Find the Daily Mass Readings and find Catholic News, Reflections, Prayer Intentions, and More at CatholicPage.net!
June 2010 - "Why Be Catholic?" by Patrick Madrid
Summary
Patrick Madrid is a cradle-Catholic from southern California who has been doing Catholic apologetics for many years. We need to see how other people see the Church so that we can show them what it really is. After all, many things in the Church look strange to non-Catholics. Some non-Catholics think, quoting Exodus 20, that Catholic worship statues and thus commit idolatry. Some think that we are going against Scripture by calling priests Father seemingly in contradiction with Matthew 23:9 (“Call no man on earth your father.”).
We need to find the answers to these kinds of questions that are out there. Sometimes being challenged in our faith by non-Catholics forces us to learn more about our faith and thus we get more involved with our faith and trust in God and the Catholic Church. We need to know why we believe what we believe.
As Catholics we believe in both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Tradition is what helps us know what the words in Scripture mean. In Exodus 20 God tells us not to create graven images and worship them but in Exodus 25, just 5 chapters later, God tells Moses to create graven images of angels and put them on the Ark of the Covenant. There are many other times in Scripture that God tells His people to create statues. This information should help anyone who thinks Catholics worship statues to start seeing things in a different light. We have religious figures as reminders of the saints similar to having pictures of our families.
The first reason Patrick Madrid is a Catholic is because he is completely satisfied that the Catholic Church is the Church established by Christ. There are many churches and groups that make this claim, however. So many churches claim to be based on Scripture but they disagree with each other on how to interpret Scripture and thus have different doctrines. Despite the scandals and bad people in the Church, he found it undeniable that the Church is what it claims to be – the Church established by Jesus. We can look at the historical angle to convince people of this. There are a series of clues in Scripture, the first in Matthew 5, portraying the visibility of the Church (“the light of the world”). The second clue is in Matthew 16 where Jesus establishes His Church; it’s not somebody else’s Church, it’s the Lord’s Church. The third clue is in Matthew 28 where Jesus instructs His apostles to baptize all and sends them with all the authority He has been sent with (see Luke 10:16 – “He who hears you hears me”). So this is a Church with all the authority of Christ to the whole world (a “universal” Church) that teaches the world what Jesus Himself taught them and that Jesus will be with until the end of time. 500 years ago, the Catholic Church was visible with the pope and bishops and its teachings although there were scandals and other bad things going on in the Church. However, Protestantism, at this point, simply did not exist. Patrick is Catholic because no other Church can make the claim that they are the Church established by Christ.
The second reason Patrick is Catholic is he believes what the Church teaches is true. The best Protestant arguments against Catholic teachings fall apart against history and facts about the Church’s teachings. The truth of the Catholic faith is powerful; it is like a lion – it defends itself by its own truths. The claims, however outrageous they may seem, can be backed up and fit with all of the other teachings of the Church.
The third reason Patrick is Catholic is because of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the communion of saints. The Church teaches the truth when it is convenient and inconvenient. For example, prior to 1930 all non-Catholic Christian churches agreed with the Church that contraception is a sin. Since then, other churches have changed their minds but the Catholic Church has been consistent even with the unpopular issues even when they are inconvenient.
Another reason Patrick is Catholic is because of the papacy, the rock on which the Church is built. The house built on rock withstands the rain and winds and storms. It is no coincidence that Jesus said He will build His Church “on this rock,” the rock of the papacy.
Another reason is the Holy Eucharist. Jesus Christ is truly present in the Holy Eucharist. We wouldn’t believe this, or even know about it, if it were not for the faithful martyrs over the centuries to preserve the Catholic faith. Think of the Eucharistic miracles.
It is so important that people hear this information. Learn your faith because we need people to learn the truth of the Catholic Church and to come home.
Scripture Readings
- Exodus 20, 25
- Matthew 5, 16:16-18, 23:9, 28:19
- Luke 10:16
- John 6
- 1 Timothy 3:15
Discussion/Study Questions
- In Exodus 20, God tells Moses “You shall not make yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above”. Why does the Catholic Church allow statues and their veneration?
- Matthew 23:9 instructs us to call no man on earth our father. Why, then, do we call our priests Father? (Note: The answer to this question is not explicitly in this talk, you’ll have to research it elsewhere but don’t worry – it’s easy to find!)
- Make a case that the Catholic Church is the Church established by Christ using Scripture, Tradition, history, and human reason.
- Give one example of how the Catholic Church teaches consistently and does not give in to the pressures of the cultures but holds to the truth.
- Discuss or reflect on the implications of the Church authority in 1 Timothy 3:15.
Memorization
- Matthew 16:17
- Matthew 28:19
- Exodus 25:18
- 1 Tim 3:15
Last Month’s Memorization
- n/a
Living Your Faith
- How did you put into practice what you learned from last month’s CD?
- What did this CD present that you can apply to your life this month?
- With whom can you share this CD or to whom will you give this CD that will benefit from hearing it?
