Why Remain Catholic?

Normally I post music on Fridays, but Tod Worner started something earlier this week with a post entitled “Why I Am NOT Leaving the Catholic Church”, and I thought I’d get in on the fun. (You can find links to a bunch of other bloggers’ answers to the question at the bottom of Tod’s post.)

I’ve written about my path to the Catholic faith a number of times, in a number of places, most recently just a week or so ago. And for what it’s worth, my answer is pretty similar to Tod’s: I think the Catholic faith is true. I settled whether I would worship and follow the God of Abraham and His Son Jesus Christ decades ago; and I have become convinced that the Catholic Church teaches the truth about God and Jesus Christ. Any reason I might have for belonging to another denomination or for leaving Christianity altogether would then be a move away from the truth; and why would I want to choose to believe a lie?

But there’s more to it than that. When I first came to grips with Catholic thought on my way back into the Church, I was surprised to discover that it cast light not just on God but on, quite literally, everything else. We have two things we know to be true, says the Church: the universe around us, and the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Both come from God, and ultimately they cannot be in conflict.

Consequently, you might say (and I do) that a scientific theory is in accord with the Catholic faith precisely insofar as it accurately describes reality. The Catholic faith is big enough to encompass all of the physical sciences without competing with them.

But it goes farther than that. The Catholic faith answers what the late Douglas Adams called the Great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. (“42”, of course. You’ll find it in the Old Testament, in the Book of Numbers.) I know that I was created to spend eternity in Heaven with God; that I am not strong enough on my own to stand before Him, for He is like a refiner’s fire; that Christ came to lend me the grace I need to grow strong; that He established a Church that this grace might be passed down the ages and made available to all who will accept it. The purpose of this life is to give that grace time to work, and to pass it along to as many as possible.

In short, it makes sense of Nature and Man and their relation to God and to each other, and has a place for all genuine knowledge.

Some people ask, “How can you be Catholic”, as though becoming Catholic was like choosing to live in a dingy box, never coming out. That’s not my experience. When I returned to the Church, it was like climbing out of that box into the open air and sunlight. It’s a great big beautiful world out here; why would I want to go back inside?

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photo credit: DGJ_4105 – Time for a Trip via photopin (license)

photo credit: Sunset over the Grand Canyon, William H. Duquette