Culture and Faith

The boys just finished Vacation Bible School at our Catholic Church.  They'd done VBS earlier in the summer at the Lutheran church.  Rob picked them up on their last day, and when I got home from work, he said to me  "That VBS was so.... CATHOLIC.  I don't get it.  What's with Catholics and all the bling.  The boys came home with St. Joseph medals.  I don't understand what that's all about."

And sure enough, there were my boys, shirtless, running around the yard with garish gold chains around their necks, each sporting an oversized medal with St. Joseph holding the baby Jesus on it.

My reply? "Well, St. Joseph was Jesus' FATHER.  He protected him, provided for him.  Was a faithful dad.  Isn't that something worth remembering and reminding ourselves about?"

"I mean - I'm not saying it's wrong.  It's just so different than what I'm used to!  Why do you need all that stuff?  They didn't get saints medals when they went to the Lutheran VBS. " 

This was true, and I told him that it was a cultural thing.  A "heritage" thing that Catholics have practiced for hundreds of years.  I myself have a necklace with medals of Our Lady of Guadaloupe, the Infant of Prague, a Guardian Angel, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus on it.  But how does a person explain it to someone for whom it is SO outside their normal?

Rob went on.  "It's like in the Catholic church has this cast of characters, when I'm used to thinking only about Jesus.  I worry about the characters being a distraction, when all that's really important is that relationship to Jesus."

I couldn't deny this.  He was absolutely right.  But I guess I don't see the cast of characters as a distraction, but rather an example pointing the way.  I told him that Jesus was fully divine and fully human, and we always strive to emulate Him, but... He was DIVINE.  And SINLESS.  Sometimes, we need the example of a mere mortal's response to Jesus.  Like we're telling ourselves "See?  I know we're flawed human beings.  But, by God's grace, we human creatures are ABLE to have an amazing relationship with the Savior.  Just look at those who did!"  And we bring up Mary, who said "yes" to being the vessel to bring Him into the world, and Joseph, who accepted the responsibility of caring for Him as a child, and John the Baptist, who prepared the way, and Paul and Peter, and countless others that we read about in scripture. Those who made mistakes, and stumbled, just like we do, but in the end responded as God wanted them to.   And those examples didn't just stop when the "book" was published.  Those examples of Christians who responded to Jesus' call continued throughout history.  Pointing the way to salvation, to Christ.  And when we recite the Creed and talk about the "Communion of Saints" -- THAT is what it is!!  We are all brothers and sisters in Christ, whether we lived 1000 years ago, or today.  And we pray for each other, support each other, help each other to grow closer to Christ.  Just as my father-in-law always tells my mother-in-law "if you make it there first, put in a good word for me", those that go before are still connected to us.   Alive or dead - members of the same family.  And just as we might have a picture of Grandpa in a locket around our neck, or wear the ring that used to be grandma's... it's a reminder.  To make us feel closer to that person.  When we invoke a saint, we are not worshipping them by any means.  We are asking them to pray for us, just as I would ask for prayers from anyone alive today.  "Pray for me, to the Lord our God.  You are my brother or sister in Christ.  Please pray for me."  

But still - it is a cultural thing to feel so connected to the Christians that went before.  To the geneological roots of our family.  And to many, it is different, awkward, distracting.  I understand that. 

I recently posted a video on this blog about a Pentecostal minister who, along with most of his congregation, converted to Catholicism.  Interestingly, he made a statement at one point that struck me as utterly true.... he said that getting to the Catholic church theologically was EASY.  He just had to study history to come to that conclusion.  When this group of people actually entered the church, though -- they most struggled with the CULTURE.  They were used to singing loudly, hands in the air or clapping.  They were used to fiery sermons, exclamations full of fervor.  Sitting through a quiet, meditative liturgy was so FOREIGN, it was hard to take.  My husband talks of the same thing.  The Mass is so FOREIGN to him, the feel of it so different than what he is used to, it's really hard. 
"I don't think I'll ever get used to it", he has told me.  "It doesn't speak to me, it doesn't fire me up like a good sermon and good music do.  It may be universal and timeless, but doing the same thing over and over makes it so you just don't FEEL it anymore".    I get this, too.    God created us to appreciate music, He created us to respond emotionally to words, to atmosphere.  I feel close to God whether I'm in the Lutheran or the Catholic church.  I know that He is there.   And if He's THERE, regardless of location, why then, do I insist on dragging my family to Mass every other week? To not devoting us fully to one church or the other?  And to that, I can only respond... theology.  The FULLNESS of that theology.  Not "90%" of it.  Even though God is there in that "90%".    Because if I'm not "100%", I feel like a hypocrite, saying that I believe the 100% but practicing only 90% of it.   I want ALL of it.

I read a book just recently called "Limbo", an autobiography of a devout Catholic girl growing up in Wisconsin, an accomoplished piano player who was on track to becoming a concert pianist, when she was struck with a debilitating illness that put her in a wheelchair, and robbed her of the ability to walk or use her hands.  She referred throughout the book to her faith in the past tense, which I found disturbing.  Describing her faith as a young adult, she talked about the God in which she had  believed.  Sure enough, as the story progressed, it became evident that she eventually lost her faith completely.  One day, while sitting in a concert - the same day she decided to give up the piano -  she just.... let it go.  She didn't want it anymore.  There wasn't some theological crisis, some extreme hurt or some deep revelation.  She just simply gave it up, this belief in God that she'd held so dear for the first 20 years of her life.  It was a burden to her, and she didn't want it anymore.  For some reason, that just hit me really hard.  Is it possible that I, some day in the future, could just "give up" my faith, see it as a burden, a set of rules, that I choose not to follow anymore?  I pray to God that that never happens to me.  Never happens to my family.  It was tragic, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

 But that's when I realized that this woman's faith had always been cultural.  She had the trappings of faith... she had come from a devout family, she had attended church regularly, she said her prayers, and lived the life she was supposed to live.  And when she gave it up, THAT is what she gave up.  The culture.  Because her faith never moved beyond that.  It was a way of life, and nothing more.

Whenever I have doubts - and they are inevitable, those questions of "what if I'm WRONG? What if all of us are WRONG?" -  there are certain things that immediately pop into my head to refute those doubts.  Undeniable things.  Concrete things.  Like the miracles that have happened in our lives.  My son's healed kidney, the prophecy of Reagan's birth.  I can't deny those.  I was THERE, I witnessed them with my own eyes, and they can't be explained by any other means.  Just as in Biblical times, the miracles bear witness to the truth.  And I stop to think of the bigger questions - I step outside the church walls, and look at our world, and I SEE how there is a God.  That any other explanation for this world, this Universe, can only be incomplete or wrong.  And if there's a God, would He send His son?  The evidence for Christ, when one stops to actually LOOK at it, is compelling.  SOMEONE came, SOMEONE caused quite a stir, that changed the history of the world FOREVER.  That could not have been just "some nice guy", some normal rabbi.  There's the Shroud of Turin, the Veil of Manopello.  How do we explain those?  We can't.  So if there's a God, if there's a Jesus, then what of the Church?  And that's when I go back and read the writings of the Early Church, and I know.  We aren't WRONG.  There is a TRUTH.  And I have blessedly, thankfully, by the grace of my Father, found it.  It's not simply what was handed down to me from my parents, although I am eternally grateful that it WAS.    It is more than that now, as an adult.  It is sown in my heart, in my head.  I am imperfect in it's practice, and at times stifle it's growth in my life.  I don't live this TRUTH fully in my life at every moment, but it is HERE.  I KNOW IT.  It is WITH ME.  And I am so grateful.  And I pray , pray, pray that this TRUTH takes root in my children as well, never to be shaken loose.  They will need it desperately in this life, to lead them safely to the next.  It's more than trappings, more than culture - although that is an inevitable part of it.   It is the WAY.  He is the WAY.

Alex Jones on the Early Church

Excellent talk by a pentecostal minister on the influence of the Early Church, and how reading about it changed his life.