In this nasty, godless, secular, anti-Christian world in which we live, I am amazed at one thing that everybody, regardless of race, color, or creed, have in common: hatred of the Catholic Church!!!
Jehovah’s Witnesses hate her. Mormons hate her. The media hate her. Atheists hate her. Muslims hate her. “Evangelical” Fundamentalist Protestants hate her.
Satanists of course hate her. They hate her more than they do other Christians. So much so, that their “Black Mass” is a total mockery of the Catholic Mass. Satanists have for centuries broken into the tabernacles of Catholic Church altars in order to steal the Communion hosts, in order to defile them in rebellion to Jesus Christ. For the Catholic Church teaches, as the Bible and Church fathers teach, that that is truly the flesh of Jesus Christ. Hmmmm…..
I find it interesting that all these opposing, diverse factions seem to loathe the Catholic Church with equal zeal and fervor. Very fascinating how even those who call themselves Christian are steadily trying to debunk her teachings, and draw her members away into their countless, bickering denominations.
It appears the whole world hates the Catholic Church!!!
Jesus told his disciples: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19).
In light of this evidence, it became clearer and clearer to me that the Catholic Church MUST be the TRUE Church of God, established by Jesus, and preserved by the Holy Spirit. But in my journey of faith, I discovered greater proof of this not only in seeing the Holy Spirit at work within the Catholic Church throughout the ages, but also seeing how the Holy Scripture validates each one of those “outrageous claims” she makes about herself.
However, this is only one-billionth of a fraction of the TRUE reason I am Catholic. For my faith is something very dear to me, something so precious… a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ which cannot be fully explained in human words.
I am 29 years old (born November 5, 1973), have lived almost everywhere but I currently reside in New York City (for 4 years now). I have also lived and studied all over Europe.
I grew up in a devout Catholic family. It’s funny but whenever I bring this up, I must say that my parents raised me right. Why? Because they did not force me to believe anything. They did make me go to C.C.D., go to church on Sundays and all, but I know many people (Protestant and Catholic) who have come to resent having their families shove religion down their throats. But not mine. I was expected to be a good Catholic boy but there was just the right amount of liberty in there (also, not to mention the fact that my parents respected me, just as they expected that I respect them… very biblical principles reiterated in Ephesians 6 and 2 Timothy!) where I was free to “leave” the Faith if I so chose. But I didn’t. God called me to follow Him. Jesus became the central focus of my life at a very young age.
My first images of Christianity were found in the gorgeous artwork of my local parish. The statues, the paintings, the stained glass windows, nuns and priests in attire that I was not used to seeing other people wear… and especially the image of Our Lord dying on the Cross. Too young to understand everything, because I was only 2, I did know even then that there was a God out there who loved me and Jesus was His Son who died for me! I was beginning to enter the family of God as a child would, because indeed I was one! No need to doubt or worry! Just as Jesus told his Apostles one should enter the kingdom of Heaven.
But it was at age three when I had my “conversion” and my first personal encounter with God. My father was intent on teaching me how to pray, and telling me about God. He gave me a beautiful wooden crucifix which we put up above my bedroom door.
We prayed together one night the Lord’s Prayer and that is when the Holy Spirit truly seized me. It felt right. It was beautiful. I was communing directly with God! I was “hooked.” So every night like this before bedtime I would pray with my dad. Then we would take down the crucifix from above my door and I’d “kiss Jesus good night.”
My path continued throughout school as such, going to catechism classes, attending Church, but most importantly, growing in my studies of the Scriptures (especially the Gospels) and PRAYER!!!
It wasn’t until I went to university that I met real opposition for my faith. Not only from non-Christians (mainly atheists) but so-called Christians who denounced the Catholic Church as the “harlot of Babylon” and all those things. I really wasn’t sure how to react. How can a kingdom divided against itself stand? A Church like the Catholic Church, so firmly rooted in the Scriptures, Apostolic Tradition, and preserved by the Holy Spirit never seemed to me to be preaching anything contrary to the Gospel! Sure there will always be bad people among her ranks, but the Church is composed of sinners. I cannot put my trust in mere men, only in God! I was troubled and had trouble answering a lot of attacks because I’d never heard them before (and it's hard to defend yourself against a claim about your beliefs which is not even representing your beliefs!). Luckily I had not only good teachers and clergy who’d given me great instruction in the Bible and Church history, not to mention a very close bond with God through PRAYER – something I have continued to cultivate from childhood into adulthood. Ultimately lies cannot stand in the light of God, and from that moment forth I began to find a “mission” in my life: to obey the Lord’s call to unity by trying to unite all Christians in Spirit.
What really got me on-fire for apologetics was when an anti-Catholic teen (former Catholic, turned "Bible-believing" Christian -- though not "Bible-applying/practicing") sent me anti-Catholic literature, and in response I wrote her a 15-page rebuttal to every false point she'd sent me. It was more proof that there was something sinister in the movements against the Church.
It isn't an easy task to seek unity among Christians, when people claiming to be Christian disobey the Lord’s commands and ignore key elements of the Bible (picking out a few verses, rejecting others, and fashioning from that a theology!), the book they declare the only rule of their faith.
As years passed, I noticed that God was using me as an instrument through which to work out His plan in the lives of other people. May I not sound arrogant to suggest this (but as it is written, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” - Jer. 9:24), but the Lord has blessed me with a gift to reach into the hearts of men and women, and open them up to His grace. On several occasions, I have met people from all walks of life, who have met me and opened up to me, and sought counsel and spiritual advice from me, even though they hardly knew me. Strangely enough (oh, but what a joy it is to have the name of the Lord glorified through His own works within me!), the Lord would put upon my lips the right words to say, the wisdom I was lacking in my own simple, human mind, and the compassion to teach, counsel, guide, and enlighten.
Not only does the Catholic Church consider the whole Bible when discussing theology, we go through the whole Bible in 3-years time, unlike non-liturgical services which tend to ignore great portions of it.
Everything is coherent, complete, logical, and doesn't take "twisting" verses to support a point. We take the Bible very literally and seriously.
I used to think that church was "secondary" and in a sense it is, to one's personal relationship to Christ. Still, we are called to be the BODY of Christ, not lone-ranger Christians. I have come to a great love of the Church and the Lord touches me in many ways in the Mass, in the Eucharist, and through the whole body of believers.
