Meditations while standing in the line to go to confession.

There are two sacraments of healing in the Catholic Church.  The sacrament of penance and reconciliation (commonly known as confession) and the sacrament of the anointing of the sick.  I was going to confess my sins to the priest and receive absolution for them.  I had been doing an examination of conscience for a few days prior to going to confession but the Lord brought another area to confess to mind while I was in line so I jotted it down on my phone's notepad with the other items on there.

Standing in line with me were my fellow penitents, men and women ranging in age from their teens to their 80s at least.  Some were kneeling and praying in the pews while they were either preparing for confession or after confessing their sins.  I think they may need to extend the confession time which is one hour on Saturdays from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm but the priests usually hear confessions until 4:50 pm, ten minutes before Saturday evening Mass starts.  The line seems to be getting longer.

The priest is there "in persona Christi", in the person of Christ, listening, responding and absolving on behalf of Jesus in accordance with Matthew 9:1-8 and John 20:19-23.  And the priest's ability and authority to do so isn't based on their worthiness and they go to confession also.  The bishops and the pope do too.

As I stood there I felt a solidarity with my fellow penitents and I felt a quiet delight to be in their company, I was in a community of fellow sinners in need of forgiveness of and healing from the sin in our lives.  And I reflected that people outside Christianity and many on the inside don't understand this facet of being a Christian.  We are sinners in recovery which is a life-long process.  And the Church is a hospital for sinners that Jesus established and it is staffed by sinners in various stages of recovery.

Many people believe that if we profess to be Christians, we are professing to be holy.  Any holiness we have comes from Jesus and He obtained it for us on our behalf.  He is in the process of healing us and making us one with Him.  So we are not hypocrites, if we confess to be sinners in need of healing and go to the source of mercy, Jesus.  We are walking in the light allowing God to reveal our sin so we can confess it and be cleansed and healed.

I am finding confession keeps my heart soft and helps me withstand temptations to sin.  It helps me combat the pride and judgmental attitudes in my heart and mind.  It helps make God's mercy and forgiveness "real" to me.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, the sinner.  The Jesus Prayer

1 Timothy 1:15  "This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost." The Apostle Paul.  NABRE

Purgatory - The final purification for all who die in God’s grace and friendship, but are still imperfectly purified.

A friend asked me about purgatory Friday so I directed her to the online Catechism starting in paragraph 1030 with these instructions on using the online Catechism.

Here is the link to the online Catechism of the Catholic Church. If you enter 1030 in the search box, it will take you right to the section on Purgatory which begins at paragraph 1030. The Catechism is extensively cross-referenced and linked so if you click on the little numbers at the end of the sentences, it will show references to other church writings and Scripture passages that touch on the contents of each sentence. The larger numbers in parentheses at the end of each paragraph will take you to related paragraphs within the Catechism.
http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church/epub/index.cfm#

I also told her that I would write some of my thoughts on purgatory in my blog.  So here goes. 

The thing I have been finding about the Catholic teachings is that they kind of get down to the brass tacks, rubber meets the road, where are you really at with God sorts of questions.  And purgatory is one of those teachings.

As a Protestant, I believed that when I died that God would take me wherever I was at and instantaneously complete the job of my conversion on the way to heaven so when I appeared before God I would be like Jesus in holiness.  At least that is the impression I got.  Bing!  Instant holiness.  He would override my remaining unholy desires and besides I would be covered by the righteousness of Christ through faith.  Well, Jesus did pay so I could have a restored relationship with God and approach Him through the righteousness of Jesus by faith in time of need.  That is very true.  But to be in heaven before God in the final state, one still has to be actually holy, pure.  Our will has to be wholly in line with His.  We have to be one with Him.  And we have to choose that.  We can't be like Lot's wife looking wistfully back as we are entering heaven.

As the Catechism puts it in Paragraph 1030, "All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven."

So purgatory is kind of God's finishing school in holiness for those of us who still have some unholy attachments to the things of this world.  Martyrs usually go straight to heaven because they chose heaven over their life in this world.

So I am okay with purgatory if I need some of that to get to heaven.  God is the one doing the purifying and I trust Him.  There are Scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 and 1 Peter 1:7 that touch on it.

And actually the purgation process has already begun on us in this life, in case you haven't noticed.

And the Catholic Church also teaches that we can help the souls in purgatory with prayers and such.  It is part of the communion of the saints, the all for one and one for all, the no one left behind solidarity.

Why did I become a Catholic? I noticed that they took a lot of the passages I didn't understand literally.

Once I took these passages literally then they made sense and it also validated the Catholic teachings.

One example I have already mentioned is that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is also the Mother of all Christians and is Queen in heaven as the mother of the King of Kings, standing on the moon with a crown of 12 stars.  Revelation 12:1 and 17.

Another example is baptism (I am still working on my posts for that topic).  I laid some of the Scriptures and some of the Catechism out in my two posts on that topic so far.

Another example that I will be writing about is the Eucharist or communion.  It is how Jesus gives us His flesh and blood to eat in order to give us life in a literal fulfillment of what He said in John 6.  He lost most of his followers as well as ticking off the religious authorities with that message.  So much so, that He even asked the Twelve, "Are you going to leave me also?"  Peter replied, "Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life."  There have been many times in my life as a believer when I was at a crossroads because of some hard lesson from Jesus when that question has come up.  And then I remember Peter's reply and say it to Jesus and choose His path.

You will notice Jesus didn't back down and soften His message in John 6.  He didn't say, "Hey, come back, folks.  That was just for dramatic emphasis, I didn't really mean it.  I was just talking in "spiritual" terms."

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  He is the ultimate reality.

 

Why did I become a Catholic? Adopting a view on baptism vs believing in my baptism Part 2

We left off last time with my realizing what great desires and aspirations my parents and my grandfather had for me as they had me baptized as an infant and what it meant to them as Presbyterians.  They wanted me to become part of the Body of Christ, His Church, and they wanted to place me under God's care, protection and guidance.  Indeed that is what most Christian parents desire for their precious children.  So much so that even most Christian groups that have done away with infant baptism have replaced it with dry baby dedication rites where the parents publicly present their children to the Lord in church and promise to bring their children up in the Lord.  It is instinctive.

So let's start with some Scripture.  I will be using the New American Bible Revised Edition which is available online.  http://www.usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/36  But you can look them up using other translations that you like

First there is Ezekiel 36:24-28 in one of the Old Testament restoration of Israel/New Covenant passages where God indicates that He is going to change His people from the inside out.  Notice verse 25 which is one of the steps God will take.

24 I will take you away from among the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you back to your own soil. 25 I will sprinkle clean water over you to make you clean; from all your impurities and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my spirit within you so that you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep them.  28 You will live in the land I gave to your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

Okay, now let's take a look at the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.

Luke says the following about John the Baptist's baptism in chapter 3 of his gospel.

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert. 3 He went throughout [the] whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,

Matthew records the response in chapter 3 of his gospel.

5 At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him 6 and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.

Then Matthew records the baptism of Jesus in detail in the same chapter. 

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” 15Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him. 16 After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened [for him], and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove [and] coming upon him. 17And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

I am letting you look at some things here in preparation for what is to follow.  Be patient.  And as we go through these passages and teachings, remember that God is merciful and that He takes into account what we know and what we don't know and because Jesus became one of us He understands us and what it is like to be one of us.  There is more to come and I will write as quickly as I can as time allows.  So prayerfully consider these Scriptures. There are more Scriptures to look at and then I will present what the Catholic Church believes happens at our baptisms.

Here are some more.

From Matthew 28.

18 Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

And when Peter finished preaching his message at Pentecost, look at this exchange between Peter and his audience in Acts 2.

37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?” 38 Peter [said] to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.”


So, in brief, here is what our baptism accomplishes in us from the Catechism.

1279   The fruit of Baptism, or baptismal grace, is a rich reality that includes forgiveness of original sin and all personal sins, birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the Father, a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit. By this very fact the person baptized is incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ, and made a sharer in the priesthood of Christ.

1280    Baptism imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual sign, the character, which consecrates the baptized person for Christian worship. Because of the character Baptism cannot be repeated (cf. DS 1609 and DS 1624).

 Baptism is powerful.  But this post is bound to raise questions so feel free to ask them.

One other item to consider is the phrase from the Nicene Creed from the 4th century.

I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

There are many other sources both from Scripture and the writings of the early church but I wanted to be brief.

So what difference has the Catholic teaching on baptism made in my life?

Well, many of the things that I assumed happened when I had my "born again" experience at age 20 actually happened when I was baptized as an infant according to Catholic teaching even though I was baptized in the Presbyterian Church.  They basically would agree with the Presbyterian understanding but they add a lot more.  And they recognized my baptism since it was documented (it can be either by a written document or witnesses) when I was becoming a Catholic.

And when I look back on my life, I can see the influence or mark baptism had in my life.  I always believed in God even when I thought He was irrelevant for a time.  I believed that Jesus was the Son of God.  I believed that the Bible was God's written word.  What I didn't understand until I was 20 was that I was a sinner in need of a Savior.  And that is when I asked Jesus into my life.

But after that "born again" experience, I didn't really understand what God was aiming for in my life.  I sort of hoped for a close relationship with Him but I lived like what I really thought He wanted was for me to be "good", grow in holiness and righteousness, stop sinning, with His help of course.

But as I looked into the Catholic teachings, I saw that God really wants a close intimate, honest relationship and I was also taught how to pursue that relationship through prayer and the sacraments.

More later.


 

Why did I become a Catholic? Adopting a view on baptism vs believing in my baptism

Another milestone in my journey towards the Catholic Church was adopting a view on baptism.

As I studied Eastern Orthodoxy in Oregon and then Catholicism in Colorado, I discovered that they believed that the sacraments actually confer what they represent or signify, that they are channels or means of God's grace and baptism is just one of seven sacraments in those churches.  So the Eastern Orthodox and Catholics believe that God faithfully works through the sacraments to actually change people's lives!  Most Protestant churches and groups only observe two of them, baptism and the Lord's supper or Communion.  Some don't observe any, such as the Quakers and the Salvation Army.

Protestants have a wide range of views on baptism as to the mode (sprinkling, full immersion, pouring), timing (infancy and believers or believers only), what it signifies, what it accomplishes and whether it is necessary or not.

I was baptized twice, once as an infant in the Presbyterian church by sprinkling and once as an adult by full immersion in water in order to join an American Baptist church after I had become a "believer" through a "born again" experience.

After my conversion experience at the age of twenty, I sort of rejected my Presbyterian roots which regarded baptism as an equivalent to circumcision, a sign of the New Covenant to be applied to the children of believers, incorporating them into the Body of Christ, the church.  They point to the households being baptized in the New Testament for Scriptural support as well as the practices of the early church in the first centuries after the New Testament period.

When my wife and I wanted to join an American Baptist church a few years after my conversion and they required a believer's, full immersion (dunking) baptism, I consented to be baptized again and more or less adopted the Baptist view for convenience sake but not because I was convinced of it.  It was a public profession of faith but really didn't do anything according to their view.  A lot of non-Baptist churches hold the post-conversion, by-immersion, profession of faith view as well.  And so for quite a few years, I considered my 2nd baptism to be the valid one with a kind of pragmatic "whatever!?" attitude.  I mean I knew the doctrinal arguments of the various Protestant groups and could argue them convincingly to others but I sort of placed myself "above" them so to speak.

This "whatever" attitude is very prevalent among Christians today. 

Some adopt this attitude because they don't really want to learn and wrestle with concepts, issues, doctrines and the like.  They have sort of a "hakuna matata", "no worries" philosophy.

Others adopt the attitude because they believe that if we believe something strongly we are going to fight with others who don't believe it.  And it is true, it does happen and it can be violent.  We probably have all experienced this truth in our own lives and we see it in history.

Others adopt the attitude as interested but uninvolved, uncommitted observers.  I always wanted to be like Spock in Star Trek and cock one eyebrow and say "interesting" but without getting worked up about things.  So I gravitated towards this group and way of relating more than to the other ways.

There is another way however and that is the way of Love.

During my time searching for a people, a way of life that could help me actually walk with Jesus, I received a Bible from my mother that her father (my grandfather) had given to me when I was baptized in the Presbyterian Church on my 1st birthday.  She had hung on to it.  It was a Revised Standard Version in mint condition.  My grandfather had written a note in it to me.  "To Howard, on the day he was presented to the Lord, from his Granddaddy".  My parents and my grandfather had presented me to the Lord on that day.  Hmmm...  That was their understanding of what they were doing having me baptized as an infant.  I had been offered up to the Lord.  And they were doing it because they loved me and they thought baptism mattered and that I mattered.  They wanted the best for me and so they offered me up to the Lord, the Creator and Giver of life through baptism, initiating me into the Body of Christ.

Then I learned that the Catholic Church believed many things happened at my baptism.

So stay tuned.

Why did I become a Catholic? The Sacraments - they are physical, incarnational.

As I have mentioned, when people ask me the recurring question in the subject line of most of my posts, hundreds of reasons come bubbling to the surface all wanting expression like the bubbles in a carbonated beverage when you open up the container. Sometimes I would respond in trying to summarize the reasons, "It's physical."  My answer was somewhat cryptic because there is a context that one has to understand before my answer would make sense.  Therefore, I have abandoned that summary for "It helps me to hold onto Jesus better."  But I want to give some more of the context here.

I came across some paragraphs of the Catechism of the Catholic Church this week that state well the importance of the physical as well as the spiritual.

1145    A sacramental celebration is woven from signs and symbols. In keeping with the divine pedagogy of salvation (pedagogy: the art, science, or profession of teaching - Merriam Webster Online Dictionary), their meaning is rooted in the work of creation and in human culture, specified by the events of the Old Covenant and fully revealed in the person and work of Christ.

1146    Signs of the human world. In human life, signs and symbols occupy an important place. As a being at once body and spirit, man expresses and perceives spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols. As a social being, man needs signs and symbols to communicate with others, through language, gestures, and actions. The same holds true for his relationship with God.

There is much more that could be said here but you can read about it in the Catechism online via the link below.
http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church/epub/index.cfm#

And this sacramental celebration and communication spills out into the everyday world as a way of life, a way of service to others and a way of viewing the world.  There is a interconnectedness of life that I have found rich and fulfilling.  And so while I am going to first address the seven sacraments of the Church, there are many other areas I am excited about sharing such as the social teachings of the Catholic Church and the nature of the Church itself and the keys to understanding it.

If you want a good overview of Catholicism in a video series, I highly recommend Catholicism with Father Robert Barron.  http://www.catholicismseries.com/  It has been on PBS, EWTN and many parishes are showing it in their Christian or religious education classes.  We have been using it for the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adult and for general adult education classes at my parish.

The first sacrament I am going to cover is Baptism.

Why I became a Catholic? The Sacraments

The initial draw of the Catholic Church for me was the hope of developing my relationship with Jesus through learning to pray.  I was also looking for an inner transformation flowing out of that closer relationship where I would trust in God rather than being overwhelmed by fear and running to my idols.  I wanted to be able to love people with God's love.  And I was finding that and much more.  I found that there was a whole ancient and living community, the Church, the Body of Christ, to connect with and relate to in addition to God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  I found the sacramentals (physical items and actions that aid in developing one's relationship with God such as the sign of the cross, rosaries, prayer books and cards, etc).  And I found the Sacraments of which there are seven in the Catholic Church.  The Eastern Orthodox also have essentially the same seven which they call the Mysteries.

The Baltimore Catechism defines a sacrament in this short and simple way.  A Sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.

In Howard's words, they are outward signs that are actual channels of grace established by Jesus Christ that actually provide the graces that they signify.

In the Catholic Church they are grouped together in the following categories which help us to understand their purpose.

The Sacraments of Initiation
  Baptism
  Confirmation
  Eucharist (Holy Communion)

The Sacraments of Healing
  Penance & Reconciliation (Confession)
  Anointing of the Sick

The Sacraments at the Service of Communion
  Holy Orders
  Matrimony

As an evangelical Protestant with non-denominational/Baptist tendencies, I only recognized two of the seven (Lord's Supper/Communion and Baptism).  I wouldn't have called them sacraments and they were purely symbolic in my view.  The Lord's Supper was a remembrance/self examination only and Baptism was a profession of faith.  Both were a matter of obedience to Christ.  Neither were necessary for salvation.

But as I came to understand the Catholic teaching on the Sacraments, I found out just how much I was missing.  In fact, I am still learning and marveling at how much I was missing.  And I am extremely grateful to be the undeserving recipient of such torrents of grace as are being poured into my soul through them.

I am looking forward to writing about these treasures of blessing in the weeks ahead.