Also known as "WHY I'm Catholic". I've had responses of surprise, shock, bigotry when people find out I'm Catholic. I've had comments of "Isn't that really STRICT?", "You know you're going to Hell", "Well, in the Catholic church, if you have enough money, they think they can buy salvation", "The Pope is the antichrist" , "What about the crusades and the inquisition? Pedophile priests? The catholic church is the biggest most corrupt murderer of innocent people in history", and "Catholics think they can earn their way to heaven." None of that is accurate, and furthermore, none of it matters. THIS FACT ALONE, stated eloquently by a holy man a mere generation after the death of Christ, impells me to be Catholic. Because it is God's good pleasure to guide His church.
From St. Iraneous, Bishop of Lyons, in 189 AD:
"It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who
may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which
has been made known to us throughout the whole world. And we are in a position
to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their
successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like
what these heretics rave about" (Against Heresies 3:3:1 [A.D.
189]).
"But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a
volume as this the successions of all the churches, we shall confound all those
who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or
through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by
pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most
ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most
glorious apostles, Peter and Paul—that church which has the tradition and the
faith with which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the
apostles. For with this Church, because of its superior origin, all churches
must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world. And it is in her that
the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition" (ibid.,
3:3:2).
"Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true. To these things all the Asiatic churches testify, as do also those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time" (ibid., 3:3:4).
"Since therefore we have such proofs, it is not necessary
to seek the truth among others which it is easy to obtain from the Church; since
the apostles, like a rich man [depositing his money] in a bank, lodged in her
hands most copiously all things pertaining to the truth, so that every man,
whosoever will, can draw from her the water of life. . . . For how stands the
case? Suppose there arise a dispute relative to some important question among
us, should we not have recourse to the most ancient churches with which the
apostles held constant conversation, and learn from them what is certain and
clear in regard to the present question?" (ibid., 3:4:1).
"[I]t is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the
Church—those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles;
those who, together with the suc,cession of the episcopate, have received the
infallible charism of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father. But
[it is also incumbent] to hold in suspicion others who depart from the primitive
succession, and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever, either as
heretics of perverse minds, or as schismatics puffed up and self-pleasing, or
again as hypocrites, acting thus for the sake of lucre and vainglory. For all
these have fallen from the truth" (ibid., 4:26:2).
"The true knowledge is the doctrine of the apostles, and
the ancient organization of the Church throughout the whole world, and the
manifestation of the body of Christ according to the succession of bishops, by
which succession the bishops have handed down the Church which is found
everywhere" (ibid., 4:33:8).
For more Fathers on Church authority and
apostolic succession, go here.
No comments:
Post a Comment