my own personal first exposure to the Catholic church was when i was an infant and a priest sprinkled holy water on my little baby head. both my parents had gone to Catholic high schools, and my dad decided to continue on being a "good Catholic" by going to mass on Easter and Christmas. my mom decided she had said enough "hail mary"s for one lifetime, and ended up in a Presbyterian congregation.
when i got old enough to decide for myself where i wanted to go (or if i wanted to go at all), i basically started going with friends. the only visits i made during those years to the Catholic church was for my grandfather's funeral and to mass once or twice to keep my dad company. it was actually in the cemetery behind St. Mary's Catholic Church as i gazed upon my (then) last name carved on a gravestone, that i realized my mortality and finally fully appreciated what Jesus had done for me on the cross. it was my grandmother's name on that monument, but i saw my own - and for that, i was saved.
now, i have a very good friend who refuses to believe in God because of the Catholic church. she says that if God requires us to jump through that many hoops and confess our sins to another mortal man in order for Him to hear them, then she doesn't want to have anything to do with that God. she says that even with all the hoop-jumping and sin-confessing, there's no guarantee that you'll get a ticket to heaven. in fact, she gets the feeling that you're pretty much going to h-e-"double hockey sticks" no matter how good you live, how often you confess or how many marys you hail. yes, she was forced to go to Catholic church and school growing up. now...she considers herself a "seeker." she's currently reading up on Buddhism.
every once in a while, we'll get into the spirituality discussion. i have to test the waters when this happens. sometimes, she is open to hearing what i believe and other times she just wants to tell me about the latest thing she's learned about. needless to say, i have gained a fair amount of knowledge about different pathways to spirituality from her. i'll never forget the one time she sat quietly while i explained Christianity as i understood it - no hoops, no hailing, no confessing to other people. just a one-way ticket to heaven, no questions asked. she thanked me for explaining it to her and went on with her search. Buddha and Jesus taught a lot of the same things. maybe she'll be back.
anyway, she's just one of many who either completely reject other denominations as unacceptable because they're not rooted deep in tradition or completely reject the Godhead as characterized by the Catholic church because He seems so insatiable and mean. those that i know personally that remain in the diocese are constantly filled with guilt and second-guess many of the things they think and do. will this send me to hell? i better confess this!
so, what do you think? any members of the Catholic church out there want to give me an insider's opinion?
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3 comments:
This is a subject too deep for mere blog responses, but the truth is, the trail of Christianity has gone through many transformations.
I tend to believe we are linked to God and salvation personally, and not through the formal mechanism of the Holy Catholic Church, yet without that human organization, would the knowledge have passed to us?
Yet grape juice is just grape juice.
It is symbolic. And no man can claim to arbitrate God's will upon me. Just my own understanding or lack thereof.
If any person of any faith were to read the Bible just as it is they would know the message of salvation. The Bible has moral stories, instruction, and yes, even discrepancies (especially between old and new Testaments) but the message of salvation is the same, and it is CLEAR. You will not be in heaven for being "good"..or for confessing, or saying the right number of Hail Mary's.
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
Ephesians 2:8,9
There is nothing you can do or not do to get yourself in or out of heaven, except believe and accept. If salvation was based on works then the thief on the cross wouldn't have had a chance. He didn't have an opportunity to do anything good, as he was saved while dying on the cross next to Jesus..and yet Jesus told him he would be in paradise with Him that day.
I spoke to a Catholic friend the other day and was really surprised that she had no idea what the rapture was. Sad...and scary.
Just plant the seeds Tigger, and let God do the rest. Let your life be your witness.
You need to trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and just repent of your sins. Then you will not quote folks like Marianne Williamson anymore because you'll recognize how New Age and off the mark she really is. We are all like sheep who have gone astray, and the Catholic Church cannot save anyone.
Jesus. You only need Jesus.
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