SubscribeBaptism is not Symbolic
Our Catholic faith has many symbols such as the Sign of the Cross, etc. Baptism is not one of those symbols, as many protestant groups might have you believe.
The reading from today’s Morning Prayer is Ezekiel 36:25-27.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees. You shall live in the land I gave your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Not a whole lot of symbolism here, people.
Life Immortal
Life is an amazing thing. The mortal life that we share with the animals and plants around us constantly reminds us of our holy creator. The perfect balance so often found in the interconnection between many forms of life is simply divine. The tiniest disruption can wreak havoc among any number of species. This mortal life comes and goes for each living thing, with definite beginning and definite end.
Even more amazing than this mortal life, is the immortal life given to us by God. This immortal life also has a definite beginning, at conception, when our souls are created along with our bodies. But our immortal lives have no end.
We can clearly comprehend mortal life. We can see our bodies, we can feel with them, we can experience with them. We watch new life come into the world, and we also see life leave the world. The immortal life is an entirely different matter, but very important to understand. Our souls give life to our bodies. At death, our bodies and souls become separated, and all that is left is our souls. It is the state of our souls which will determine our state in the afterlife. This is not only important, it is eternal. So what about these souls? What do they do for us?
Our souls possess the spiritual powers of intellect and will. Intellect is our ability to think and understand, while our wills gives us the power to choose. We make decisions with our wills, and we love with our wills. We do this based upon what we know with our intellect. The intellect and the will work closely together. For the more we know a person, the more we are able to love them. The more that we come to know God, the more that we can love Him.
Of course as Christians, we know that the separation of our bodies and souls is only temporary. At some time unknown to us all when the world comes to an end, our bodies and souls will be reunited. Our bodies are necessary so that we can experience either pleasure or pain, as determined by the choices that we have made with our wills.
If we choose hell – and that’s exactly what hell is, a choice – we will experience a terrible sense of loss. We will come to fully understand the ramifications of the choices we have made – of the many times that we had the opportunity to repent, but failed – and we will have no further opportunity to choose. We will be eternally separated from God.
If we choose heaven, we will experience the inexplicable joy of being reunited with our Father. We can rejoice that we chose to use God’s grace to help us to do His will – sacrificing and avoiding temporary worldly pleasures – for the love and for the greater glory of God.
Though our lives on Earth may seem long to us, when measured alongside eternity they are here and gone in the blink of an eye. The choices that we make everyday can have enormous consequences. Only by the grace of God do we have a chance to get it right.
Patrick Madrid
There are quite a few big names among modern day Catholic apologists, and Patrick Madrid is one of them. You may know Patrick from his regular Thrusday appearances on the EWTN radio program, Open Line. He is also a frequent guest on other Catholic radio programs such as Catholic Answers Live. Alternatively, you may be familiar with Patrick’s books; he has written many of them.
I have been listening to Patrick Madrid regularly on Open Line for the past couple of months, and have come to really appreciate his approach to apologetics. He has a competent confidence as well a non-judgmental and even-tempered nature that allow him to come across as very kind and humble. His warm tone when speaking to callers is very engaging, and he always makes sure to treat every question (no matter how ridiculous) as important. I find his entire approach to be very inspirational. His work has certainly saved many souls, and if more of us embraced his demeanor we would surely save a few souls ourselves.
If you do not have access to EWTN radio, you can download the episodes each week as an mp3 file from EWTN. You can even subscribe to EWTN Open Line as a podcast from iTunes.
I have yet to read any of Patrick Madrid’s books, but I plan on doing so soon. In the mean time, if you are looking to feed your hunger for apologetics, listen to Patrick each week on EWTN Open Line, or check out his new blog. Links for all of these sites are listed below.
Patrick Madrid’s Web Site
Patrick Madrid’s Blog
EWTN Radio Programs
Books by Patrick Madrid
Bible Christian Society
Recently, I stumbled into an organization known as the Bible Christian Society. The name is quite deceiving, sounding a little bit non-Catholic in nature, but I found the site while searching for resources on Catholic apologetics. In case you’re not familiar with the term, apologetics, it’s essentially about defense of the faith. We Catholics are accused of believing all sorts of horrific things. The truth is, if we believed what the Protestants say we do, I’d have a problem with Catholics too!
In any case, the Bible Christian Society offers a large selection of audio presentations in mp3 format, which are freely available for download. The majority of these talks are given by one gentleman, John Martignoni, who has a knack for making complex theological ideas seem very simple. These audio talks are about one hour in length, and each covers a specific topic such as the pope, Mary, Purgatory, etc. Mr. Martignoni makes his case almost exclusively with the Bible, which is perfect for defending your faith against the attacking Protestant.
We are all called to learn apologetics to some degree in order to evangelize. We could learn a thing or two about evangelization from our Protestant brothers and sisters. If you’re not into reading some of the great works of Catholic theology by the Church fathers, then these one-hour presentations are perfect for becoming better informed about where our Catholic beliefs originate.
Check out the Bible Christian Society!
Authority
When I converted from atheism to Christianity, I explored a lot of the Protestant denominations. On the surface, they were very appealing because of their often “feel good” atmosphere. Many of them have upbeat rock music during their services, some of them have coffee shops, and most of them organize lots of fun church activities — softball teams, rafting trips — all kinds of fun things. The one thing that I found them lacking in, which I believe matters the most, is authority. Who is the authority? The standard answers are: Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or the Bible.
But if all of these post-Reformation denominations have the same authority, why is it that they can’t all agree on the important things — things like the purpose of baptism, the sanctity of marriage, and the requirements for salvation? Why has their moral teaching changed so drastically throughout time in order to better fit within society? Is it because their authority has changed?
This is what brought me to the Catholic Church. In reading the Bible, nowhere does it say the word, “Bible.” Jesus never says that in order to have everlasting life, you must follow the Bible. In reality, the Bible was not completed until somewhere around 300 years after the death of Christ. Before that time, the faithful practiced Christianity as it had been handed down to them, through apostolic succession — and Sacred Tradition. We Catholics believe many things because they were handed down to us by the people who actually walked with Jesus — people who saw him risen from the dead.
One thing that is evident from reading the Bible — something that is not contradicted anywhere — is that while on earth, Jesus formed a Church, with Peter at its head. Obviously God is the ultimate authority, but the Holy Spirit is with the Church, which was established to guide us here on Earth.
The people within the Church are not perfect, but the Holy Spirit within the Church is. Thank God for that authority.
