AboutGriff Ruby Expertise I focus on the "why" and "how" questions of the Faith and one`s need for the Church to overcome sin, live the life God wishes us, and to become what God wants us to be. I seek to provide insight and information such that you are then able to see for yourself the answer to your questions.
Experience Years of extensive research, thought, and prayerful meditation on many of the issues that trouble Catholics today, taught catechetical classes to teenagers and adults, answered many questions already.
I was born and baptized a Catholic, raised in a Catholic home, and have been raising my girls as Catholics. I am a semi-practicing Catholic, meaning I go to church when I can and on Easter and Christmas. My oldest daughter attends CCD through the school year.
I have not attended reconciliation in over 20 years simply because I do not believe in it as a 'third party situation'. I firmly believe that if I have done wrong, am truly sorry and ready to be repentant, that I do not need a priest to tell me this. I will feel God's love and forgiveness in my heart and will know what I need to do to move past that transgression.
I am also having some trouble with the limited options there are for Catholic services. I am looking for a service with more of a Bible study type atmosphere and for some sort of children's program like Sunday School.
I have attended a First Christian service numerous times and like that atmosphere quite a bit. I have also attended a non-traditional Christian service and was not crazy about their set-up.
My issue is, I would switch to being full-time First Christian but I am terrified to completely give up the Catholicism. It has been such a huge part of my life (I attended a Catholic school until high school, one brother even attended a Catholic high school and Catholic college but he is now a total non-practicing Catholic and even denies that heritage). I am not sure what to do at this point. I want to raise my daughters spiritually since they were both baptized Catholic, but I am not sure about the Catholic faith any longer. But like I said, I am terrified of giving it up completely. It's a combination of 'what would my family think' and an eternal damnation sort of thing.
Any thoughts you might have would be helpful.
Thank you,
Holly
ANSWER: My apologies for the delay. There is a lot to learn about why the Catholic Church teaches and does what it teaches and does. All too often, a person's learning in catechism class only provides the outlines of what is believed and what is expected, but all too little focus as to why and where based.
First of all, let me give you some insight on some of the immediate issues you raised herein, so that you can better understand what is going on here with these.
Confession: This really is little different from baptism in which someone (a human being) does it to you, you don't get it directly from God. Teaching and instruction is likewise the same way, even if using a book (such as the Bible), since humans wrote it, preserved it, translated it, and published it. It is simply the way God has set things up. We don't all just get Divine revelations straight from the beyond, but rather God founded a Church to see to these things and to provide accountability, continuity, and reliability as to what must be believed, done, and who does or does not qualify, given their present practice and state of soul. This is about knowing where we stand instead of living in some "grey country" in which nothing is ever certain, one person has one opinion and another has another and no one is authorized to arbitrate. Arbitration between truth and error has been one of the Church's key missions throughout Christian and Catholic history.
So, though God can forgive sins before confession, going to confession (or at least the intent and plan to do so, even if one cannot do so) is intended to be part of that forgiveness process. For if a person takes the easy way out with a mumbled "I'm sorry, God" then what does that cost? What occasion does that provide for showing and proving that you mean business and that you truly are sorry for the sin and really do resolve to avoid repeating that sin in the future? Confession also provides an opportunity for some helpful counsel for avoiding the sin and growing spiritually. It provides accountability as you realize that if you sin again you will have to tell it again, and that too provides and incentive not to sin.
Finally, in accepting the penance for the sin, you accept the consequences, making them now only temporary (though some may last all of this life), and again showing true sorrow for the sins.
Next, as to something more like a Bible study format - Sunday worship is meant to be worship, which is to say, what we owe to God in all justice, and not much for us (though the Church may give us something at this time in the homily, or in music etc. as part of the liturgy). It is the Mass, which is central to worshipping God. Think of the ancient Jews with their Temple. The altar and most holy and so forth were for worship, not for Bible study. The synagogue was for Bible study, as were other classes available elsewhere. Likewise, the Church uses the Mass for worship, for some small amount of study, but the main study is conducted elsewhere. You will just have to check to see if any Catholic Bible studies are organized in your area, or even attempt to organize one (with the help of a priest) yourself.
There is something to understand about these "Christian services" you have attended. There are reasons why the Church forbids attendance at false churches, except where truly necessary for some special circumstantial reasons as may arise. At these services one is taught wrong interpretations of the Bible that can only serve to confuse one. I know they seem to be talking Bible and perhaps much of what they say may well be worthwhile, but along the way there are the "mines" of false assumptions carefully planted to make the Faith seem incomprehensible to you. You notice that the "non-traditional Christian service" leaves you cold. These non-Catholics, having deprived themselves of the Mass, have no real worship among them, but merely replace it with singing songs and with (as I explained, distorted) Bible study and such things tailored at what the people want instead of what God wants. Church becomes a chance to learn something interesting (perhaps, and possibly wrong), instead of a chance to worship and adore the one true God.
Two easy books I can recommend would be "Catholicism and Fundamentalism" by Karl Keating and "Rome Sweet Home" by Scott Hahn.
There is a great deal more I could wish to share with you about what has been going on with the Catholic Church and Her overall sense of identity, but right now you seem to be at a more basic level of trying to decide whether even to be Catholic or something else. For now, do not let the "dryness" of much of what goes on under the auspices of "Catholicism" fool you into thinking that Catholicism is wrong or in any way inferior to these man-made churches. Any one of them can be figured out in a fortnight, but Catholicism is a deep well of Truth that no one can ever get to the bottom of in this life for being as infinite and inexhaustible as its Author who is God. But that will take some digging, and first of all we need to get you digging in the right place.
Do let me know in a follow-up how things are going and what you are finding, perhaps in a couple weeks or so. Hope this helps, God bless!
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QUESTION: Griff-
thank you for the reply. I guess I knew deep down that God expects worship, no matter what. My question to myself would be, does it matter where, so long as you worship and praise God. I am thinking the reason why I liked the First Christian church was because it had a semblance of a 'mass' like the Catholic church, but I also got the Sunday school which I liked. They also had a time for children and a time to give 'praise or prayer' where you could offer up things you need prayer for or things you wanted to praise and give thanks. I think the Catholic services miss out on that particular aspect. I attend a large Catholic church, wherein I think, lies the problem. Not enough community. My home church does offer some classes on certain nights, I will look into them. I fear that my 'old school' wars with my other half. What threw me with the contemporary Christian service was that the 'pastor' didn't give the sermon, it was done by someone else in the church. I guess the 'old school' part of me feels that ministers and priests are in seminary to learn God's Word and to learn to teach lay people God's Word and Law, and not just any Joe off the street can do that.
I think where I stand now, I may go back to my church (much to the dismay of my oldest daughter) and check into some classes that they might be offering. I might even shoot my priest an e-mail about a suggestion for a class. They offered one several years ago that explored one book in the Bible, and they had another that met at a local pub for food and drinks and bible study. I may look into that.
I'm just sort of confused and lost and feeling guilty for just not attending.
Thank you for listening and for your insight. I will check out those books you mentioned.
Holly
Answer I really do understand some of what you must be going through. These "First Christian church" people are nice people who do interesting and worthwhile things, and so of course you wish to be around them and part of what they are doing. Sometimes Providence allows a thing in one's life, though not for the reason one might expect, but for quite another. You are experiencing some real challenges to your faith, and the true value of this is to discover that church is not a picnic nor a social club (though there are many who use it thus), but rather a call to arms against evil and a battle zone. This is why the earthly portion of the Church is called the "Church Militant" (as distinct from the portion in Heaven called the "Church Triumphant" and also that in Purgatory called the "Church Suffering"). One thing one finds, especially if one steps outside the Catholic Milieu (and these days, even sometimes within, but nowhere near as severe and never on important and basic doctrines) is a tremendous array of varying "beliefs" about what the Bible actually teaches and what Christians are actually expected (by God) to believe. With no one to arbitrate (even an outright rejection of the very office of arbitrating) between the various opinions, that is how one gets all of the many many groups and sects there are therein.
Perhaps one other bit of value to be gained from this experience might be a real interest in the Bible itself, in reading and studying it and learning of its contents directly, sequentially, and in full. So let's look at that for a moment. The Bible contains our roots and the original basis of our Faith. Everything that has followed after has been in some way based upon the experiences and teachings of those named therein, both what they actually committed to writing in Scripture itself as well as what they passed on at the time as a kind of "oral tradition" which is substantially documented in the writings of the "Early Fathers." I do suggest you find and use a Catholic Bible, for several reasons. The Protestant editions either omit or relegate to some special area certain books commonly accepted by both Jews and Christians of the First Century, but which the Jews rejected in the second Century due to their use in converting them to Christ. Far later on, the Protestants, following the Jews, and also the isolated opinion of Jerome (one lone Church Father who thought that Christ would only have actually quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures since He lived in Israel all His life), began following the Second Century Jewish position and rejected these books. They did this because they mentioned such things as praying for the dead and so forth, a practice Catholics devoutly do, but which Protestants do not.
It is most fascinating to gain a glimpse of the early Church, as found in the Book of Acts, as well as documented in the various other books of the New Testament. If there can be the time, the Old Testament (and especially complete with all the books instead of merely "most" of them) is also of merit, to learn of God's dealings with Mankind in former eras. Much of Catholic Liturgy finds its basis in the Book of Leviticus, for example, though much is changed in that we no longer sacrifice animals (since we now have the perfect sacrifice of Christ), but the Mass instead, and so forth.
But next, after the New Testament era, one should then move on to the era of the Early Fathers, and the best way to know their true beliefs is to read their surviving writings. It is again quite fascinating to see how the Bible was understood by those who had known those who had known the original Apostles. Surely their thoughts can cast great light on what was originally meant, and some things that may not have been quite clear in Scripture itself. It is also important to bear in mind that the Scriptures were all written to specific needs of the day, for example to document the history upon which it is all based, or to respond to early objections to Faith as had been raised in the earliest days. That is why one does not find a standard "catechetical" approach anywhere in Scripture wherein such basic and essential doctrines as the Holy Trinity would be found, since that was still in the realm of "oral tradition," though Scripture does contain within it enough evidences to establish that it really was a First Century doctrine.
Understood in the context of all of this history, one truly gains a clearer impression of what the Church was and is really like and what it is meant to be by God, and how God intends to be worshipped. Singing songs might possibly qualify as "praise," but only the Mass qualifies as actual "worship" as God intends. And there is more to the Mass than simply what is done and said; there is also the whole sacramental priesthood with its direct continuity clear back to the beginnings of Divine delegations. You are correct in that not just any "Joe" off the streets can truly serve as the priest (or any other sort of "minister"). It takes many special qualifications, training, and express appointment to serve truly in that capacity.
Perhaps it might do to begin thinking about these things not only alone, but discussing them with your daughters, reading not only out of the books I have already recommended, but also from the Bible, and one other book (or set of books) I recommend, "The Faith of the Early Fathers" collected by William A. Jurgens,a three-volume set (paperback) which goes a long way towards sampling the truly vast amount of early Christian literature, and documenting much of them that shows them to have been most specifically Catholic from the earliest times onward, and not at all the way many (picking up a New Testament and deciding to make a new "church") might portray the early Church. I really think a regular home study between you and your daughters (and any other interested parties, such as if your daughters have any close friends who might be interested) would be the best thing to do here. In doing this, sometimes questions may arise, and for these it might be nice to bring in some outside expertise so as to resolve the questions and arbitrate any disputes. Certainly, you could turn to the experts for this (as you did to me), or perhaps your priest might be willing to help (not commonly, but some might and it's always worth asking). There is a whole lot more to Christianity that the Bible, or Church, or even "good clean living." I see you and your daughters as being at a cross-roads, as this seems to be a time to begin a serious exploration of what is true and why, and what is not true and why.
