Where Have All The Pagans Gone?

Thus I aspire to proclaim the Gospel                                            

not where Christ has already been named,
so that I do not build on another's foundation,
but as it is written:

Those who have never been told of him shall see,
and those who have never heard of him shall understand.

At one time in this world, there were large tracts of land where "Jesus" was just another name and he might be the miller down the block or the candle maker in the marketplace in the town square.  Today, except for very remote villages in the rainforest and islands so remote that seagulls are just discovering them, there is almost nowhere on earth where the name of Jesus is not known.  Throughout the vast reaches of lands near and far, everyone has heard of Jesus and while they may not know what is special about Him, they will know that he is loved and respected by millions of followers. 

So, does that mean that the job of bringing Jesus to a heathen world filled with people worshiping pagan gods and living lives of futility only to end up in eighteen square feet of earth when it is all over for them has been done?  Well, the very fact that I had the guts to write such a complex sentence as is the last one would at least hint at my view that the answer is, "no." 

The whole world is mission territory.  To know of Jesus is one thing but to know Jesus is another. Our job as the ambassadors of Christ is to make known that Jesus came to earth to save us from sin.  We must bring the joyous news to all we meet that the life experience is not limited to what we see, hear, feel, and touch in our journey from cradle to grave, but rather our life here is meant to be a foretaste of the life that is to come.  The futility of pagan life is over, all are called to become one in Christ and secure for themselves the life that will never end, where tears will be those of joy, where each is loved and valued not for they own or the power they had wielded while on earth, but who they are in God's eyes.

That is my thought for the day.  We have to make sure people know that they are loved by God so deeply that He never made another person just like them.  We have to tell them that God looks at the soul and knows what is in our hearts.  So many people out there think of religion as just being a system of rules and regulations.  If that was all that Christianity was then it would be no different than a club.  It is so much more than a club, it is a gateway to peace, joy, and eternal happiness with God.  For heaven's sake is there any way you can keep silent about any of this?

The month of November is when we remember those that have gone before us marked with the sign of faith.  Please pray for the poor souls in purgatory today.  

View from the Watchtower - JW and the Catholic Church

For near is the day of the LORD                 

in the valley of decision.
Sun and moon are darkened,
and the stars withhold their brightness.
The LORD roars from Zion,
and from Jerusalem raises his voice;
The heavens and the earth quake,
but the LORD is a refuge to his people,
a stronghold to the children of Israel.

You have to admire their pluck.  I mean the way that they stick to their spiel when time and time again they have been proven wrong just because the sun rose and set as it had done so many times over the many millenniums.  Of course, I am speaking about the Jehovah's Witnesses (JW), an organization that specializes in predicting the end of the world.  Each time they predict a date, they have been wrong. They are not a  Christian religion as they deny the divinity of Christ stating that Jesus, in reality, is St. Michael the Archangel. You have to admire them in some respects.  The believers commit a lot of time to pursuing converts.   They go out in pairs and go door to door looking for people ripe for conversion into their strange doctrine.  They come prepared with Biblical proof of all they say, of course, the Bible they use, The New World edition has been edited so that their beliefs are proven.  They rope in the innocent and uneducated, namely Catholics.  While an educated Catholic can point out very easily where the Watchtower Society, based in the religious heart of the world, Brooklyn New York, goes off of the rails. most of the JW converts come from parishes like yours and mine.

The problem we have in the Catholic Church is that we have a lack of Catholics that are able to see through the poorly thought out theology of the Watchtower people or any of the Protestant sects for that matter. Can you imagine that some Catholics who have gone on to get advanced degrees in nuclear engineering or doctorates in any one of a thousand subjects have no more than a seventh-grade education in the most important subject of all, their religion?  Why is that?  It is a sad but true fact that many Catholics are easy prey to the whiles of the Witness team or Mormon missionaries, or Bible Thumping Evangelists that comes to their door because they left the study of their religion after they were confirmed usually in middle school or high school.  

I imagine each of us can come up with a reason or two why it is not possible for us to learn more about our Catholic faith.  First and foremost, there isn't enough time in the day for me to get all of the things done that I need to.  That's a load of bull droppings.  If you had time to watch TV in the evening, you had time to spend learning something new about your religion. The Witnesses, the Mormons,  spend hours each week with their door to door ministry and for the JW's  each Kingdom Hall reports the hours spent tilling the soil for converts each week. Those that don't spend enough time going door to door or who do not have enough results to show are given a good talking to.    And some of us Catholics say we are too busy, right...hand me the potato chips and could you turn on the Notre Dame game?

Okay, here is what I really want to say to you on this Saturday.  If a seventh grader knows more than you about being a Catholic, how does that make you feel?  Our young people today take their religion more seriously than you might expect.  In our parish, every year, we see a class of teens come back from a week-long mission trip, helping the less fortunate and they come back energized with zeal for the Lord and they have seen for themselves how good it feels to follow the ways of God and to help those that need it most.  They experience a closeness with the Lord that fills them with the desire to have more and to help more.  Then, what happens, they start hanging around the older Catholics, the ones that just put in their appearance, the ones that come late to mass and leave early and they determine by watching you that being a Catholic doesn't really make much of a difference and they slowly either drift away from the church or they are snared by Protestant evangelizers who know how to reel in a healthy catch of Catholic youth and save them from Rome and get them to believe in Sola Scriptura and Once Saved Always Saved, two indefensible doctrines that lull people into a way of life where sin doesn't play a part anymore. 

Look, you just have to get up off of your dead sit upon and become more knowledgeable about Christianity, the Church and its history and why it matters that you are a Catholic and not a Baptist or Presbyterian or God forbid a Jehovah's Witness.  

Do you understand, have you any idea what-so-ever what a great gift you have been given by being born or converting to be a Catholic?  We are part of the Church that was built by Christ to last until He returns for us on the last day when in God's eyes the time of harvest is nigh.  There is nothing better on this whole earth than to be part of God's kingdom and that Kingdom is not owned by the Watchtower Society, it is owned by the people of God in the Catholic Church. 

We have so many things that other denominations do not have.  We have most of all the Real Presence in the Eucharist that we can receive daily in many places.  Can you imagine what a JW would do if he or she had that same closeness to Jesus as we have available to us?  They would be unstoppable!  They would go door to door armed with the love of Jesus and not leave a house until they either converted the person or were physically kicked down the stairs with their New World edition Bible hitting them in the head as they bounced off the curb at the side of the street. If such power would be available to a JW, why does it not manifest itself in us, the heirs and true adopted sons and daughters of the Great King?  Light the fire in yourself and watch it spread to those around you.  Do it NOW. 

To do today:  Pray for the poor souls in Purgatory. 

The Importance of a Good Foundation

"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' but not do what I command? 

I will show you what someone is like who comes to me,
listens to my words, and acts on them.


That one is like a man building a house,
who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock;
when the flood came, the river burst against that house
but could not shake it because it had been well built.
But the one who listens and does not act
is like a person who built a house on the ground
without a foundation.
When the river burst against it,
it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed."

In the past two weeks, hurricane Harvey and hurricane Irma have destroyed both people and buildings in the lands that they visited more efficiently than any modern army could using conventional weapons.  Buildings on some islands were reduced to unrecognizable piles of rubble and many of those that dwelled in these buildings lost their lives.  On the other hand, I watched reporters standing in the midst of the raging rain and wind reporting on the storms.  One of the reporters had a sturdy rope around a concrete pillar that he could hold on to when the winds got too intense.  The pillar was attached to a concrete structure, built on higher ground, with the foundation sunk deeply to bedrock.  This building was not moved when the rains came and the winds sang their loud songs of destruction. 

We are like buildings.  We can build our foundation on the things of this world and watch as the storms of life take apart what we had worked so hard to build.  We can trust in electronics, and money, and glitter and glitz and when the floods of disaster touch our life we will be left with nothing but ourselves. 

On the other hand, we can build our lives based on the truth that has been given to us by Jesus. Our lives can be built on pillars sunk down to the bedrock of truth and when the winds come and floods of evil times touch our lives we will be safe and secure because Jesus is our foundation and we shall not be moved. 

Purgatory is a place of hope and those that are there are secure in the fact that they will, someday be with God in heaven. They are in Purgatory to cleanse the effects of sin from themselves and to lose attachment to sin. They need our prayers. Please remember them in your daily prayers, they will remember those that helped them.  Thank you. 

"Call no one on earth your father"

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,

"The scribes and the Pharisees

have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.

Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,

but do not follow their example.

For they preach but they do not practice.

They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry

and lay them on people's shoulders,

but they will not lift a finger to move them.

All their works are performed to be seen.

They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.

They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,

greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation 'Rabbi.'

As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.'

You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.

Call no one on earth your father;

you have but one Father in heaven.

Do not be called 'Master';

you have but one master, the Christ.

The greatest among you must be your servant.

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;

but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

Some evangelical, fundamentalist, Bible thumping Christians find in Matthew 25 1-12 proof positive that the Catholic Church has gone off the deep end because they call their preachers "father."  It appears when you read the passage that they are correct, but are they?  

If I said "yes" to my rhetorical question, that would end the discussion right here and this would be my shortest blog entry ever.  Sorry, the evangelicals are not correct. But, does it not say in plain English to not call anyone on earth your father?  It most certainly does say that. But, Jesus is using hyperbole or exaggeration to make a point.  The point He is making is not prohibiting the title of father, otherwise, what do you call the husband of your mother?  

In order to understand this passage of scripture you really have to read it from the beginning and see what Jesus is actually telling us.  He tells us the Scribes and the Pharisees make up rules that they themselves do not keep.  It is for this reason, that He says to not call anyone Rabbi which is another word for teacher.  When it comes to the word father, we have to call no man father who does not deserve that title. 

In the Bible itself, there are instances where the word father is used by personages such as Paul.  For example, we have this passage: 

 "I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel" 

(1 Cor. 4:14–15).  (*)

And we hear from Peter, the prime minister of the Kingdom who does not have any problem assuming the role of a father:

 "She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings; and so does my son Mark" (1 Pet. 5:13). (*)

We also hear from the Apostle John: 

John said, "My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1); "No greater joy can I have than this, to hear that my children follow the truth" (3 John 4). In fact, John also addresses men in his congregations as "fathers" (1 John 2:13–14). (*) 

So we can see that the Apostles themselves were not against being spiritual fathers.  The New Testament has other examples from the mouth of Jesus where he refers to "Father Abraham."  So, it is not with the title Father that we should have trouble but we should be wise in who we bestow the mantle of the office upon.  

This is another example of what our evangelical friends miss when they hold to a strict reading of the words of the Bible without taking into account the context of the passage and how the people of that time would have interpreted the story. If we take the Bible and interpret everything according to how we think, act, and learn now we are going to make mistakes.  

For me, I will take the interpretation of these passages from my Fathers in faith in the Catholic Church.  The body that kept the Bible pure is the organization that is fit to translate it.  If we don't trust the Church and begin to interpret the Bible ourselves, we could end up with thirty thousand Christian denominations...oh, wait, we do have that! 

 

Welcome To Gehenna

"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,

You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.

But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother

will be liable to judgment,

and whoever says to his brother,

Raqa will be answerable to the Sanhedrin,

and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna."

Welcome to Gehenna!  How do we interpret this passage of scripture?  I think it is relatively simple.  Jesus says that if you hate your brother, well, you can go to hell.  But, the news is even worse than that.  You may not hate your brother, you might just be angry with him, or you might call him a fool. In either case, you would become a citizen of Gehenna.  

The listeners did not have to think metaphysics when they heard these words of Jesus for they could go to Gehenna any time of the day or night that they wanted to.  Gehenna lay outside of the walls of Jerusalem and was a place where the, using the polite term, garbage was burned.  The fires burned day and night just under the surface the process of decay aided by the worms, flies, and maggots continued both day and night.  To be sure, Gehenna was not a place that the local Chamber of Commerce put into their brochures as an enticement to visit the city. 

As nasty as this place is, it is the place we are invited to move to by Jesus if we just call our brother a fool.  It is not easy to be a follower of Jesus, it never has been, and it never will.  What He proposes runs counter to the way we think.  When we are offended by someone, our natural self-wants to go on the offensive and strike back at the person or persons that have offended us.  

In order to avoid Gehenna, we must wage a war not against those who offend us but against that part of our soul that is reaching for the sword.  Our war should not be against our brother but against ourselves and the defects in our nature that cause us to respond with hate instead of love. 

This is not easy nor is it natural for us to do.  Yet, throughout our life, we should learn to practice forgiveness of those who offend us because there is no good neighborhood or good neighbors in Gehenna. 

The Reach of The Catholic Church

The Catholic Church is the one institution that has had the most impact on this world, bare none.  No other organization has lived through so many different world orders.  Many different world orders have seen their sunrise, their flourishing, and their sunset. The Church has been there and has witnessed it all. 

The Catholic Church has been a beacon through many tough periods in history. During the Dark Ages, she kept the light of human knowledge burning through her monasteries and learned monks. She formed the first institutions of higher learning, gave birth to what we call the modern hospital, and through it all she has always taught the truth of the Gospel without change and without bowing to the wisdom of the current trends in secular thought. For the Church, the truth that Christ taught, the truth that the Holy Spirit infused into the Church, the truth that the apostle passed down from the beginning remains the truth that is taught today. She has been a faithful steward of and protector of the Deposit of Faith. 

The Catholic Church alone bears the marks of what the true church should be.  She is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic.  She seeks to unite all under One Body and One Blood. The denominations by their very nature only serve to weaken the unity that Jesus Himself called for at the Last Supper.  When Martin Luther, filled with sinful pride, to an ax to the root of the one, singular, holy church that Christ founded he began a process that continues until today, the removal of pebbles from the Rock that is the foundation of the Church.  The Church is in no danger of falling as Jesus promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against her.  So despite the miasma of a multitude of "truths" being taught in the name of Christ, the Roman Catholic Church remains today as it was in the beginning, the organization that keeps alive the true teachings of Jesus Christ on earth.  

The Catholic Church reaches deeply into modern society.  She is the voice that will not allow the conscience of man to fall asleep. She is hated by those who would rather give vent to the evil in their hearts.  She is despised by those who want to live in the cold and silent darkness of sin and who perpetuate a culture of death.  

The Church through the centuries has been the first to dispense alms to the needy, to victims of famine, and disease.  She is the only organization who waits for opportunities to be of service. In her charity, she does not ask a man's religion nor does she weigh his wallet.  Where there is a need she gives. 

She is the very Bride of Christ but those that hate her describe her as the whore of Babylon because their eyes are blinded to the good fruit the Catholic Church has brought forth through the centuries. Instead, she is accused of killing more people than were alive at the time of the Inquisitions, while the truth is that few perished because of these courts and many more were brought to salvation.  In our own times, she was accused of working hand in glove with the Nazi government and keeping a sinful silence at the plight of the Jewish people at the hands of Hitler.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Pope Pius, at the end of the war, received and thanks from many Jewish leaders for the people he saved by hiding them in monasteries and in Vatican City itself.  

The Roman Catholic Church is the Church that Christ founded. As such, she is the vehicle of salvation for mankind.  Other denominations cannot say this about themselves.  The fact remains that the very Bible that these denominations, was pulled together under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  The Church decided upon the Canon of Scripture that served everyone for fifteen-hundred years until the reformers led by the arch-criminal Luther removed from the Sacred Pages whole books that did not fit into their novel and unbiblical views of salvation. 

The Roman Catholic Church, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic organization was firmly built by Christ on the rock that was Peter.  The current Pope can trace his lineage back in an unbroken line to Peter.  Never in two-thousand years has even one Pope taught error from the Chair of Peter and there have been some very bad popes indeed!  In spite of the fact that there were some popes who had only their own pockets in mind, even they did not endanger the purity of God's truth by teaching error. Quite the contrary, the evil popes taught nothing as they lined their pockets and ran roughshod over the commandments of God.  The fact remains that the good popes have outnumbered the bad ones by a vast majority.  It should be noted that the Pope is protected from teaching error, but he is not protected from committing sin. Those that state that the Catholic Church cannot be the church of God because these bad popes ruled forget that these men were just that, men, able to commit acts of great turpitude such as the evil popes did or committing acts of great holiness as the saintly ones did. 

So, reject the Catholic Church at your peril. The Church believes that everyone who calls Jesus "Lord" is a fellow Christian even if they are not in full communion with the Church and they can and will attain heaven if they lead holy lives for God sees no difference in Gentile or Jew, man or woman, slave or free.  However, he has given His Church great tools and powers in the Treasury of Faith to ensure that we come to be with Him in heaven.  The way to heaven is a narrow and sometimes steep road.  The Church provides places in which to place your feet and stepping stones to help ease the journey.  The Church will bring you to the Valley of Peace, where pain no longer exists and we will once again be one flock with one Shepherd who is the Lord. 

What Do You Think?

Goodness Gracious it is good to be a Catholic!  Why?  Well, I am glad that you asked.  It is because I am Catholic I do not have to really think about the following stumpers. 

1. If Sola Scriptura is really true, please show me where it is taught in the Bible.  Search high and low, through the Old Testament, through the New Testament, and you will not find it mentioned.  So, Sola Scriptura is not scriptural. As a Catholic, we know that God's truth is found both in the Bible and in Sacred Tradition. I can depend as a Catholic, that my Church will not teach error. 

2. If the message of the Bible is so simple that anyone can read it and interpret the truth it contains on their own because the Holy Spirit will guide them, then why don't all of the Protestant denominations believe the same things?  As a Catholic, I can depend on my Church to tell me exactly what a particular passage means and how to incorporate it into my life.  The Church bases her teaching on Sacred Tradition of which the Bible is part of, plus all of the truths that have been passed down through the ages, especially from the Church Fathers who lived in the early centuries of the Church. 

3. Protestants of an earlier generation recognized abortion as the murder of innocent life.  Today, many of the denominations fight for the right for a mother to murder her unborn child.  This change in belief usually comes from a synod where the matter is voted upon and the side with fifty point one percent of the votes wins and thus truth is changed by a simple majority. How very democratic.  Catholics have not forgotten that the Kingdom of God is just that, a kingdom. We have no right to change the truths taught by Christ, as it is His Church and his Kingdom.  As a Catholic, I can depend on the fact that our doctrines have not changed, that they are the same things that we have believed from the beginning.  The Holy Spirit protects the Catholic Church and keeps its teachings pure. 

4.  I find the belief of "once saved, always saved" a curious belief at best when you extrapolate what that means as far as it can go. For example, let's say one day I decided to be saved. I have an evangelical friend who leads me through the "sinner's prayer" and I accept Jesus into my heart as personal Lord and Savior. He tells me that is all I need to do to secure a place in heaven, I am saved. He tells me that my place in eternity, real estate bought by the blood of Jesus on Calvary is mine forever.  My name has been inscribed in the Lamb's Book of Life, never to be effaced.    I smile and thank him.  I then ask him if I can continue to go to the Catholic Church?  He says, "Oh no, you have to quit the Catholic Church and go to my Church of What's Happening Now."  So, I tell him that actually being saved is not actually enough. I need to be saved AND I need to go to his church. I go one more step, I ask, "What if I rob a bank and kill the teller, will I still get into heaven even if I was not sorry for it and did not repent of it?"  He tells me that I have to repent, so now to get into heaven I have to; accept Jesus, Quit the Catholic Church and join a Protestant church, and finally, I have to repent. If I miss even one of these steps, I guess my name would be erased from the Lamb's Book of Life. It would seem that once saved always saved does not quite work out. This doctrine fails to take into account God's justice. Of course, once saved, always saved is put to rest by Jesus Himself. We can see how he views this teaching if we read this in the Bible in the tale of the sheep and the goats in Matthew Chapter 25.

I am not pointing these things out because I think that only Catholics go to heaven.  The people born into other denominations are NOT guilty of the sin of schism.  That sin was committed by the so-called reformers who broke the unity that Christ wanted for us as stated at the Last Supper.  The people born into other denominations are guiltless of the sin of separation. They are brothers and sisters in the Lord, they are just not in full communion with the Catholic Church, the church that Christ established on earth. Many of them love the Lord and follow His teachings in their everyday life.  God will not turn them away.  

The Mercy of God is for Everyone.  For me, I prefer to live the way of a Catholic.  As they say on EWTN, the Catholic Cable Channel,  Live Truth, Live Catholic! 

Things Protestants Don't Understand About The Church - The Bible

The Bible is the written, inspired, and inerrant Word of God. 

Roman Catholics have always believed this and have always revered this collection of holy books with awe. What my Protestant friends fail to understand is the Bible was built by the Church and not the other way around. This collection of holy books contains every kind of literature known to mankind. It has in it many wonderful stories and lessons for us to learn what the will of God is for His children. It is through this marvelous collection of tales, history, and parables that we learn how God has been with His people through the ages.

The book has been divided into two sections which we call the Old and the New Testaments. The Old Testament reveals stories that include our creation and subsequent disobedience. After the disobedience, we are told that God Himself will make things right again and will send us the Messiah. It tells us a bit about the first family and how Cain killed Abel. This wonderful book relates the story of the Exodus, the Flood, King David and his Psalms all the way up to the Book of Revelation where we are shown the celebration that takes place in heaven.

The Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible are not quite the same. Catholics have forty-six Old Testament books while the Protestant denominations recognize thirty-nine. The New Testament books for both Catholics and Protestants are the same. The reasons for this difference are kind of complex but it boils down to the fact that the reformers accepted the shorter list of books in use by the Jewish community in the first century while the Roman Catholics used the canon of scripture that included these missing books because works from the earliest times included quotations from these seven books deleted by the reformers. Modern Protestant scholarship is coming around to the view that these books are indeed inspired works.


The Bible did not just fall out of the skies. The Holy Spirit inspired the individual authors to write what they wrote but we cannot say that He dictated it to the writers. But just who decided what books belong in the Bible and what books do not? Why is the Gospel of Mark included in the New Testament while the Gospel of Thomas is not? The Church had quite a job on their hands because there were writings a-plenty circulating in the early Church. The Church had to decide which books were inspired and which books were not. It did so under her teaching authority. The oldest record we have is that the canon was approved under Pope Damasus in 382AD and subsequently, the list was confirmed in 392AD at the Synod of Hippo and the Third Council of Carthage in 397AD. The Council of Trent on April 8, 1546, declares as "sacred and canonical all the books of the Old and New Testament contained in the Vulgate." The Vulgate? What is that? The Vulgate is a late fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was the translation of St. Jerome who was commissioned by Pope Damascus I to revise the "Old Latin" collection then in use by the Church. So we can see that the Canon of Scripture was decided upon early on. It was only later the "reformers" threw out the Old Testament books found in Catholic Bibles. We can see that the Roman Catholic Church took (and takes) a lively interest in Holy Scripture. It is her mission to keep Scripture pure. To make sure that only books that can be demonstrated to be inspired by the Holy Spirit make their way in between the covers of this great collection.


The Catholic Church surely had a hand in carrying the Bible and passing it down through the generations assuring that only the inspired word is found in its pages. But the question is why are some Catholic beliefs not found in the Bible? Protestants believe that the Bible is the whole rule of what a Christian should believe and do. We Protestants believe in Sola Scriptura and we believe that the Church is in error because it uses human traditions as part of the belief system it follows.


The Roman Catholic Church believes that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. As such is takes a prominent place in her life of faith. It is part of every sacrament she dispenses, it is in her prayer life, it is in the Mass where we are fed both by Holy Scripture and by the Sacred Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. The "traditions" you speak of are not mere human traditions. One of the Traditions of the Church is the Bible! Sacred Tradition is the act of passing down the belief from one generation to the next. The process began in the first century and continues to this very day.


The pillar and foundations of the Church are not the Bible. Heresy? I think not. We read in 1st Timothy Chapter 3 verse 15, "I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God the pillar and foundation of truth."


Look as hard as you want, sola scriptura is not a principle you will find that is taught in the Bible. The verse often quoted in defense of sola scriptura is 2nd Timothy, Chapter 3, Verse 16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." There is not a Catholic living on earth or happy in heaven that would dare to disagree with this passage. It just doesn't say that the Scriptures are the only way to do these things, it states that it is just a way that can be used.




Let's look at Sacred Tradition. In my household, we have a tradition of putting up and decorating a Christmas tree every year. The people next door have a tradition of going to visit their relatives at Thanksgiving time. Both of these things are traditions, but they are not Sacred Traditions. Bobby may go to church to pray the rosary daily, that is his tradition, but it is not a Sacred Tradition. If we were to suddenly say that Sola Scriptura was the way to go, we would have a problem in supporting that position. The first century there were no written Bibles. So, how was the Word of God preached to the first century Christians? It was shared by word of mouth. The letters of Paul were read to the people and they carried them in their heart. They did not get a copy of them to take home and ponder. They relied, unknowingly, on Sacred Tradition. Sacred Tradition is the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. It has nothing to do with human traditions. The Church is protected from teaching error by the Holy Spirit. This Sacred Tradition is how the church has moved year by year and century by century teaching her unchanging doctrine.




Roman Catholics often are scolded for a lack of Biblical knowledge. This is true, some of us have not taken the time to study the Word of God as we should. It is going to be hard to stand before the Lord when he asks, "Did you read my book?" Here you are standing by God and what can you say, "Seventy-eight years was not enough time, I was busy." I don't think that will wash. The Church has always revered the scripture. In the twentieth century, Catholics were taught scripture through catechisms such as the Baltimore Catechism. It taught Biblical principles and relied on the Bible for the truth it taught but it did not give us the familiarity of the Bible that Protestants have. This being said, it should not be thought that Catholics were being starved to death for want of the4 Word of God. We Catholics are obligated under pain of sin, to attend Church every Sunday. At our worship service, called the Mass, we are served up heaping helpings of Scripture, including a reading from the Old Testament, A Psalm, a reading from the Epistles, and finally a reading from the Gospels as the main course. As a matter of fact, the Catholic who attends Mass daily will hear most of the Bible read to him over the course of three years.




Our last topic is who can interpret the scriptures? The reformers said the Word of God conveys such a simple message that any man with the help of the Holy Spirit can interpret scripture. I don't think so. If this was true, then why are there so many different interpretations of so many different passages of scripture? Is the Holy Spirit the spirit of confusion? Would he tell one person one truth regarding a passage of scripture and another person a different interpretation of it? The church Luther split because of the interpretation of scripture. At the time of that first split whose interpretation of scripture was each side relying upon? It would seem that the Holy Spirit had gone schizoid because he changed His story. No, the Holy Spirit is not nuts. People take it upon themselves to make scripture fit the way they think. Because of this, instead of one Church, we have the Church and thousands upon thousands of denominations who interpret the Bible differently. Scripture was never meant to be interpreted in such a manner. I am very fortunate that as a Roman Catholic I can rely on authoritative interpretations from the organization who has handed the Book of Books unsullied down through the generations. The Authority of the Church is guaranteed by Christ to be without error.




The Bible is the paramount bastion of where we should get our plan of life. God has given us a great gift in this work of inerrant inspiration. I call upon my fellow Catholics to accept the church's invitation to immerse yourself in the Word of God. If you do not know the Bible, you do not know Christ. To my Protestant brothers and sisters, keep up your studies, the truth will set you free! Let each one of us pray for the unity that Christ wants for his children on earth.

Pentecost - The Church is Born

In an organization, when you have no idea on what to do next the next best thing to taking action is to take a meeting.  That was what the Apostles were doing now that Jesus had ascended back to the Father.  After all, just a short time ago Jesus met them on the shore and they ate fish together and He told Peter for feed His sheep.  So what a better subject for a meeting that this!   This idea then that was proposed and then then dismissed. Hours passed in delightful discourse. In the back of their minds, unspoken was the fact that they had to be careful, they were on the high priest's hit list and that is why they were meeting in secret behind locked doors.  It had gone on for a couple of hours and idea after idea was discarded because it would expose them to too much danger. Then there came a mighty wind and tongues of fire came and settled above each of the Apostles. Their souls were filled with courage and they remembered in great detail the things Jesus had said to them.  Peter went to the door and threw off the plank that was keeping the world shut out.  He left and the other eleven went with him.  They began to preach and teach about Jesus but what was amazing was that there was a crowd of people from all over the known world, some from far away as Rome. Each of the people present heard the Good News proclaimed by the Apostles in their own language.  The tower of Babble had been reversed!  Where once they depended on a strong door and lock to keep them safe, now they depended upon the Lord. 

Today we Christians are very much like the Apostles before the Spirit descended upon them.  We hem and haw, discuss and plan, have meeting after meeting, but we do nothing to point out where our world is going wrong.  We do not shout the good news to the people in a dying world that needs it. Instead we go along quietly while one step at time our culture moves away from Christian values and moves toward the rule of the mob.  

Christian values we are told are out of date, out of touch, with the way things are today.  You know what? We Christians are out of step with the pagans. Are we ready to give a reason for the hope we carry? Are we willing to be scourged with ridicule and scorn? Are we ready to take the fight out of the darkness and into the light? 

On this Pentecost Sunday, I challenge you to become the soldier for Christ you were meant to be. The Spirit will guide you and will tell you what to say when you are carried into court to answer for your beliefs.  Be brave Christian man, Christian woman, Christian boy, or Christian girl.  May the Lord be with you.