. Well...down through the centuries the Catholic Church has retained a honor to the Mother of Jesus that no other Christian denomination really does. SHE RAISED OUR LORD AND SAVIOR! How thankful we are to God for her!
3. We have the promised teaching authority to guide us in understanding the truth. Basically, when it comes to areas of faith and morality, as Catholics, we need to know that the Catholic Church does not err. To put it simply, before there was the Bible, there was the Catholic Church. I'll use an example of why we need the Church: In the early centuries the Christians began arguing over the divinity of Jesus Christ. Was he really God? Was he a human that had godly powers? Basically, there was a heresy called Arianism that began to spread in the Church by a man named Arius. This happened after Constantine recognized the Church in 313 A.D. Up until this heresy began to spread, Christians had accepted that Jesus was God without question. However Satan is always looking to divide. So at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. the Church definitely defined that Jesus Christ is God and whoever denied this was in heresy and their salvation in danger. There was no Bible compiled yet though. How could this be done? Because we as Catholics believe in Tradition - the teaching authority that is passed down not only through written form (Scripture) but orally as well. Look, we need someone to help us also understand the correct interpretation of Scripture. And as much as you hear people of other denominations say they don't believe Jesus left a "hierarchial Church" in terms of a teaching authority, their own little church still has a heirarchy to help their congregation understand the meaning of Scripture. So if someone who belonged to a Methodist church began to talk about how Jesus is not God, or some other thing against which Methodists believe, their leaders in the church are going to have to come together in an organized form to counsel this person, correct them, and help correct their congregation through which that error may have spread. ALL churches have a form of "governance" to maintain order. The only difference as Catholics is that ours is Divinely inspired with the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. We don't believe in Sola Scriptura (Bible Alone) because the Bible itself is interpreted in thousands of different ways....so which one is true and contains the fullest and most perfect understanding of how to live as a true disciple of Christ? This is the Catholic Church. We are blessed!
4. We have a family in heaven - the saints! The stories of the saints are so cool and inspiring. I love how they give concrete examples of how they lived out the Gospel. We have a rich heritage of the examples of the saints down through the centuries that we can look at to show us concrete ways of living out our Faith.
5. Centuries and centuries of sacred art, sacred music, writings and wisdom that just can't be found anywhere else. These all help to expand our knowledge and understanding of God's ways.
6. We are found in every corner of the world and have a richness of cultures & nationalities yet maintain perfect unity in professing "one Lord, one faith, one baptism." (Ephesians 4:5)
7. It is true. The fullness of truth about the puporse & meaning of life (faith) as well as how to live it (morality) is found and contained within the Catholic Church. We are made up of sinners and although we are imperfect, the Church's teachings ARE perfect because they are from Christ and divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit who was given to the Church to "...guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming." (John 16:13).
Being Catholic is awesome!
Go ask questions! Delve deeper! Most importantly, please ask someone who is devoutly living out their Catholic faith. If I wanted to know more about how to perform an oral surgery, I'd ask an oral surgeon, not an electrician. I'd ask someone knowlegeable in that field and in performing in it. Same with the Catholic faith! Many people who have questions make the mistake of asking "ex-Catholics," Catholics who don't really practice their faith, or non-Catholic pastors. Unfortuantely, these people do not really know what we believe, or if they do, it is a largely skewed misunderstanding or misconception.
I challenge you to pick up a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to learn more about what you believe and why. Go to the index in the back and pick from any subject/topic you want and read on!
Here's an online link of it: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM
God bless!