“The Bible and the Catholic
Catechism do not teach the same Jesus.”
“In order for Catholicism to be
true the Bible has to be false.”
“You need to be born again and
find a Bible preaching church before it is too late. The one you’re in is going
to take you to Hell because it preaches ‘another Jesus.’”
“I didn’t write these two books
(the Bible and the Catholic Catechism) but to say that they teach and believe
the same thing is untrue.”
“Anyone who honestly looks at
God’s Word and compares it to what the Catholic church teaches, will see that
the two are VERY different doctrines.”
These are sample comments left by a visitor to this blog. I’m
touched by his concern for my eternal fate, and by his sincere effort to
convert me to follow who he calls “my Jesus” (perhaps to distinguish his from
everyone else’s).
Yet I’m befuddled by the assumptions that underlie his comments. He
seems to think that no Catholic has ever read the Bible, or has ever read it
carefully, and that he is pointing out Biblical truths that have somehow
escaped the attention of Catholics (both in the hierarchy and the laity) for
centuries.
I think of people with far greater intellectual ability, spiritual
depth, self-less love and faithful courage than myself, and how so many of them
could be duped by this allegedly false doctrine--and yet have accomplished countless
heroic deeds nevertheless.
I think of people like Thomas Aquinas, Augustine of Hippo, and his poor
mother Monica, who prayed for decades that her son would exchange debauchery
for un-Biblical blasphemy--perhaps she should have left well enough alone. I
think of Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Jerome, Teresa of Avila, John of the
Cross, Therese of Lisieux, and Catherine
of Siena--how could such highly intelligent, spiritually strong, loving and
courageous people have missed what was right in front of their noses?
Not to mention Francis of Assisi, Joan of Arc, Ambrose, Anselm, John
Chrysostom, Athanasius, and Ignatius of Antioch; how could they have been so
blind?
Then there’s Ignatius Loyola, Bonaventure, Albert the Great, Patrick,
Benedict, Scholastica, Dominic, Vincent de Paul, Maria Goretti, Agnes, and
Dominic Savio. (The latter three being children who were allegedly led astray.
Then there’s John Bosco, who dedicated his life to allegedly leading children
astray.)
Or how about Anthony of Padua, Cecilia, Clare of Assisi, Rose of Lima,
Nicholas, Elizabeth Ann Seton, and Martin de Porres?
Or Maximilian Kolbe, Teresa of Calcutta, Kateri Tekakwitha, Francis
Xavier, Katharine Drexel, Thomas More and Francis de Sales?
Let’s not forget Francis Xavier Cabrini, Damien of Molokai, Charles
Lwanga and his companions, Paul Miki and his companions, Edith Stein, and Pier
Giorgio Frassati.
This list, of course, is just the tip of an enormous iceberg; but
according to my blog visitor it’s a list none of us should strive to be on.
What puzzles me is this: Jesus said “I am the vine, you are the
branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because
without me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Good fruit can only come from
someone who is united to Jesus, the true vine. He makes the same point in
Matthew 7:18: “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear
good fruit.”
The lives of the people I’ve listed, as well as countless others who
have called themselves Catholic, are overflowing with the kind of good fruit
that is described to a tee in Matthew 25:34-36.
“Come, you who are blessed by my
Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a
stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for
me, in prison and you visited me.”
“The righteous” (as the parable names them) confess that they had no
intellectual understanding at the time that they were serving Jesus--they didn’t
even recognize him. Yet Jesus assures them that such intellectual realization
of his presence or identity, or differences in interpretation of doctrine, or
any other such mental disciplines take a back burner on judgment day.
“Whatever you did for one of
these least brothers of mine [whether you intellectually understood or
realized it at the time] you did it for me.”
In other words, it is possible to recognize Jesus in the unconscious
depths of our heart whether or not our minds are in sync, for that’s where we
recognize him most clearly.
Evangelicals, however, like to
replace the real ending of this parable with this notion that better fits their
narrow theology:
“However—because your doctrinal
understanding differed with some of your brothers and sisters, because you
might not have even consciously recognized me when you served me and my people,
despite all that you have done for me, BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS ME—depart
from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels.”
That simply isn’t what the Gospel
says. What it does say is this:
In John 14:6 Jesus says no one goes to the Father except through
him. In saying this he clearly defines who
he is: The Way, The Truth, and The Life. Some people recognize Jesus
consciously, and consciously express faith in him. There are others who
recognize The Way, The Truth and The Life (read “Jesus”) in their hearts,
but cannot intellectually name him as Jesus. Jesus clearly lives through their
actions, because their actions are from him--The Way, The Truth and The Life--even
though they cannot give intellectual assent.
By that same token, Christians can have doctrinal differences
based on different interpretations of Scripture but still be welcomed as one
into the kingdom.
The Evangelical doctrine limits the Word of God to what’s printed
in the pages of the Bible, while the Catholic Church proclaims what the Gospel
of John teaches, that Jesus himself is the eternal Word of God, that while he
is present in Scripture he is not confined to it, nor even to the Church he
established upon Peter and the Apostles.
The Catholic Church teaches that the fullest way to experience
life in Christ while on this earth is through participation in the life of the
Church he established. This does not mean that only those fully joined to the
Church can be saved. All can be saved who seek the Way, the Truth and the Life
in their hearts, regardless of their intellectual framework, because they are
really seeking Jesus, and Jesus knows that. And Jesus can do much without our
help or our knowledge.
Catholics, Evangelicals, and many other folks are in the same boat.
The many heroic people who were both listed and unlisted in this article
understood that, Evangelicals don’t. I’ll throw my lot in with the former, and
join in Jesus’ prayer that we all may be one.
