Category: Catholicism

Quick Apology: Losing Authority

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Today’s “Quick Apology” comes from a conversation a friend of mine recently had with a Reformed Protestant. It’s actually a bit of a long response for a “Quick” apology, but oh well…

Objection

“I’ll concede that the case for the historical church being the Catholic church is very strong. However, the chosen people (the Israelites) were consistently disobeying God throughout history and eventually ended up crucifying Christ. Throughout history the chosen people abandoned God. What makes you think that the Catholic Church hasn’t done this or won’t do this?”

Response

Here, the Protestant is admitting to many of the claims of the Catholic Church, but appears to be challenging the Church’s continued status as Christ’s Church, as well as calling into question her continued authority.

It must first obviously be admitted that sinners are found in the Catholic Church. After all, why else do you think I’m allowed membership?!. However, a few points should be made…

Old Testament

Israel certainly sinned over the course of Salvation History. However, would it mean that because of this, it would be better for a Jew or Gentile to abandon God’s people and “go it alone”? Of course not! If one left Judaism, thinking that this couldn’t possibly be the true religion due to the hypocrisy of some of their rulers and many its followers, then one would be making a huge mistake!

As Saint Paul said, “…to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs“ (Romans 9:4-5). The Lord had given to Israel many wonderful gifts for the sake of salvation. It would be crazy to reject these gifts and walk away!

However, we actually have an example in the Old Testament of when some members of Israel did just that. After King Solomon’s death, his son ascended to the throne (1 Kings 12) who was a complete tyrant. The northern tribes refused to follow him and this resulted in the division of the Kingdom: the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judea in the south. This separatist movement received the condemnation of the prophets. Not only had they abandoned their rightful king, they had cut themselves off from the priesthood, the Temple and the sacrifices.

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What does it mean “to pray to a Saint”?

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This blog post is meant as a supplement to my earlier earlier posts on the subject of Saintly intercession (read here and here)…

all_saints

One issue we have in Catholic-Protestant dialogue concerning the Saints is the language we use. You will often hear Catholics talking about “praying to Saints”. However, it is important to point out that what we really mean is that we’re asking the Saints to pray for us.

What’s in a name?

Part of the problem is the use of the verb “to pray”. It can mean two different things, depending on context. The word itself comes into English from the Latin word “precari”, which means “obtained by entreaty”. To pray, therefore, means to ask for something.

This is aptly demonstrated in my favorite Shakespeare play, A Much Ado About Nothing (Act 2, Scene 3):

BENEDICK: An he had been a dog that should have howled thus, they would have hanged him: and I pray God his bad voice bode no mischief…

DON PEDRO: Yea, marry, dost thou hear, Balthasar? I pray thee, get us some excellent music…

Here you see both uses of the word “pray”. In the first, Benedick petitions God, and in the second, Don Pedro asks Balthasar for music. In the former, a request is made to God, in the latter, to man.

A better dialogue

While I think that pointing out this distinction goes a long way to further Catholic-Protestant dialogue, I think that Catholics should go the extra mile and be careful with the way they speak around Protestants, so as to communicate the Catholic Faith as clearly as possible.

When talking with Protestants about praying to Saints, it might be worth spelling out exactly what you mean, saying explicitly that you’re asking the Saints for their intercession before the throne of God. Rather than talking about “Praying to the Saints”, you might speak about “Praying with the Saints”. Most Protestants are used to talking about praying with friends, so when expressed in these terms, the Catholic devotion will seem less alien and more accessible.

All you angels and saints, pray for us.

Mark: a study in fours

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At the moment in Bible study, we’re currently reading through the Gospel of Mark. As I’ve been preparing for this tour through the Evangelist’s testimony, I’ve been struck again and again that, although Mark is often described as the “simplest Gospel”, Mark is by no means simplistic. The more I study, the more I realize that the construction of this work was extremely carefully planned out.

Fantastic

When we began our study, I remarked to the group that Mark has something of a penchant for the number four. We have now been studying Mark’s Gospel for a couple of months, so last week as we reviewed the material covered thus far, we spent some time highlighting some of the quintuplets we have encountered thus far. In today’s post, I would like to list the collections we found…

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Symbolism: The Cross

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A little while ago I wrote a post about the earliest known depiction of the crucixion, the Alexamenos Graffito. During the ensuing Facebook discussion, the subject of the use of the cross in Christian art and worship was raised. This reminded me that I had myself that I would do a blog series on early Christian symbolism.

I’ve written before about abbreviations such as IHS and INRI, but I would like to expand upon this by examining early Christian symbols. So with that in mind, I’ve decided to do that today, beginning with probably the best known Christian symbol, the cross.

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Irenua-Veleia, Basque (3rd Century)

It may come as a surprise to many people to find out that, in the first few centuries, the use of the cross in Christian art and worship is somewhat unclear. Some historians and archeologists see this symbol throughout the historical record, while others claim that the cross is almost completely absent.

At first glance this might seem strange. Why is there such disagreement? Over the remainder of this post we will see why…

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When The Church Was Young

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Screen Shot 2014-10-13 at 4.27.03 PM“When The Church Was Young” is the latest book from “Dr. Italy”, Marcellino D’Ambrosio.

I first came across Dr. D’Ambrosio when I was living back in England and was exposed to the Catholic Faith Exploration (CaFE) videos. His warmth and gentle presentation style made the Catholic Faith look rather attractive. During the priestly discernment of my mid-twenties, I read his book Exploring the Catholic Church which gave me a lot of light concerning my vocation during that somewhat turbulent time.

A couple of years later, I got to meet Dr. D’Ambrosio in person when I travelled to Walsingham for “New Dawn”, a charismatic Catholic family camp and retreat. Dr. D’Ambrosio was one of several speakers giving smaller talks around the campsite. I didn’t really understand the title of the talk listed in the schedule as I had no idea who the “Church Fathers” were, but having enjoyed watching him speak in the CaFE videos, I decided to go and have a listen…

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