As Katie began her talk tonight, she reminded us of the reality that Jesus loves us so much that He wants to be with us. He chooses to be with us. He thirsts for us.
She encouraged us to consider the implications for each of us in the Biblical story where two people asked Jesus, “Where are you staying?” and Jesus’ incredible response to them was “Come and see.”
By responding to Jesus’ invitation to “come and see,” His disciples were able to witness incredible things – the calming of a storm, the healing of seriously ill people, the miraculous feeding of the hungry, and so much more.
This afternoon, Fr. Chris Martin spoke to some of the questions that people commonly ask about Catholicism.
He began by reminding us that that it’s all about Jesus, since every single Catholic teaching flows from Jesus. We can neither separate the Church from Jesus nor can we separate Jesus from the Church because Jesus not only founded the Church, but in Scripture, he promised to be with us always, until the end of time.
Fr. Martin set out for us a very important foundation, articulating some of the Biblical and historical reasons why we Catholics reject the Protestant notion that the Bible is all that we need. One of these reasons is that Scripture is actually a product of the Church! And, while we certainly love and reverence the Scriptures, we believe the Church helps us to apply Biblical truth to present day circumstances, which are far different from the historical circumstances of Biblical times.
Throughout his talk, Fr. Martin addressed a veritable plethora of issues, including purgatory, the Eucharist, praying for the devil, hate speech, adopting frozen embryos, salvation of the unbaptized, hell, suicide, mediums, marriage, and discernment of vocations – among others.
Thankfully, the smoke machine went off periodically to help him – and us – transition from topic to topic.
Since our theological tradition transcends the limitations of this blog post and today’s sound bite culture, I would encourage you to listen to the full audio of this talk, and use that audio as a jumping off point to dive deeper into what the Church teaches and why.
Quotables
Jesus makes a claim that no one in human history every made. He didn’t say ‘I know the truth’; He said I am the truth.
Three things reveal the Church’s teaching to us: the true, the good, and the beautiful.
Thoughts of other vocations are a natural part of discernment; after you’ve properly discerned, these thoughts are temptations.
“The world promises you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.” — Pope Benedict XVI
Matt Regitz started his talk at this morning’s men session with an encouraging thought that spoke to the heart of every man in attendance, “When I’m done speaking, you will be able to eat lunch!” which was, of course, was greeted by outrageous applause.
But Matt didn’t spend too much time on silliness. He immediately began sharing some personal stories of recent struggles from his life and the lives of his loved ones – which caused me (and I suspect everyone in attendance) to reflect on our past and present personal struggles. This was important, because when we struggle, we can be tempted to believe that we aren’t where we are supposed to be…but that thought is a lie. God has us right where He wants us to be at this very moment; our challenge is to trust that!
