Becoming Catholic (RCIA) #1 - "Why Be Catholic?"

let's pray and just give tonight and whatever it is it lies ahead to the Lord Heavenly Father we thank you and praise you for everything for we can't name anything that we have that's not a gift our life is a gift every talent and blessing that we have is a gift our family and friends our gifts those of us who will find ourselves here tonight who know your son that's a gift even the challenges and the hardships that we've experienced in our lives the difficulties and the obstacles that we've encountered the things that oftentimes we don't understand they're all gifts and so father we entrust not only tonight but these weeks and months ahead into your hands we ask in a very specific way that you would pour out upon us the gift of your Holy Spirit and that you would increase within us or give to us the gift of faith father we ask that you would help us to see you to know you you know who you really are we ask for the grace to be able to see who your son is and what it is that Jesus has come to do what he's accomplished what it means to call him Lord and to follow as a disciple we ask for eyes to see what it is that could be considered a reasonable response to such a remarkable outpouring of love that he has made for us on the cross Lord you're the only one who knows our stories here you're the only one who has access to our interior you know how hard or how easy it is and was for some of us to come tonight well we just asked that you would help us to know that we are in your presence it was to be overwhelmed by the love that you have for us help us to know that no one's excluded and all these things we ask in the most powerful name of your son Jesus our Lord amen um let me try to answer four questions really quick why be Catholic why so long what does it mean to be Catholic and how do you become one so why be Catholic there's only one reason the only single reason anybody should ever become Catholic or for that matter anything else is because it's true don't become Catholic because you're getting married to a Catholic men don't become Catholic because you love her only decide to be Catholic because I've come to the conviction that this is true if it's not don't come in can't say that strongly enough it's the only reason we kind of live in a culture right now which tends to think of faith as opinion because we have a very reductive understanding of what truth is so truth from many people in the culture in which we live is kind of reduced to scientific or mathematical proof but that's a very again reductive understanding of truth if the only truth is mathematical and scientific truth what's love am I going to prove love in a formula and if there's no love why I live there's life without love is meaningless so we're going to follow John and I and father apprentice to I mean we all have kind of a passion for this kind of angle I think with regards to talking about the faith maybe it's because the culture tends to really miss what it means to be Catholic and so it thinks where it thinks the culture tends to think there's two kinds of people there's people who are intelligent they're educated they're logical the rational and then there's people with faith and they're illogical irrational not educated and not intelligent I would turn that entirely around and say there is no credible reason there's there's no intellectual reason to not be Christian it has nothing to do with what's in here it has everything to do with my will because people who begin to perceive that Christianity might be true sooner or later come to the conviction or the understanding I should say that if in fact it's true it's going to mean serious changes for my life and I don't think I want to do that if it's true if if Jesus is Lord what do lords do what do they do they've rule yeah and if Jesus is Lord which means if I say Jesus is Lord that means I'm saying jesus is my lord which means I'm saying Jesus rules me and every person in here is hardwired unfortunately because of something that happened a long time ago to rebel against God I don't want anybody to rule me I want to be God I want to be in charge I want to be in the throne in my life or all that God be like in charge of this thing this thing this thing this thing but not that that's mine that make sense so that helps give some of the explanation as to why this takes so long the church has a tremendous respect for the intellect so some of the things that were going to look at over the course of the next number of weeks and months are questions of belief we're going to talk about what are the reasons for believing something but some of the other things have to do with just right thinking like morality morality is a is a is a a matter of careful thinking most will say lots about that as we go on in the weeks and months ahead so undoubtedly some of us are here tonight we're like I'm not really sure that I believe what the church believes about abortion contraception homosexuality whatever it might be but right there I only just tell you that the church wouldn't speak like that the church wouldn't say we believe certain things about those kinds of realities when we're talking about moral principles like right living or questions with having to do with choices that we make those things have nothing to do with belief they have everything to do with right thinking with careful thinking so the church would say well this is what we would propose with regards to whatever the matter might be right and that might be very different than how we tend to think about something and that might be jarring to a number of us in here and so you're gonna go I don't know what I think about that and so out of respect for you it takes time inevitably as we go through becoming Catholic some of us who have been baptized already you know it could be end in November it could be January could be December someone will come and say I got no more questions I have no more objections I want to come into the church now can I do it now the answer is yeah you can't because ideally this experience it's not a course but what we're doing here ideally is for those of us here who are not baptized because obviously if we're going to speak about Catholicism to someone who's unbaptized it's going to look a lot different than how we're going to speak to somebody who's been walking with Jesus for decades it's just not Catholic so that helps you understand a part of the challenge as we go forward some of the things that we're going to cover are just going to seem so rudimentary perhaps to some of us but for others are like would you say three persons and no idea what do you call that Trinity I mean it this is gonna be brand new for some people right so the beginning few weeks now we're going to just look at some ideas and some some realities and take some time with that so it takes so long to do that there's a yeah I won't say more on that what does it mean to be Catholic so to be Catholic is to be a disciple what's a disciple who knows what disciple is what's the disciple a follower how else we might think about it someone speaks to gospel teacher so the master is actually the teacher the disciple is the student right so to be it to be a Catholic is to be a disciple that's really important because to be a disciple in fact it was father Prentiss who gave me this image once a member talking to him on the phone set of years ago and it's just an it's an easy image for me I'm very visual so I always think with pictures you know so to being a disciple to be an apprentice so to be an apprentice is just to watch somebody watch the master do something right and then to imitate them Jesus says that we are to become like him every student is to become like his teacher the goal of being Catholic is to be transformed and to become like Jesus that's really important to stress because hopefully it begins at least to make clear that this is not about information or it's not about mere information to be sure what we're going to do over the next number of weeks and months is we're going to look at a lot of stuff and there might be a lot of data that we're going to look at in the course of doing that but the goal here isn't to amass information the goal here is to experience transformation which leads to the last point how does somebody become Catholic or how does somebody become a disciple you have to make a choice so you can't be born Catholic you cannot be Catholic by birth and you can't be Catholic because your mom and dad we're Catholic you can't even be Catholic only by baptism the only single way to become a Catholic is the only way that you can become a disciple which is to make a choice and the choice is to go through what the church calls and what Jesus calls conversion conversion is is a word that is one of the words that's translated a Greek word Metanoia Metanoia means more literally to change the way you think that's really important another reason why takes so long that we Church gives so long for someone to discern whether or not they want to become Catholic because to become Catholic as a friend of ours puts it is is not to see some things differently it's to see everything differently everything because faith is a way of knowing faith isn't blind faith is sight faith is a light if I don't have faith I'm blind that's not at all how the culture which you and I live thinks I know that or talks they think we're blind who have faith they think we're just walking around with our eyes closed not looking at reality we would say exactly the opposite we don't think you're looking at reality and so those are fighting words and so we take time to go through things and we want people we want people to ask questions I mean if I'm not asking if if I've just planted blindly swallowed my entire life that I think the Creator the universe is so in love with me that he became man walked the earth and allowed his creature to nail him to a tree I'm um something's wrong with me what would lead me to that conclusion why would I just swallow that if I if I just go through life constantly hearing that God loves me don't worry just pray he'll answer all your prayers so take care of everything well then you haven't lived because I've heard no to a lot of prayers I've asked I've had bad things happen to me all throughout my life God has not protected me from any and all harm and he made no promise to do so what he promises he would be with me and everything and that no matter what happened to me he would give me grace strengths what I needed that make sense so I don't I say that I get this at the beginning just because there's a goal with what we're beginning here so we start by going I don't I don't know why I'm here you know like got invited by a family member got invited by a friend I'm gonna check some things out great but as someone mentioned the reason why everybody is here whether I believe this or not is kind of irrelevant you can believe the world is flat to need still be wrong but the reason that you and I got here is because God called us here that's why we're here so I'm here because of his poll maybe I know that maybe I don't sorry and he has a goal in mind and his goal is he wants us to know him Jesus says in the Gospel of John which is one of four Gospels for those of us who are unfamiliar with Scripture he's talking about what he's talking about salvation so salvation the easiest way to think of salvation salvation it just comes from the word that more literally means health so the way I think of it as I'm Humpty Dumpty we're all Humpty Dumpty quite frankly we all fell off the wall we're all broke into a billion pieces Jesus puts us back together he heals not just humanity but my humanity and so salvation is like becoming healthy again truly being healthy in every area Jesus says salvation is this that they would anybody know the answer no you Father but but this is really important knowledge in the Bible doesn't have to do with this knowledge is always experience so for those of us who grew up with like a King James Version of the Bible if you were to read Genesis 2 or Genesis 3 it's the Adam knew Eve and she bore Cain Adam and Eve were husband and wife that's a pretty intimate image Adam knew Eve she bore Cain Jesus says salvation is this that they us all of humanity would know you Father not know about you not have data that their lives would be so overturned by the experience of having met you and coming to know who you are and that their lives are in your hands that the greatest love of their lives as significant as it is pales in comparison that's salvation that's the goal that God has here he wants us to know him to encounter him to experience him and then to to respond to his work in our lives to surrender that's what Jesus is trying to get us to do here he's trying to get us to surrender and I warn you right now you're gonna fight like crazy because I do every day still because we are a rebellious race and that's how we've been born we'll explain why in a couple of weeks so that's his goal in getting here doesn't my goal that's his goal his goal is to lead us to an ever greater surrender not just of our intellect but of our will so that we'll be able to say I have come to the conviction that the man on the cross is in fact the one through whom everything that exists in this universe which is 46 billion light years across that's 46 billion times five point eight eight trillion miles and ever-expanding that the one through whom all of that was made is in fact so passionately in love with me that he became like me walked this earth and came to this earth for one reason it wasn't to teach it wasn't to do miracles although he taught and he did miracles it was to die and in doing that to destroy the power of death forever so that a Christian now has and the human race if it will but turn to Jesus has no reason to fear death anymore that's God's desire in these weeks and months ahead but I believe and think both that that man on that tree on that wall is Lord of the universe that every knee one day will bow to him every knee and claim him as Lord and that because of that act his death and his glorious resurrection for which there are reasons to think it happened which I would argue are far more serious than the reasons that you and I have to think I was born in the day that I was born that because of that I'm not afraid of death I have a new understanding of life and I'm willing to surrender myself into his hands and I can say to him I will do whatever you want I conversion means I am no longer living for me I'm living for him means I used to walk this direction but something's happened I've met somebody and the result of meeting somebody not learning something meeting somebody is I don't walk in that direction anymore now I'm walking in this direction or if I'm honest I'm really kind of walking like this because that's what I do I'm just going to go back and forth you know okay um what would I ask you to expect if father Prentiss father John and myself simply this that we will teach you not what we think or our opinion we will teach you what the Catholic Church teaches that's why you have on your table two things if you grabbed one a Bible and a catechism so I know some of you have your own Bibles that's great and we'll still give you this anyway if you'd like it if you don't have a Catholic Bible then your Bible is missing a series of books we'll explain why later all right so if you don't have a Catholic Bible take this one it's like the complete version all right it's the unabridged edition in it but we give this one in a particular way although like so I like I love the Word of God so I like having a leather Bible just because I'm always amazed at people who buy these lavish things you know and then it comes time to buy a Bible all of a sudden they become really like simple it's like I'm gonna get like that cheap paperback version or something like that like get the good leather Bible for crying out loud well you don't like handle the Word of God with care um we give you that one because it has great notes inside it so there's all these like little one-page inserts in there like purgatory what the heck purgatory is kind of unbiblical why would the Catholic Church teach about purgatory don't they understand that when Jesus poured out his precious blood I was washed clean there's no need for me to there's a little something in there on that or all sorts of different things right so that's why we give you that one the other little book we give you is the catechism so you have a little white wine I have a big yellow one it's the same book and the teachers Edition kidding it's not um so the Catechism here's the here's a challenge catechism is a great gift and a great problem here's the gift in the history of the Catholic Church so in 2,000 years there's been two of those it's what we call universal catechism so some of us when we were young maybe were taught from the Baltimore Catechism that's not a catechism like this is a catechism that was just used in the United States of America this is what's called a universal catechism it's translated into every language in the world and everybody teaches from it so every you want to know what the Church teaches about X it's in there that's the beauty of it here's the problem it's not explained in the way that you probably would like it so you'll find out what the Church teaches but you know so you want to you want to learn about contraception why is the church teach what she teaches about contraception wise contraception harmful why is it the overriding of the language of self giving with the language of a lie I mean that's a pretty bold claim we know like so it's in there here's the problem it's in there and it's a paragraph all right the explanation is a library so the what's in there but not necessarily the why at least to the degree that we might like the why that's another reason why we take so long to go through the things that we go through okay so here's the thing when when we're teaching and you hear us say something that's not what the Catechism says we would like you to come and go father you said this and that doesn't seem to be in harmony with that so uh what's up with you so call us on it really we mean that we want you to have that expectation of us okay um the Catechism is broken up into four parts which more or less we will follow as we teach becoming Catholic the first part is the Creed and an understanding and a breaking down of what we do on Sunday in the liturgy at Mass the profession of faith I believe in God the Father Almighty the Creed is very familiar to some of us and totally foreign to some others of us the the fear that or the concern I often have when we give people a catechism is that people think this is like some sort of reference book is probably for people who really want to go deep now the Catechism is extremely easy to read and it's actually downright beautiful at times it's totally indexed and annotated to Scripture and I can't encourage you enough to just pick it up and start reading like on the first page where just starts talking about who we are who God is and what we're made for because to me the three most important questions in life have always been why am I here where am I going and how do I get there every culture asked those questions until recently if I don't know the answer those questions how do I live what do I live for why am I here what am I going and how do I get there in the beginning of the Catechism starts speaking beautifully about that so don't fear that this is some sort of you know hook that we give you in case you one day you you know up and you want to do this it's really given for you just to dig in to take notes underline ask questions and because we're going to create opportunities for us as we go along for four whole nights just kind of dedicated to open forum and a question so the first part is the Creed the second part or the four parts our Creed and the commandments of the moral life the sacraments and then prayer so those are the four pillars of the Catechism and we're going to spend time kind of at least pointing our way through all those and and working through them let me just say a little bit about what we're going to do over the next couple of weeks and then I'm going to hand it over to Bob and we can get out of here so he highlighted these Sundays so we meet Thursday nights but but we're also going to do in addition to that on September 18th and September 25th we invite you to come to the noon mass at a certain point we'll we'll try to get people to come to the ten o'clock mass more often than not but the noon mass brunch and then we want to do two things right away we want to do a tour of the church on Sunday eighteenth and we're going to do an explanation of the mass on the 25th why because for those of us who are not Catholic the mass is just bizarre like it's not intuitive right part of the problem is you walk in and they're reading from I don't know where that came from like what in the world is that reading from and what does it have to do with my life right now and then they're doing something around that altar up there and and I can't come up well that great how hospitable well they said everyone was welcome so so we want to explain the mass just quickly we're going to take some more time later on but we want to we want people to feel at home right so it's kind of like I equate coming to Catholic Mass for the first time it's like going to someone's house for Thanksgiving and they just have really bizarre traditions and you're sitting there going I have no idea what's coming next and now we're standing and they're spinning and who knows what's nice I'm going to use the restroom and and tell me I got a phone call I gotta kill who right so it's bizarre we don't want it to be bazaars we want to give an explanation two postures holy water a crucifix statues the tabernacle candles why do we do all these things and then one is well on on just the layout of the church so we'll do it upstairs so it can be very informal and hopefully just hands on for everybody so even in these you know first couple of weeks you got questions write them down please because we would love to be able to address them upstairs when we're actually looking at what we're looking at right I mean like good grief it's a commandment thou shalt not make a graven image it just means carved if you haven't been in our church we have a lot of carvings don't we read the Bible what do we do that so we want to answer that all right um and we want talk about posture because postures are really significant and worship so sometimes people often refer to being Catholic is like the calisthenic worship service but and there's a reason that you do things there's a reason you stand there's a reason you sit there's a reason you need we want to walk through that okay so we want to do that on those Sundays the first couple weeks what we're going to do we want to just tell the story so we're just bend I don't know we might do it in three weeks we might do it in four that's why there's them that's why there's so many to be determines on your calendar we'll see what happens what I mean by tell the story we want to lay out the basic narrative of Scripture or the basic narrative of salvation history so we want to focus in in a particularly in Genesis one two and three we want to look at that in some depth and all that it entails and implies why we want to do that because if you get Genesis right you get everything right if you don't understand Genesis it's really hard to understand anything so it's kind of like walking into a three hour movie an hour into the movie and you just sit there and go are these people what are they doing and you ask the person next to the person's actually like Shh should I come out dying so we want to we want to just explain the story because in doing that it's kind of like building a house so if we can build the framework of the house then once we get that built then we can start hanging things inside the rooms so we start looking at marriage and issues regarding marriage and sexual morality once we've looked at Genesis and God's plan for man and woman and what it means to be married we want to look at the question of evil but you can't look at the question of evil until you realize well how did evil get here to begin with and who's responsible for why things are so messed up and we want to learn by how God reveals to us in his word an amazing truth about him namely that even when his creature repels and says to him we would rather you were dead he promises mercy and healing and says something to the effect of you don't really mean that so we won't look at that that's what we're gonna do these first few weeks okay help so it's awfully often nice that we used to have a bit of a roadmap for where we're going to go that's where we're going to go and then as things come up it's going to much like we learn about you a little bit tonight and just the the diversity of who's here it helps us kind of think about okay so we want to be attentive to you we want to be attentive to the Lord and just try to listen to him saying okay so where do we go now what are those things that are emerging that clearly need to get dealt with and treated with okay fair enough great

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Id: AZE2j1gkuKA

Length: 31min 56sec (1916 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 09 2016