Trying a little bit of apologia

Mary, with the Child Jesus and the Saints (Boccelli)

Prayer for the Day

“Lord, I don’t want to do anything to separate myself from you! May my obedience be inspired by love, and may my relationship with you bring me greater and greater joy!”

Reflection

The Scriptures at Mass this week continue the account of the Acts of the Apostles, in which Peter confronts the Apostles with the truth that Gentiles also have the right to salvation under Christ! It seems a bit silly now to us that there would have been any doubt.

The Gospel reading Thursday is a small excerpt of the fifteenth chapter of St. John. Nice as this segment is, there are even juicer words if one reads farther. For example, “You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I shall not call you servants anymore, because a servant does not know his master’s business, because I have made known to you everything I have learned from my Father.”  And even farther, “What I command you is to love one another.”

This morning one of my friends, a co-worker, wanted to borrow my car so that he could go to the bank (His transportation was a pick-up truck that had a specially built trailer for hauling more trailers and it was loaded to the max).   I told him, “Sure, if you don’t mind that it has no air conditioning and the radio is tuned to a Catholic station!”  That statement was the start of a conversation about the recent ‘rapture’ nonsense.  I mentioned that Harold Camping was, in my opinion, one in a long line of false prophets that are scattered throughout the Bible, even in the Old Testament (Jeremiah 28).

My friend (I’ll call him “Joe”) said—I think (or at least I hope) he had tongue-in-cheek—“He has it all figured out mathematically.  Don’t you think we (meaning mankind) have become more sophisticated in our knowledge than we were 2000 years ago and so are able to ‘find’ things in Scripture that may have been hidden to early Christians?”  I took a deep breath and asked the Holy Spirit to be with me as I tried to give him an answer, because I’m not an apologist and often have to use the “I don’t know but I’ll get back to you” approach in defending my faith.

I told him I believe in John 15—“I have made known to you everything I have learned from my Father.”  I further stated that I’m wary of anyone who interprets Scripture to suit his own needs and that I believe Jesus gave the authority to speak for the Church to the Apostles and their successors (Matthew 16: 13-23);  in other words, the Catholic Church.  To which he replied, “That’s one crazy bunch of people, those Catholics”.  I asked him what he meant.  He said “they have some funny and strange teachings.”  I told him it amazes me how much people THINK they know about Catholic teachings, and to give me an example of a funny or strange teaching. 

He said, “They pray to Mary and Saints and all that!”   I countered by telling him that the Scripture exhorts us to pray for one another, even for the dead, and that we don’t stop praying even when (if) we get to Heaven!  He said, “They can’t hear you.  They are DEAD!”  I said, “Haven’t you read where Jesus said, ‘Faith in the resurrection rests on faith in God who "is not God of the dead, but of the living."' (Mark 12:27)?

He said, “Only Jesus came back from the dead”.  I said, “Yes, that’s true.  Jesus is the only One who has a Resurrected body in Heaven.”  (And as a Catholic I believe that the mother of God was assumed into Heaven body and soul and as such holds a unique distinction from the rest of us [she didn’t “die”, she “fell asleep”]—Although I didn’t include this bit of information when speaking with Joe.  I don’t know why not—I probably wasn’t inspired to do so at that time!)  “But the souls of the Saints and His Mother are there and who better to ask to pray for you and those you love?”  He just kept arguing that everybody except Jesus is DEAD until Judgment Day, and that the only way to the Father is through Jesus!  Not through Mary or the saints or anyone else!  I agreed that we are to go to Jesus for all of our needs and I do, but I personally feel I need all the additional help I can get from those who are closest to Him right now! 

I felt I had put up a pretty good defense of the faith but I could see there was still a lot of confusion in his mind (fueled by an un-spoken anti-Catholicism and perhaps a bit of a closed mind) and we were supposed to be working anyway.  I told him I would be more than happy to spend as much time as he wanted off company time if he wanted to continue the conversation, because I love speaking about my faith with others.  Another friend who was with us listening to the whole conversation finally chimed in and said, “That shows!” with a tone of respect in his voice that told me he was somewhat interested in and possibly swayed by my (the Holy Spirit's--Praise be to God!) responses to Joe’s questions.  It really made my day and all I could think about the rest of this afternoon was my Prayer for the Day last Thursday.  God listens and answers.  And helps you when you feel you can’t do it alone (Mark 13:11, Matthew 10:19).  Praised be Jesus Christ! Alleluia!