Catholic Answers to Protestant Questions - Fr. Jonathan Meyer - 9.8.2019

you [Music] you cannot win if all you do is play defense you cannot win if all you do is play defense it doesn't matter the sporting event if you do not have an offense you'll lose you have the most amazing defense and if you do not have an offense you will lose in our Catholic Church we have been playing defense for decades without an offense the reality is is that we're losing right now buzzwords in the church are maintenance versus mission for about the past 100 years the Roman Catholic Church particular in the Unites States of America has been in maintenance mode why is that well culturally the church actually grew even though it was a maintenance mode but why was that because there is a Christian culture that promoted the church we had a culture that promoted family and children in fact early large children's lots of families having lots of children after the council of Baltimore the knight States of America every parish in the Unites States of America was required to find found at school within five years and the pastor of the parish could deny a mother and a father Holy Communion if they did not send their child to that Roman Catholic school at the parish we became entrenched in being an institutional Church that founded hospitals and institutions and then we just maintained them and kept them going but that's not mission that's not having an offense that's just protecting what you've already created now that the culture has literally collapsed as a reminder we live in a culture right now that says we can kill our children anyone can get divorced at any moment they want a boy can be a girl a girl can be a boy we no longer live in a Christian world and so the church is struggling I want a proposal this morning that it's because we have forgotten what it is to have an offensive plan and you don't win with defense I'm using today's second reading which is st. Paul's letters to Philemon which is the only time you're ever going to hear it the three are Sunday readings are on a three-year cycle and this is the only time that we hear from Philemon it's a very short book that Paul wrote he wrote it at the end of his life he's in prison he actually says within it I'm an old man and it Paul says something absolutely outrageously Catholic he calls himself a father now I don't know if you know this but our Christian brothers and sisters find this to be highly offensive when scripture has taken out of its context Jesus does say very clearly call no one on earth your father or master or teacher you have one father this taking out of this context puts many Catholics on the defensive a Roman catheter be asked by someone you Catholics call your priest Father don't you you know it says in the Bible you shouldn't do that so apparently your whole entire church is wrong I want to look at how we should not be always on the defense how we should be on the offense how we should be asking questions the reality is when you get asked questions you are backed into a corner you're then presented with one scripture or two scripture passages which seem to refute everything you've ever been taught to believe that is true good and worthy and holy and so oftentimes Christians or Catholics give up so hey guys forward now if we look at these questions raise your hand if you've ever been asked any of these questions my question is this why aren't we asking the right questions the reality is is that the reason why the majority of you raise your hands is because our Christian brothers and sisters have a very good offense they know how to suck Catholics out of their churches and into theirs and if we don't think that it's plan we're wrong they have questions they memorize one or two biblical passages the Crick the Catholic then feels weak and then they leave my question is this why aren't we asking better questions because that would be our offense so let's start with this have you accepted Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior what question should we be asking why don't you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you'll notice in these list of questions up here is there isn't one about the Eucharist Protestants knows they can't ask about the Eucharist because it is so clear in the biblical text you can't refute it Jesus is teaching in John chapter 6 and in every Last Supper narrative is absolutely clear that we are to eat his body and drink his blood so why are we out asking people and telling people how awesome the Eucharist is because we've been taught not to we've been taught to defend not to promote but imagine how awesome it would be to talk to a great Christian who loved the war beautifully and to let them know that they could actually not just think of Jesus not just have a spiritual relationship with him but actually enter into a personal relationship with him in his body in his blood that they could take within their very beans why do you call you priest father this is what sparked this homily today in Matthew chapter 21 Jesus does say call no one on earth your father now we know this is ridiculous we know that Jesus is insane called no one on earth your father so we should be asking some questions why do you call your dad father I mean I think like on Father's Day you should go up to your really really convicted Christian friends to be like you aren't celebrating this are you oh thanks me to God you don't celebrate Father's Day because that would be absolutely unbiblical but of course they celebrate Father's Day and of course they call their dad father my question is why wouldn't we encourage them to call their pastors father doesn't a father bring life doesn't a father protect an offend uplift I mean st. Paul several times calls himself a father so we know that Jesus did not mean that in a literal sense there are times where Jesus speaks clearly and literally and there's times where he's speaking in a more broader fashion beck's why do you worship Mary I want to ask the question like this should be like if you're a feminist I'm a feminist I love women I promote women I think like it's we should be asking every single Protestant that we've ever met why do you not honor Jesus's mother like how do you not find that to be offensive to Jesus now they have a really really good intention their intention is what I want to honor Jesus so you're all married many of you are married is it possible for you to love your spouse and completely despise their mother and father some of you are like well but is that what your heart wants to honored individual is to honor their whole family and not just at Christmas to know an individual is to know their whole family so why would we not be encouraging people to not just know Jesus but to also to know his mother now I would say I have never ever ever ever ever ever met a Catholic who worships Mary the only one person I did meet in my life that worshipped Mary and she was a Hindu and if you know Hinduism they have over like 350 thousand gods and she considered Mary to be one of her gods as well along with the cows and everything else that she worships but why do we allow people to back us into a corner and believe that we worship Mary when we don't and why are we not proactively encouraging people to honor Jesus's mother next why do you have a pope great question that we should be asking people why do you not believe that there there should be a universal truth why do you believe that everyone should make up their own version of Christianity why do you believe that everybody should really ultimately be the Pope themselves because that's where we're at right now in our world with people who don't have a pope they make up their own truths look at our world right now you can be a Christian and you can believe that slaughtering one-third of American infants every single day by abortion is totally ok how is that possible you can be a Christian you can believe that marriage and divorce and remarriage and divorce and remarriage is totally biblically acceptable how is that possible when it is absolutely clear what Jesus taught why is that possible because we no longer have a universal belief as Christians in truth and morality because we've rejected the Pope now you don't have to like the Pope but we have to understand who the Pope is and why he exists to govern and protect universal truth universal morality and the tradition of how we interpret Scripture otherwise you end up with a world where a whole bunch of people could believe whatever they want to believe now we know that we have a Pope and that doesn't mean that every Catholic believes the Pope says and that was in itself as a scandal Nancy Pelosi and the day of her judgement will have a rude awakening but if we choose to say that there is no absolute truth and there is no way to govern it then what do we really say about Jesus and what he teaches we should be actually promoted but we want every Christian to believe the same thing to hold the same truths it would make us stronger as brothers and sisters in the Lord next why do you worship statues they're images so the next time you walk into a good bible-believing person's home and they have a picture of Grandma on the wall you should just like point to grandma on the wall and say I didn't know you practice idol worship you worship your grandma because there is no difference between someone having a picture of a grandma on the wall and having a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus or the Immaculate of Mary or say Anthony of Padua or Saint John Vianney or Saint Cecilia or any other saint and if we think that there's a difference that we don't know what it is to be part of a family because whether grandma is dead or grandma is alive they are a part of our family and why do we have pictures anyways to remind us to inspire us and to give us hope so having a statue or a picture or an image of a saint or our Lord or Our Lady is no different than the fact that you guys all have thousands of pictures on your magic phone but to back a Catholic into a corner and say you practice idol worship because it says in the Bible in Exodus chapter 20 and yet you do the exact opposite now why are we asking the question of why don't you believe that images are good Jesus took on human flesh and we believe that the body is good that's why do you confess your sins to a priest great question would be this why do you believe that you can confess your sins to God but you don't have to request your sins to his body now we believe that Jesus is ahead and his church is the body but we also believe that you can't separate a head into body if you do you have death so we believe but you have to confess your sins to Jesus and the church now we know this from John chapter 20 we also know there's some James chapter 5 we have to confess our sins this is what we do and we do so to Jesus but in and with and through the church why do you baptize infants what should what's the question that we should be asking why do you not want to give the absolute best thing in the world to your children now parents who are the best of parents don't allow their children to make their own choices if you are a good parent you don't allow your child to eat what they want to eat because they'll eat candy all the time if you're a good parent you don't allow your child to set their bedtime and their wake-up time if you're a good parent you make your child learn to read and speak English because we live here in northern Dearborn County where everyone speaks English if you lived in France you teach them to speak French if you lived in Spain you teach them to speak Spanish but we're here in America so we learn English now many of you could say oh how dare you impose your views upon food and health and hygiene upon your child how dare you impose your views of English upon your child usually way to your child is 12 or 13 and then allow them to choose what language they want to speak and at that point they'll be speak gibberish which many children speak anyways they call it English but why wouldn't you who who choose everything for your child not give them the best thing that you yourself have which is God why would we not see that as being the best opportunity we have to share with them the greatest gift which is eternal salvation not to mention the fact that Christianity came from Judaism and every Jewish mother and father circumcised as a child on the eighth day and baptism from its earliest days has looked at as the new form of circumcision lastly the battle between faith and works now to be absolutely clear we we teach and we believe and we profess that we are saved by grace grace is the life of God we are saved by God's life we are saved by the death of Jesus Christ on Mount Calvary and his resurrection from the tomb that is why we are saved from our sins and we believe we are called to have faith in this life of Jesus Christ but we also believe particularly from the book of James that our faith has to be put into actions and we should be asking people why do you not believe that you have to act upon your faith why do you not believe that your faith should be put into actions because that's what ultimately is being argued that one can say this except to discuss their personal Lord Savior and they have no moral culpability from that day forward once saved always say and we stand there in the corner like oh well gosh we do do a lot of works I do a lot of volunteering I should feel guilty about the fact that I volunteer because I actually love Jesus no that's that's insanity if we have faith our faith is put into actions the reality is is that we as Catholics have been indoctrinated we have been culturally taught that we don't ask questions we don't act as missionaries and we don't go out and engage people in conversation and dialogue but the time has come my brothers and sisters that we need to and these questions are not threatening these questions are actually an invitation to something better to something more to something great if we look behind every single one of these questions we'll find something very clear we'll find that we believe that our intimate relationship with Christ is real its substantial you can consume it we believe that fatherhood is important and should be emphasized we believe that honoring women is good we believe that there's truth and it's universal and it needs to be protected we celebrate family we acknowledge our sins we own up to them we give our best to our children and we act upon our beliefs now my brothers and sisters I want to ask the question who doesn't want to be a part of this but the reality is is that the majority of Christians in America don't know this because we aren't sharing it and we're doing a bad job of asking the right questions and we're being asked questions and we have no answers and many of our brothers and sisters then walk away as a Roman Catholic we have the fullness of truth given to us by Jesus Christ and His Church let's pray for the Grace and I mean this to be missionaries to be ambassadors to be bridge builders and maybe people who ask questions questions that would lead to eternal life the reality is every single Sunday morning when we come to church we come to church looking for answers we come broken whether it be from work or our relationships our friendships the stress of life the difficulties of day-to-day activities we come to church looking for answers we come to church looking to be renewed and refreshed and strengthened maybe we realize that we come to a place that's beautiful that believes and professes and teaches something that we long for we come to a place looking for answers and those answers are here may we live those answers may we live those truths and we share them with one another and through God's grace and we become the Saints that he's calling us to be amen you

Channel: All Saints Parish - We Are One

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Length: 20min 26sec (1226 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 09 2019