The Bride of Christ, Part 1

Understanding the true nature of the Catholic Church

02/12/2024

Three years ago our former associate pastor, Fr. Daniel Velasco, asked me to give some talks on the Catholic Church to a class of candidates for spiritual direction. He said the classes would stretch over three years, one class per weekend, from 2022 through 2025. I asked him, “When is the last possible date I can give that class?” he answered: “Spring of 2025.’ I said: “Okay, sign me up for that date, and maybe Jesus will come back in glory before then and I can get out of that commitment.” The way things are going these days, his speedy return does not seem out of the question. But just in case the Good Lord stays in heaven longer, I want to share those reflections on the true nature of the Catholic Church. Today we will consider one preliminary point, namely, what joining the Catholic Church can teach us about the true Church.

The moment when many people notice the unique nature of the Catholic Church is when they decide to change churches. Some Catholics become disgruntled with all the rules and regulations of being Catholic so they leave and join another denomination. Some of my Episcopalian friends joke: “We are Catholic Lite.” That is, just like you have regular beer and light beer, so some find Catholicism like regular beer, and Protestantism like light beer: fewer calories but also less Christ. But no one can deny that it is remarkably easier to join a Protestant denomination than to become Roman Catholic. All you have to do to join a Protestant Church, as far as I am aware, is fill out a membership form, and you’re in. There are no intrusive investigations about your marital history, no queries about whether or not you have already been baptized (and then produce a certificate to prove it!), no need for an annulment for previous marriages, no parading people to the front of the sanctuary to make them state their intention publicly, etc.

Basically, it looks like Protestants have cut through all the theological red tape and focused on the essential core of Christianity: a personal faith in Jesus Christ. Hence, the one and only relevant question in order to become a Protestant: “Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?” If you can answer affirmatively, you are automatically a Protestant Christian and therefore assured of your eternal salvation. Or, if you respond negatively, then come to a Protestant church as soon as possible in order to learn why that question – and its affirmative answer – are so urgent. It doesn’t take a doctorate degree to see how tempting, and even theologically plausible, it appears to jump ship out of the Bark of Peter (the ancient symbol of the Catholic Church) and join any number of local, or now even online, Protestant churches. I have often heard the statistic that the largest single Christian denomination in the United States is Roman Catholic. The second largest denomination is ex-Catholics. And when you consider how easy it is to go from Catholicism to Protestantism, you can well believe that stat, and suddenly the true nature of the Roman Catholic Church starts to emerge and come into full relief.

This same insight can be gained not only by those who leave the Catholic Church, but also by those who desire to join the Catholic Church. Invariably, Protestants, and even non-Christians, are surprised (shocked may be more accurate) at how long and arduous the process is to become Catholic, called RCIA, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Recently, on November 17, 2021 the United States bishops renamed that process as OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. I am still getting used to that change, so forgive me if I revert back to RCIA, and don’t report me to Bishop Taylor. But RCIA, or OCIA, is approximately a nine-month program to become Catholic. People interested in Catholicism attend weekly classes – here at Immaculate Conception we meet on Tuesday evenings – to learn about all the multi-dimensional aspects of Roman Catholicism. It is a crash-course in Catholicism, where we teach about the Holy Trinity, church history, the sacraments, Mary and the saints, deacons, priests and bishops, church architecture, relics and statues, incense and bells, etc. They hear the A-Z of being a Catholic. Last week two people came to talk to me about becoming Catholic. They said they have started to come to Mass, but sit quietly in the back and just watch our Catholic calisthenics: our standing, kneeling, and sitting.

But RCIA is not merely “head knowledge.” It is also, and principally, a transformation of the heart called conversion. Conversion means a turning toward Jesus in all aspects of our life, where we hold nothing back from him. We do not cultivate little gardens in the back of our hearts that we reserve for ourselves, which Jesus cannot touch. Hence we ask about previous marriages and getting an annulment if necessary. We inquire whether the candidate has been baptized, and if so, we do not require them to be re-baptized. We explain our Catholic commitment to help the poor, to protect the unborn, to welcome the stranger and immigrant, and to save the environment. As a result, becoming Catholic is not a matter of finding a “conservative church” or a “liberal church. “ It is far more about finding the “true church.” Roman Catholicism transcends cultural categories like liberal or conservative. The Church Jesus established is too big to fit inside such small-minded boxes. It is like a child trying to pour the ocean into his little bucket sitting by the seashore. If you are coming to the Catholic Church to hear preaching about political views – like our comfortable little echo chambers – you will be disappointed. When you begin to explore the Roman Catholic Church, you always find more than you bargained for. In other words, our faith is bigger than us, and that is the way true faith should be if it really comes from God and is not a product of our own imagination.

So, the real question is: if it is so easy to become a Protestant and so Herculean to become a Catholic, why on earth would anyone bother to do it? The main reason is because people hear God’s voice whispering in their heart to consider Catholicism, like those two people who came to talk to me last week. In fact, their families are adamantly against their decision, and so these brave people will have to overcome both internal and external pressure. But people have been converting to Christ and his Church with enormous personal cost since the saints and martyrs of the early Church. Just think of the men and women, and even teenagers, like Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Joan of Arc, who were willing to die before leaving the Church. These heroic souls cling to the Church, because they have found the Truth, the truth about who Jesus is, and the truth about who they are. They could just as soon walk away from the Catholic Church as walk away from themselves.

Scott Hahn, who was a Presbyterian minister and became Catholic in 1986, paying a great personal and professional price, made this memorable analogy. He said imagine all the people in the world are in a swimming race in the middle of the ocean. Everyone has to swim to the finish line, the only difference is that Catholics are in a speed boat. And that is why, even though it is easy to leave the Church, and feels hard if not impossible, to join the Church, people are still climbing onboard the Bark of St. Peter, the Roman Catholic Church.

Praised be Jesus Christ!