A Bug on the Windshield of Truth
I hear variations of this story all of the time at the Catholic Spitfire Grill. Someone has researched the Catholic Church. They have studied and prayed and agonized. Often they have endured mockery, and the rejection of both family and friends to embrace the Fullness of Faith as held by the Catholic Church. They take the difficult step to leave their church and join RCIA at their local parish and then.... They are taught that the Church's teaching on artifical contraception isn't really necessary. Or that God is a woman. Or that the Bible is nothing more than just stories. Or that if you think a Jesus is a turtle and worship that turtle that is God to you. (no really, that's true. I couldn't make that up if I tried.) I have a friend who was told that her RCIA class "was not the time or place to be asking questions"! And suddenly, these people who have already taken up their cross and counted the cost to follow Jesus are wondering if the Church that they studied about is the one represented in their RCIA class! It came up again today and all I could offer other than the usual action of prayer and some perspective.
I recently had an exchange on my blog...in the 'comments' section...about priestly celibacy. I had posted about priestly celibacy and remarked that it seemed to me that the people complaining about priestly celibacy the most were those upon whom it wasn't imposed. I had someone who came by the blog to tell me that she had read some polls or something that said that priests did want to see men who were married become priests.
I recently had an exchange on my blog...in the 'comments' section...about priestly celibacy. I had posted about priestly celibacy and remarked that it seemed to me that the people complaining about priestly celibacy the most were those upon whom it wasn't imposed. I had someone who came by the blog to tell me that she had read some polls or something that said that priests did want to see men who were married become priests.
Ignoring the idea that one should govern the church by means of polls and popular opinion....here you may picture with my eyes rolled WAY back into my head chanting G.K. Chesterton "We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong"....
I responded that a poll taken in the Unites States was hardly a reflection of the One Holy and Apostolic Church. She responded with more polls from other western nations and I declined to continue the conversation because I just didn't think she was listening. But let me explain here what I meant and what she missed. To be Catholic means to enter into One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. You are as much in unity with the first Century Christians and you are with those in the 3rd and 4th centuries, and the Christians who converted in India, and Ireland, and the Americas at ALL times and ALL places. That is the Church. Too often we lose sight of that. It isn't our little parish.
And it is the teaching of THAT Church that we embrace as Catholics. It is the teaching of St. Jerome, St. Athanasius, St. Augustine, and the councils of Hippo, and Carthage, and Nicea and more UNITED across time and space and into eternity that contains the Fullness of the Faith.
Yes there are people armed with pea-shooters against the Fullness of Faith. Yes, it is frustrating. But even if what is going on in your parish seems to be winning in a temporal sense, step back and meditate on the bigger picture because in the grand scheme of things they are no more irritating than bugs on the windshield of truth.
<------I couldn't find one being done in by a windshield.
Click here to vote for this blog:
Kelly
http://catholicponderings.blogspot.com/ (Comment this)
(Comment this)
Within 3 weeks, we had been told;
a. Jesus wasn't God, Jesus wasn't man, Jesus was just Jesus.
b. Catholics don't believe in Angels, that's just something left over from the Greeks.
Responding to my request to affirm his teaching in the Catechism, our "former seminarian" instructor on all things Catholic, slung the tome across the table, yelling that it was "just a bunch of rules and regulations."
But God works in mysterious ways...and despite the best efforts of our "Call to Action" RCIA instructor, many in the class saw through his heresies and simply went around him and on into the Church. I guess after all they went through on their journey to the Church, they weren't going to let a bug on the windshield stop them now!
God bless them and all candidates this Lenten season. (Comment this)