Thursday, June 14, 2007

Why the Catholic Church?

Why the Catholic Church?

On Catholic Answers Live (on EWTN radio) yesterday, someone called in with a problem that his Catholic teenage daughter had gone to an Evangelical Church and really liked it. It had great music, preaching and hospitality. Their Catholic church did not.

This brings up the question, why be Catholic and go to a Catholic church? Many Catholic churches are "boring", the music isn't good, and people may not be friendly. So why go? Why not go to another church?

I have done a lot of exploration of the Catholic church over the last year. I've been Catholic for a little more than 2 years, and until this past year, I certainly didn't understand either...

The Catholic Church has the physical presence of Jesus at Mass in the Eucharist. You can receive Jesus every week, every day even! When an Evangelical asks a Catholic "do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?", the answer should be "Absolutely! I receive Jesus into my body every week. It doesn't get any more personal than that!"

I always knew that communion was important, but never knew why. Growing up Methodist, we had communion on "special" occasions. But I attended a church (non-denominational) for a while with my girlfriend  that never had communion. I always thought "that's not right".  When thinking of becoming Catholic, I always thought I would never accept transubstantiation (the belief that the bead and wine are trnsformed into the body and blood of Christ). And initially I didn't. But after reading about it, the basis in scripture and why the church teaches it, I am amazed that I didn't believe!  The Eucharist is a beautiful gift to us! Its a weekly dose of grace for you!

If you don't believe in the Eucharist (as either a non-Catholic or a Catholic) then I can understand the allure of another church. But if you do believe, why (and how) could you go anywhere else?

And if you don't believe, don't you owe it to yourself to learn about the Eucharist and see if the Catholic Church jsut might be right?

1 comment:

Joyful Catholic said...

Hi,
Wow, sounds like we have a similar journey. I grew up in a Methodist family...then married a Catholic, joined the Church early in our marriage, but it was more out of 'duty' than the entire, heart/soul. We just returned to the CC in Dec. 2004 and have never looked back. I LOVE the Eucharist and the Church so much now! Great blog you have. We were in Mukilteo WA in Feb 2001 and visited your island. LOVELY!

PAX,
susie