For any regular readers of my blog, I have a disclaimer. I often do a deep dive as an amateur theologian but I am taking a break from that for a while. This will be a description of my first year in formation to be a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church. If that is okay, then read on.
The components include intellectual but this year has not emphasized that like the coming years but has instead been on the spiritual and human formation. Those components have culminated to the point that I am writing in the middle of the three month break from majoring on theological things as the major subject.
God is working on me to be less in my head which is a safe place for me as well as being preoccupied about my weaknesses. What I write below will reflect those common threads in language of grace and later laughter.
A limp and A Bruised Reed
When I got out of my car last fall for the retreat it was with my cane. I had surgery on my femur to scrape out a long, deep tumor a few months ago. I lost way more blood than they thought I would made progress for weeks only to sharply regress in the mid- summer Minnesota humidity.
I was self- conscious about how it looked wondering even then how far my recovery would go so I could kneel in the liturgical context long term. It was partly due to that that I tried going without my cane all day and “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Overall I was free of it for the fall season and have been since.
A strange thing occurred to me in the retreat that was beyond the program: an old friend apostatized. He left a voicemail asking to talk to me. When I called him back he stated he could not be my kids’ godfather anymore since he changed his belief including most importantly that Jesus is the Messiah.
A divine grace filled me up. I know what it means to be on the wrath and legal side. I had some uncharitable thoughts cross my mind for a microsecond. But what the Lord did for me was to remind me of the brokenness of my friend that were highly influential towards that route.
I also recalled a prophecy of Isaiah about Jesus that I was going to coopt for myself through the year. “A bruised reed he will not break” (Isaiah 42:3). Through the year I reflected at times, though briefly, that I am a bruised reed and Jesus does not want to break me. He can heal me.
The Comparison Game
I tell my mental health therapy clients, “the brain wants to be safe” which makes sense when I sized up my peers on that fall retreat and the classes after for quite a while. It seemed like 10% of the time I “had one up on them” but 90% the opposite.
It all seemed clear to me. I was the only convert to the Catholic Church and thus there were the little things that were still over my head. In fact, I was not even raised Christian. They were all on their first marriage while I was on my second with a very complex history on that. Many of them got their bachelor’s degree “on time” at 22 where I got mine at 41. They all seemed to have great job stability while I had not for many reasons. My occasional defense mechanism was to do the equivalent of “name dropping” on my skills and try to show off in class on human formation since I am a therapist. There I go again?
“Not An Imposter”
Then came winter retreat in Marathon, Wisconsin. In the Catholic Church we have the Liturgy of the Hours. It is a beautiful and corporate form of connecting to God second only to the mass or Divine Liturgy. I was assigned to be Reader which is sort of like being the wing man. It was Night Prayer with eucharistic adoration.
I was shaky more than a bit in the minutes leading up to my part when for the first time in a while the Lord spoke to my heart, “You are not an imposter. You belong here.” I went up, did my part and no one was the wiser of my struggles unless I said it.
In a mid-year check in with the incoming director of my program he gave me valuable feedback. One of them was that being a therapist can be an obstacle to the thinking at times of being a deacon. The seed planted in my head was that I was needing to stretch my thinking beyond the paradigms I was used to. There is something good in me God wants to bring out that my defensiveness was an obstacle to.
Life Springing from Formality
Through the year we were to pray Liturgy of the Hours for mornings and evenings. My wife prayed it to but just when she attended class with me.
There is an irony in that both of us are former Protestants. In fact, I remember when there was some of the stronger tugs of the Holy Spirit in 2012 to the Catholic Church I felt a resistance. The “Protestant muscle memory” kicked in with terms like “spiritual and not religious” and avoiding “dead ritual.”
But I found life in the Church over the years in many ways including this.
First was in what I call “free style.” When praying a verse that is thankful to the Lord’s works I put my hand out in a receptive and worshipful mode. When I pray a verse urging God to act in grace or man to respond to God I lightly beat my chest like the mea maxima culpa of the mass.
Before the Our Father I integrate my own prayer content of sorts. I pray personal intercessions at the micro and macro level. I ask for the prayers of the saints like St. Gerard for my daughter’s pregnancy. I ask for the prayers of St. Barnabas (my patron saint for Confirmation in 2013) and St. Andre Bissette for wisdom in my discernment for Holy Orders. I pray for my clients. Then I pray a Hail Mary right before the Our Father.
One may wonder how a former Protestant could not only convert to the “formal” Catholic Church but super-size formality to be Catholic clergy. The reason is in the beginning of all things but resonates to me typing on the Mac at my kitchen counter on a Saturday afternoon.
In the beginning God createdthe heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spiritof God was moving over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:1-2).
God is in the formation business. We were formless and void in the true sense until “while we were yet sinner Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). But he is still in the formation business for the Christian in the ongoing sanctification in the individual and corporate context. It is his engrafted word that thus “can save your soul” (James 1:21). But does that not make sense the Liturgy of the Hours can be a part of that for a unified body of believers?
But having a guide is good too. In the last months of the year I began seeing an approved spiritual director. He is a good Jesuit priest with helpful insight.
“See what happens when you surrender?”
The summer came. And with it was the immersion retreat in South Dakota. There was a spreadsheet for liturgical assignments. I have a habit of using Control F and saw what I was supposed to do for liturgy. Being a Reader was fine!
Another task that was not liturgical was to share my story which I found intimidating. The comforting part through the week, with me being number 14 out of 15 to share, was hearing that I was not the only one with flaws. What was hard was that anything with the slightest overlap made me have tears effortlessly flow down my face. I had the slow version of unpleasant “life flash before my eyes.” Could I possibly share my imperfections honestly and adequately?
On the third and final full day I spilled my guts. I only got to 80% of the main highlights but it felt good. Afterwards several of my brothers came and hugged me and all of a sudden the areas they “were one up on me” did not matter anymore. 14 other sinners. 14 other beloved children of God. Sigh. “I’ve got this!”
At lunch I shared a funny story with the new director. It was an abbot giving an eloquent homily at mass. When he concluded the mass he said, “The ass is mended!” The director laughed hard and I shocked myself that I was letting my guard down.
Then came our final morning and I got an unexpected phone call. It was one of the guys telling me I was serving liturgically and I needed to get there. My Control F method must have had a flaw. Within less than 10 minutes I changed,, raced down and got the quickest crash course of liturgical serving ever. The “excitement” of being a convert.
I made mistakes. On the little things I was unsure of I improvised.
But then the moment of truth. There was kneeling involved which taxed my still work-in- progress recovery of where the tumor was. There was pain and strain. A brother told me later that the look he saw in my face was “Let’s do this!” I guess that is about right.
After our morning prayer and adoration was over, I was doing the take down of the candles by the tabernacle where the Eucharist is, and sensed the Lord saying “See what happens when you surrender?” There was power and simplicity to it.
I also pondered that “tabernacle-ing” with the tabernacle. In the months prior I had been pondering this verse: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The word for dwelt really comes to “tabernacled” and many verses in the rest of John’s gospel seem to accentuate that context.
It was in part due to that verse that months later in front of the tabernacle the Lord inspired something from my head into my heart. I pivoted in my heart talking to Jesus in the tabernacle that I offered up my imperfections above my fall back strengths. I was gaining much spiritual ground there.
Still, I walked to lunch thinking about how I made some mistakes.
Surprised by laughter
Then a funny thing happened: our outgoing director of formation thought it was funny! “For a guy who did not grow up in this tradition, you did pretty good for your first time!” he said as he laughed.
The next funny thing is that I laughed too. It was a permeating grace to my heart to take myself less seriously and joy came in.
Then in my small group I received a lot of encouragement from my four brothers and our dean who is a deacon. Even some sincere compliment for my quirks in liturgy that came out in the spur of the moment. I was able to take the compliments graciously and as we left I informed them that I can still fall back on my lifelong dream of being an underwear model. They busted up laughing.
Dog With A Bone
As I was driving home from the retreat, I played a new song in my car I had discovered the last night called “Dog For The Lord” by the Hillbilly Thomists.
I’m a dog with a torch in my mouth for the Lord
Making noise while I ‘ve got time
Spreading fire while I’ve got earth
How You wish it was already lit
Give me your fire, I’ll do your work
I’m just a dog for the Lord.
God is not finished with me as in some ways I am still formless and void. But if I let the light into my soul I will be healed.
For that process, due to some spiritual counsel since, I am going to let that light in by not writing detailed theology stuff for a while. In fact, I am taking a break until October and the Body of Christ will be just fine! I am going to do more simple stuff. Like using “stuff” in my actual vocabulary. Simplicity in God’s grace can be a good thing. That is a way he loves us.
When we pray “on earth as it is in heaven,” we should remember that the aesthetics of what we make for worship pales in comparison to what is in heaven.
We can experience worship in heaven in reference joining it in our earthly worship here. We worship this “on earth as it is in heaven” in the mass or divine liturgy. We draw hope beyond what we sense in the vestments, incense, or altar. A heavenly view informs the church in both realms, continuity of intercession and disposes it to constant worship.
This intercession is contingent upon to Jesus but in in fellowship with saints in heaven and earth. They are among “a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) who partner in our prayers in a special way. “When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Revelation 5:8).
We draw strength both from the example of Christ’s sufferings but also what the saints have added to what is lacking in them (Colossians 1:24). This is reflected in how they see the suffering of Christians on earth.
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you are the one that knows.’ Then he said to me, ‘These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
For this reason, they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them (Revelation 7:13-15).
And even the angels, which means messengers, are in the loop of our prayers.
Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel (Revelation 8:3-4).
It is for this reason that Paul wrote even in passing a reverence for God in an order of worship that acknowledge something spiritual and real, metaphysical and physical, in the Church’s worship. “For this reason, a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels” (1 Corinthians 11:10). This does not mean we should assume that literally Michael or Gabriel manifest in eat gathering time of worship. It just means that such reverence is due to the message in the word and communion. The ministers of the early church were custodians of sacred mysteries and thus “angels” was an appropriate term for them.
The continuity of heaven to earth is brought together well in the penitential rite in the mass for us on earth to continue in holiness. After the lines on repentance we pray, “Therefore I ask, the blessed Virgin Mary, all the angels and saints and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the Lord our God.” The continuity is unmistakable in that the Body of Christ is alive in heaven and earth.
This is a comfort and spiritual lens with the heavenly and community perspective as we “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). We can thus appreciate the beauty of the mass, the other sacraments and consecrated celibacy as extensions from Christ who ascended to heaven. Heaven and earth, in Jesus Christ, are not as distant as we might think.
In Christ, we are grounded in heaven as we grow in Christian faith, prayer and worship.
There is a fine line between proposition and imposition. If one proposes marriage and the answer is yes then something valid happens. But the foundation should ideally be there in the one to say yes or it may be an imposition. For the proposition of Christianity, there should be no exception. An ideal preaching of the gospel finds soil ripe for harvest if one knows where to look.
Roman Seeds Of The Gospel
After the resurrection salvation was to come to all nations, first Israel, and Jesus was only getting started. He gave the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), sent the Holy Spirit with tongues for many nations on Pentecost (Acts 2) and commissioned Paul to preach to the Gentiles. The seeds of a universal kingdom to sprout in Rome were not only in the Jewish revelation but in pagan references that New Testament narratives would respond to.
Years into Paul’s ministry the Bible Luke gives us a brief line that implies God’s preparation to overcome Rome apostolically with appropriating compatible roots in the culture. Luke writes as part of the company of Paul in his missionary journey. “Setting sail therefore from Tro′as, we made a direct voyage to Sam′othrace, and the following day to Ne-ap′olis” (Acts 16:11).
This is more significant than one might think. In the founding of a church with an established apostolic presence there would be redemption of even pagan references with Christ as the truest apostle. Dr. Timothy Grey addresses this.
The Roman poet Virgil’s masterpiece the Aeneid tells the epic legend of Aeneas, who fled the ruined city of Troy and traveled west to establish his family in Italy, becoming the ancestor of Romulus and Remus—the founders of the city of Rome. Written early in the reign of Caesar Augustus, the Aeneid provided a masterful narrative supporting the legitimacy of Augustus’s rule and his vision of renewing the greatness of Rome.
Acts 16:11 states that Paul and his companions sailed from Troas, a seaport only miles from ancient Troy, to travel west bearing the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Eventually both Peter and Paul travel to, and are martyred in, Rome and, as a result, come to be seen as the twin founders of a new Christian Rome. When writing The Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke, an educated Greek physician familiar with Greco-Roman history and literature, includes the seemingly trivial detail about Paul’s point of departure for his journey to the Roman colony of Philippi and in doing so begins the reworking of the defining narrative about Roman identity so as to point to the universal sovereignty of the Gospel (http://wiki.lighthousecatholicmedia.org/images/4/4c/Lectio-Philippians-S1-StudyGuide-Sample.pdf, emphasis added).
Dr. Grey has made a further point in his teachings that the early Church made icons to commemorate Peter and Paul facing each other like re-founders over Romulus and Remus, twin brothers, who founded Rome first (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nse7WhmkBHM). The early Church saw Peter and Paul like a baptized version of them to now bring foundation to the epicenter of the Church. They both died for the faith there.
Greek Seeds of The Gospel
A prevailing influence of Greek thought was in the Roman Empire with Greece in subjugation to Rome for only a few generations by the time of the gospels. But the early church did not hate all Greeks and saw seeds of the word of God and virtue where reasonable. Justin Martyr wrote about this in the 2nd Century AD.
“We have been taught that Christ is the first-born of God, and we have declared above that He is the Word of whom every race of men were partakers; and those who lived reasonably are Christians, even though they have been thought atheists; as, among the Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus, and men like them”(Justin Martyr, First Apology, Chapter 46).
Later Paul shares the faith to philosophers at Mars Hill in Athens.
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,
‘For we too are his offspring’ (Acts 17:22-28).
Paul affirms their spiritual seeking as a good thing and goes from there. He took notice on their history of calling on an unknown God to stop a virus hurting their sheep a few hundred years before. He points then to God who is above all realms yet personal and life giving. He ends by pointing to a quote from Heraclitus meant for Zeus and reappropriates it to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Paul was just warming up. A short time later Paul wrote his famous letter to the church in Rome starting with the words below.
Paul, a servantof Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of Godwhich he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ;
To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 1:1-7).
Paul writes as a co- apostolic voice to Rome about the gospel rooted in Christ and all of the roots in the Old Testament including Christ’s majesty as a descendent of David. Though born personally a Roman citizen himself, he wrote as an emissary of the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom was about “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:23) and saving each person for resurrection. It was not about vengeance. This is why universal opportunity for “grace and apostleship” are at the start of Paul’s magnum opus. This is important:
Towards the end of Acts Paul is in custody and on route for judgment. “After three months we set sail in a ship which had wintered in the island, a ship of Alexandria, with the Twin Brothers as figurehead” (Acts 28:11). Another hint of the spiritual re-founding of Rome since Romulus and Remus were the pre-eminent twins. Both Peter and Paul died there.
With the scope of the gospel unleashed to the world through Peter’s declaration in Jerusalem, and in a wink to the Troas (Troy) legend, we see something fleshing out. We will see the world against the Church if we read the narrative with a superficial interpretation of the natural and spiritual powers of darkness on the attack.
With the eyes of faith, we see a godly team running offense. In Acts, Peter was like a quarterback at the Council of Jerusalem infallibly defining the gospel as universal (Acts 15:7-11). Per commentary by many early church fathers, Paul likely mentioned Peter as laying an apostolic foundation in Rome though not mentioning him by name for security purposes (Romans 15:20). Yet, by the end of Acts, Paul is the running back with the ball in Rome as the end zone although in chains. He had the broader skills set for the most people linguistically.
There are further textual allusions to Christ conquering Rome. It is no coincidence that it was at a Roman outpost of Ceasarea Phillipi Jesus commissioned Peter.
Another example is how Paul wrote to the church in Philippi which was also a Roman garrison. He included a canticle pointing to the gospel with Jesus as Lord. He wrote it in Greek but in the canticle his grammar was distinctly wrong.
Yet the grammar was perfect for Aramaic since it came from the Jerusalem centered era preceding the ecumenical council there. The imperial saying then was Caesar is Lord. Paul, writing from a pre-Jerusalem Council source, was subversive to the powers of the world saying instead that Jesus is Lord. Thus, early in the Church there was a subversive ethos with Christ as Lord and true king.
The Position of Rome
The primacy of Rome grew central in the apostle’s generation and the later church fathers. Ignatius thus wrote to the church in Rome.
Ignatius . . . to the Church that has obtained mercy, through the majesty of the most high Father, and Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son; the Church that is beloved and enlightened by the will of him that wills all things according to the love of Jesus Christ our God, that presides in the place of the Romans, worthy of God, worthy of honor, worthy of the highest happiness, worthy of praise, worthy of obtaining her every desire, worthy of being deemed holy, and that presides over love, and is named from Christ, and from the Father [Letter to the Romans, Greeting (St. Ignatius of Antioch, c. A.D. 110)].
It was clear in Church history that Rome was the resting place of central ecclesial authority by which there would be universal impact. The words in figurative translation to universal was from kata holos. Literal translation is “according to the whole.” Rome has the prime minister to the Son of David there. The bishop of Rome leads the Church Militant on earth over hierarchical college of bishops in what we know as the Catholic Church.
Thus, we read the following by Ignatius of Antioch who was a disciple of John the apostle. What he describes in passing speaks volumes of the ecclesial norm of partaking of Christ’s divine nature, staying in unity, yet universal in its diversity. Herein is a reference to the Catholic Church. The community of the kata holos.
See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is administered either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude of the people also be; even as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic [kata holos] Church. (St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, Ch 8, 110 AD).
The Nicene Creed the Church declared “I believe in one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church” (Nicene Creed, 325). The rock of Daniel’s vision took root there and has been growing ever since. Only once that the bishop of Rome ratified the Council of Nicea was it official.
There could be a seeming conflict on the nature of the rock language: the Lamb description. John the Baptist pointed out Jesus saying,” “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). A lamb is sacrificial which is opposite of offense. Is Jesus the “Lamb of God” for the world or the rock conquering the fourth kingdom? The answer is yes and we know this through the cross of Christ.
As for more definition about the power of God in that apostolic commissioning of the Church, we will see more in the “kingdom come” with Jesus as the Son of Man.
Just as Jesus is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:13-17) and a prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15,18), so Jesus is king on the throne of David.
In David and his dynasty there are prompters to holiness and unifying governance Jesus meant for the Church. The more clear the leadership structure, the more clarity for what matters including unity.
Stage of Controversy
Jesus taught about the “kingdom” to come on the Sermon On The Mount when he taught the Our Father prayer. One important context was of a royalty in submission to divinity. “But I say to you, do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King” (Matthew 5:34-35).
The great king he is referring to is King David’s life, dynasty, and line. David and Solomon were key figures who united Israel with worship, wisdom and government.
This was a context for messianic expectations for fulfillment that the people in Jerusalem in Passion Week hailed him in a Davidic sense. Later his governance was a figure for the early church bridging the Old Testament to the ongoing momentum of salvation history.
At the beginning of Passion Week, the crowd cried, “Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:10). This seemed subversive to the religious leaders so they unsuccessfully asked Jesus to quiet them. They believed this was a threat.
In a general point of view, there was a rich picture in their minds about David being pivotal, unifying and dangerous. Those attributes applied to Jesus but not quite to their thinking.
Below is one iconic moment in the lives of David and Solomon that explain the Pharisees’ fear.
Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and said, “Look, we are your bone and flesh…..So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel (2 Samuel 5:1,3)
As the Lord has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.”
So the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and led him to Gihon. There the priest Zadok took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon” ( 1 Kings 1:38-39).
David to Son of David
To see further reasons for both Pharisees concern and the ongoing doctrinal development of the Church, consider the parallels below of David or Solomon. They provide a possible reference to understand the “apostle and high priest of our good confession” (Hebrews 3:1).
1. SHEPHERDS
David was a shepherd before being anointed as king (1 Samuel 16:11). Jesus Christ refers to himself as the good shepherd (John 10:11).
2. KINGS
David was a king of Israel (2 Samuel 5:3). Jesus Christ is the king of kings (Revelation 19:16).
3. HOLY SPIRIT
Both men had God with them through the Holy Spirit (1 Samuel 16:13, Luke 3:22, Acts 10:38).
4. MANY ENEMIES
Both men had many enemies (Psalm 3:1, John 19:6).
5. CONQUEROR
Both men defeated their enemies (Psalm 18:37, 1 Corinthians 15:25).
6. BETRAYAL
Both men were betrayed by a close friend (Psalm 41:9, John 18:5).
7. BELOVED
Both men were beloved by God. David’s name in Hebrew means beloved. God proclaimed his love for Jesus Christ, as beloved specifically, during his baptism (Matthew 3:16-17).
8. BEING PURSUED BY LEADERS
Saul pursued David in order to kill him (1 Samuel 19:9-11). The Pharisees plotted to kill Jesus Christ (Mark 3:6).
9. CONSECRATED BREAD
David ate consecrated bread (1 Samuel 21:6). Jesus Christ consecrated the bread in the last supper with his disciples (Luke 22:19, 1 Corinthians 11:29).
10. KING OF THE JUDAH
Before being the king of Israel, David was anointed as King over the house of Judah (2 Samuel 2:4). Jesus Christ is referred to as the Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5).
11. AFTER BETRAYAL, THE FRIEND AND TRAITOR HANGED HIMSELF
Ahithophel was David’s counsel and close friend (1 Chronicles 27:33). However, he betrayed him to his enemy and then hanged himself (2 Samuel 17:23). After Judas betrayed Jesus Christ, he hanged himself (Matthew 27:5).
12. THRONE FOREVER
God has promised David’s offspring will establish a throne and kingdom that will last forever (2 Samuel 7:11-16). Jesus Christ is David’s offspring, who will have a throne and kingdom lasts forever (Revelation 22:3-16).
13. CAST OUT DEMONS
David cast out a demon out of King Saul by playing the harp (1 Samuel 16:23). Jesus Christ cast out demons by a simple command (Matthew 8:1).
14. DELIVERANCE
David delivered Israel of the fear of their enemies (1 Samuel 17:48-52). Jesus Christ delivered his followers from the fear of Satan (John 16:33, Romans 16:20).
15. THIRTY
David was 30 when he became King over Israel (2 Samuel 5:4). Jesus was 30 years old he began his ministry (Luke 3:23).
16. BETHLEHEM
Both men are born in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1, 1 Samuel 17:15).
17. MULE/DONKEY CONNECTION
Solomon entered Jerusalem on a mule (1 Kings 1:38). Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. One important distinction that mules do not reproduce but donkeys do.
While the above parallels are easily agreeable for all Christians, the following points fall into troubled waters in ecumenical discussion.
18. MOTHER CONNECTION.
Solomon the son of David gave a throne to his mother and assured her petitions would have a privileged place at his side. (1 Kings 2:19-20).
There is a high view about Mary, with a Davidic foundation, among the Catholic, Coptic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. In eastern traditions they call Mary the Theotokos which means God-bearer or God-carrier.
Jesus used an idiomatic expression to his mother. The Greek literally is “What to you to me?” with her request is an idiom for there being no barrier between them before Jesus changed water to wine (John 2:4). It was his first public miracle.
There is also a bivalent context to the crowned woman in Revelation 12:1-9. Some say it was only about the Church generally. It is valid to interpret it both ways. One would be Mary being mother of the Church and concurrently the mothering by the Church.
There is another relevant and complimentary connection to the life of David in the foothills of the historic territory of the tribe of Judah.
“David was afraid of the Lord that day; he said, ‘How can the ark of the Lord come into my care?’ So David was unwilling to take the ark of the Lord into his care in the city” (2 Samuel 6:9-10). Later in that same narrative David leaped before the Ark of the Covenant when it entered Jerusalem.
A thousand years later Elizabeth, in the same foothills, hesitated receiving Mary with Jesus in her womb. And John leaped in response. “And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:44-45).
For those who resonate with these points as more than a coincidence, there is something about Mary. They spiritually imitate the Apostle John who welcomed Mary in his home (John 19:27).
19. 12 OFFICERS, 12 APOSTLES
Solomon appointed 12 officers who distributed resources (1 Kings 4:7). Jesus appointed 12 apostles who distributed miraculous food to the masses.
While any Christian can resonate with this, many Christians see the 12 apostles as first in foundation of Christ (Ephesians 2:20). Furthermore, the apostolic churches see various levels of authority from them through the laying on of hands (Hebrews 6:1-2). Those in apostolic succession are the normative to distributing the sacrificial bread of thanksgiving. In Hebrew it is todah. In Greek it is eucharisteo.
The following parallel implies David’s dynasty substantially with modern applicability.
20. CHIEF STEWARD
Solomon chose someone to be chief over his household (1 Kings 4:6) and this continued through the Davidic dynasty. “Key” reference for the chief steward of the king is in a prophesy in the time of a later Davidic king, Hezekiah, by Isaiah.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:6-7).
In the same generation Isaiah prophesied regarding the prime minister/chief steward, named Shebna, to be replaced by Eliakim.
On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open. I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house. And they will hang on him the whole weight of his ancestral house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. On that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will perish, for the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 22:20-25).
Some wording was priestly in nature with spiritual authority possibly reminiscent of the king-priest patterns seen earlier in the Old Testament. The robe and sash show royal court authority with priestly standing. Priestly standing already overlaps with the house of David, “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek’ ”(Psalms 110:4) God tells Shebna his delegated authority will go to another with a fatherhood and to represent the house of David managing the household and kingdom.
The scriptures show a hope of government in the Messiah that serves a foundation for seeing the Old Testament with fulfilment in Christ. A pattern emerges with David’s government as a “key” reference point.
The role of the chief steward both anticipates Christ extending his authority in the Church. Jesus appointed Peter as prime minister under his kingship with royal keys but also “bind and loose” which is a term for priestly and teaching authority.
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rockI will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:16-19).
Jesus establishes his “first Eliakim” with an office that continued. Peter, like Eliakim, received keys for spiritual Israel. Peter received authority to bind and loose as a priestly and rabbinical term on scriptural interpretation.
We see the connection of key and David rooted in Jesus.
“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens (Revelation 3:7).
Instead of deifying Peter or his successors but is Christo-centric and reflects Christ’s grace in service. Jesus established office as a part of his government “on his shoulders” superseding failings of Simon Peter or his 265 successors.
Royal Ramifications
If you are a Christian reading this and affirm the validity only of 1-17, then you are likely a Protestant. If you affirm only 1-19 then you may be Eastern Orthodox or Coptic referring to Mary as the Theotokos or Mother of God. If you affirm 1-20 then you have a Catholic belief that the latest prime minister of Christ is Pope Francis.
My question for Protestants and Eastern Orthodox is this: If the parallels hold up concretely for David and Christ at 1-17, then why not the next three? The parallels line up in a simple lens of biblical interpretation for at least most.
So a rule for biblical interpretation would need to be made that is consistent regarding Old Testament typology that affirms most but not all. Though a common concern could be to avoid “typology run amok,” another worthy concern could be selective elimination if it does not fit in the paradigm of one’s tradition. Such is the struggle for the hope of unity one day under Christ the king and the ultimate “son of David” where we say Hosanna with one voice.
Anyone who wants to live the fulness of the Christian life should, at the best they know, see themselves as subjects of the kingdom. To do this is to live in a current and longing hope as the kingdom has come while in some ways not yet.
One error some make is to over-spiritualize the concept that Christ founded a kingdom at the expense of his substance. Christ had a divine and invisible substance and also human and visible substance. The Church ought to be as he prayed just prior to his arrest.
I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me (John 17:20-21).
The logic should follow that since the unconverted world looks first at the visible, then the unity they see should be visible. Visible unity means visible order and this is especially in the kingdom of God in Christ Jesus the “son of David.”
To be a Christian is to be a subject of the Jesus as King of Kings to be free. Part of the fulness of freedom for Christians is in the government founded by Christ who sits on the throne of David. From this truth in a full expression Christians can be holy and one (Nicene Creed, 325).
As holy and unity narratives in salvation history unfolded further in the Old Testament, a further kingdom expression emerged. The form it would take would be a rock that would be universal and revolutionary echoing prophetically towards Christ’s Church.
Sitting in my car one afternoon in the fall in Wickenburg, Arizona I hit a beautiful brick wall. It was not the physical one but a stopping point of limiting my lens anymore for an old institution. The book was written by a “new kid on the block” relatively for me named Joseph Ratzinger. The world knew him better by that day as Pope Benedict XVI.
I was received into full communion with the Catholic Church months later in 2013.
Within weeks of soaking in more of the heart and mind of the Church I woke up one morning to see a surreal headline that he was the first pope to resign in over 600 years. This was confusing but yet with a beauty in the act and reasons in the decision.
Years later having read more of his books and his papal encyclicals I am in awe of his humility as much as his intelligence and wisdom. He wrote dozens of books but perhaps his greatest lesson was in saying to the Body of Christ and the world “It is not about me.”
Though I cannot be sure if this was the quote that was the final straw in my discernment of the Catholic Church, this was at least the theme in the book I was reading at that time.
And so we return to the “two trumpets” of the Bible with which we started, to the paradox that we can say of Christ both: “You are the fairest of all men”, and: “He had no beauty . . . his appearance was so marred.” In the Passion of Christ the marvelous Greek aesthetic, with its tentative contact with the divine (which nevertheless remains ineffable), has not been abolished but rather transcended. The experience of the beautiful has received a new depth and a new realism. The One who is beauty itself let himself be struck in the face, spat upon, crowned with thorns—the Shroud of Turin can help us realize this in a moving way. Yet precisely in this Face that is so disfigured, there appears the genuine, the ultimate beauty: the beauty of love that goes “to the very end” and thus proves to be mightier than falsehood and violence. Whoever has perceived this beauty knows that truth after all, and not falsehood, is the ultimate authority of the world. It is not the lie that is “true”; rather, it is the truth. It is, so to speak, a new trick of falsehood to present itself as such and to say to us: Over and above me there is nothing in the long run. Stop seeking the truth or even loving it; you are on the wrong track. The icon of the crucified Christ sets us free from this deception that is so overwhelming today. Of course it presupposes that we allow ourselves to be wounded with him and to trust in the Love that can risk setting aside his external beauty in order to proclaim, in this very way, the truth of beauty (Cdl. Joseph Ratzinger, On The Way to Jesus Christ).
Now I am coming up on ten years as a Catholic and now an Aspirant to become a deacon reflecting on that attitude. I hope to be of service in formation and, if God wills, as a deacon.
Though he was Pope Emeritus when he died, there will be some talk about church politics. Some of it will be needed but much not. My hope going forward for the Church is that we learn from his love for Jesus, the Church, the Bible and ecumenism with our fellow Christians (e.g. Catholic- Lutheran Accord of 1999). I also hope that the body of his written work is recognized on a fast-track for him to be canonized and even designated a doctor of the church. Less than 30 people in 2,000 years with that designation.
May we all hear the call of Christ and be “doctors” who speak in our spheres to the “truth of beauty” we find in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I read once about the cosmopolitan playboy turned priest that the day he entered the monastery was entering the “four walls of my new freedom” (Thomas Merton, The Seven Story Mountain). When we think of religious structure one may see great freedom or one may see nominal freedom and detrimental walls.
There are very different views on formal prayer. For religiously faithful, it is rhythmic educating towards the good, true and beautiful. Secular humanists may see it as stifling and predictable.
I come from an experience of the whole spectrum on what is called the Our Father or The Lord’s Prayer. I know the views as an outsider and insider on that prayer. As a clinical social worker, one would assume I “evolved” from insider to outsider.
But that assumption would be incorrect.
I was born and raised by parents who were nominal at best on any intentional Christianity. In the rare occasions I went to church I had intolerable boredom. Due to my older siblings, a cousin and some friends I began an active Christian life when I was 14. In evangelical, charismatic Christianity the preferred term is The Lord’s Prayer and rare in groups. “Let the spirit flow” was the sentiment. Decades passed with exposure to various Christian denominations but little that were of the high church liturgical variety who pray this regularly.
Then my relationship with this prayer, taught by Jesus himself, changed in context for me at 42. It was a few months after my family and I moved out of state that I began to ponder the Our Father backwards, forwards and sideways. “What does it mean?” I thought. My ponderings trickled in my conscience to the point my prayer bubbled up adding “Lord, what does it mean about the kingdom coming? I felt should have seen it more fully by now but something is missing.”
After a few months of that I stumbled on persuasive Catholic material which gave me more context of the Our Father. This context opened up prayerful, historical, scriptural and sacramental lenses. I entered the Church early the next year. From then and for the rest of my life I will be going to mass where the Our Father comes shortly before the Eucharist. In the Our Father we in the mass pray this earnestly desiring to receive all of God’s grace.
But that is not the end of it. Recently I have been praying the second highest liturgy only to the mass called Liturgy of the Hours. Catholics can pray this solo or in groups. This has become a staple in my life especially because I may make a promise in four years in a deacon ordination in the Catholic Church to pray it twice a day.
In my formation toward the diaconate I pray it twice a day including the Our Father. The graces that flow from that have been grounding me more in the love of the Blessed Trinity.
Case in point the other day. When I was in the confessional a deeper sorrow for my sins welled up in my heart yet in the absolution I sensed a grace on me more than any other time I had gone into confession. What I used to find stifling I now see as liberating. The Our Father has been like a constant and key companion in this journey.
But the closest and central lens for this prayer is in Christ himself. Without Christ, the Our Father is only a spiritual poem. Christ gives context by being God Incarnate as God the Son in how “the Word became flesh and dwelt [tabernacled] among us” (John 1:14). The Incarnation is a founding context for the Our Father and complete with the Atonement and Resurrection.
It is in that sense Christ gives us the gospel by which we pray the Our Father. “But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’ “(John 20:17b). Before the Cross, Christ taught the Our Father with knowing God as Father being a lofty concept. After the Cross, it is a living reality. It is because of Jesus “who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25).
The closeness of God the Father in the words and work of Christ can be a context of healing to those who have father-wounds. “Father” may be a scary term to those with wounds by earthly fathers. They reflexively may say they like Jesus but not Father (nor the Holy Spirit also).
Ponder the words of Christ who countered this assumption. He said at the Last Supper, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’ (John 14:9)?” Praying to God the Father with the Our Father is ideally Christ praying to the Father in us and through us by the Spirit.
We can pray to God boldly even through dryness. We can pray with expectation drawing from the deposit of the faith knowing more fully who the Father is. Then we contemplate who we are as his children more fully.
So what is stopping us? If you read this as a Christian you are a breath of faith away from praying the Our Father. If you are not a Christian, you are a breath of faith away from stepping into the transcendent adoption in Christ. So be humble. Be trusting.
“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6).
It is high praise to say that someone’s role is the “lifeblood” that hold a group up. Sometimes a description of someone holding the enterprise together is that they are “the bones” of it.
Both analogies work together when one thinks about the blood factory aspect of bone marrow. If the bone has damage then the blood source runs short. Bone cancers are among the most painful. Also, bones give stability by not moving fundamentally unlike a muscle that can move, strain or flex in its essence. So too are those bone-type roles.
Keeping stability and nourishment in mind, it is rare we can find a person in such a role that provides both in the roles of truth and empowerment to the individuals and group through a lens of what is sacred.
The better the sense of objective truth underlying the roles, the better the better the grounding of objective truth they can provide. Unstable sense of truth in the subjective means lack of stability to those who receive the benefit. Stability in timeless values keeps the community going by speaking what is right into the situation and not with the fashionable theory of the day. This is difficult so hopefully the person is up to the job for each level of the group and its functions.
There are ceremonies of initiation into the group, a rite of passage of maturity and ceremonies that reaffirm realities that transcend and unite. When the first two happen, the major is on the individual and the minor is still on the group. For the third, it is inverse. Those special standard bearers serve the other at the cost of themselves which we can often see in some leadership roles in society.
Years ago in school I met a fellow student who had been a military officer and spoke of a sacrificial identity. He stated that for the men under him if it was 12 then he did not count the total number as 13. He subtracted himself from the equation because he took his men under him as his responsibility. That is service leadership in seeing the mission of his men’s safety above his own.
Additionally, we have follower norms who see the rank or office above the person who holds it. For example, when there a lower rank sees a superior officer they salute first. The officer may have a reputation of bad character or temperament but the saying is “you salute the rank and not the man.” If this were not the case then the military would make the personality the primary fabric and not the principle of the officer providing stability in the gift of delegated authority.
Yet there is cynicism to the concept of such solid authority in segments of society with fuel from hypocrisy. Some leaders having legitimate authority act illegitimately like we see in corrupt politicians. We see corrupt leaders taken down and want to cheer like the audience loved the scene in A Few Good Men when Colonel Jessup (played by Jack Nickolsen) gets his just dessert at the end.
But many of his comments he made on the stand that are isolated from the murder trial and valid questions hold true to the cynics of society of all authority. Cynical impulses demean all solid leadership that gives structure of any kind throwing the baby out with the bath water.
There was some truth when Jessup said, “You want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.” Someone needs to be in charge.
“Men follow orders or people die.” This has at least has some weight to it since an officer has intel beyond the micro perspective of a lower level and he may not want or need to explain the reasoning in the fog of ward. Commands are supposed to have clarity.
“You will address this court as your honor or sir.” This was the JAG judge admonishing Colonel Jessup when he was disrespecting him. The “court” is vested in the person of the judge while in session. Minutes later, that same judge who transcended both sides ordered Jessup detained. Justice works when applied consistently and not applied by personality.
It is incorrect to assume that the people should assume a person in authority rightfully can be beyond the accountability of authority. One can respect the office a bad leader holds and work within the system to suspend them from their duties and privileges.
It is this hope that made the audience cheer when Colonel Jessup incriminated himself, was under arrest and called Lieutenant Caffey (played by Tom Cruise) “son,” only to hear rebuke albeit against the rules in wording. “Don’t call me son. I’m a lawyer and an officer in the United States Navy. And you are under arrest you son of a bitch.”
But what happens in a society that walks around with Lieutenant Caffey lenses? Too often people will see a Colonel Jessup when there is none. If all society sees are the Jessup effect then the society will collapse. It would be in a sense a toxic cynicism rather than a balanced skepticism if primary principles do not flow out well.
Although there are times for a healthy skepticism, the default setting for those in authority is first a healthy optimism. This optimism is that the persons in authority now, and will continue to be, standard bearers. This can be in your family or community leaders.
For those who have been harmed by those with the higher ground in position they may see themselves as never having a chance before. But with a balanced perspective those fixed authorities can have a redeemed appearance among those harmed. Whether that is the same person who mishandled their power is another matter.
Dear reader, I hope this has been helpful as an end in itself whether you are a mental health therapist or not. I will continue in this next session to address the initiation specifically through a religiously informed point of view. So bear that in mind if you choose to continue reading.
In my time among the Christian traditions, like many Christians, I have felt the tension between giving proper deference and respect to the spiritual authorities to an activated skepticism to even temptation to be cynical. Just as there is in military the sayinng, “salute the uniform and not the man,” there are equivalent statements in Christian traditions.
One is “touch not my anointed servants and do my prophets no harm” (Psalms 105:15) which can, has and will be abused as a socially engineered escape clause for leaders having accountability. In the Judeo-Christian narratives there are many cases of those in legitimate authority who sinned, and heroic people who honored their office though they rebuked them. But along the way, there was a gaslighting effect with one of these verses in all-too-convenient use.
As a young Christian in my late teens, I first absorbed biblical narratives for this in the Saul and David saga. King Saul was jealous of David and was out to get him especially when the prophet Samuel told him that his kingdom would be given to him. David had chances to act or be complicit against Saul after the fact. Yet repeatedly he denied that idea. Saul had his Samuel who spoke truth to power.
Then up came David as the new “Lord’s anointed” and after years reigning committed adultery and murder. While Saul had his prophet Samuel, David had Nathan the prophet. Nathan spoke truth to power as well. Both kings and many of the other kings descended from David were anointed and grievously in error by sin, prudential judgment or both. In the case of King Joash who acted wickedly, those who killed him in a coup were themselves executed out of principle.
Such anecdotes impressed me when in the same years many of my favorite Christian preachers fell in scandal. It was 1987 and the names of Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker and Oral Roberts went from famous to infamous overnight. Non-Christians around me had their comedy relief on the sexual scandals of one and a very silly “God told me” of a third. What I learned to absorb was their behavior made illegitimate their moral example but not their office. I had, and still have no doubt, that many people came into a life changing relationship with Christ through their ministries. This was a nugget I carried in the later years when in my very personal level I would see those I regarded as gifted in the Holy Spirit to speak into my life and those who were close to me fall very short of the Christian call of love and holiness. Some of the damage was so profound that I used a Bible for a year with minimal commentary and I re-grounded myself on related social sciences on spiritual abuse as well as foundational Christian apologetics (e.g. The Case For Christ by Lee Stroebel). Over the years I came to appreciate the words of St. Polycarp
before his martyrdom, “86 years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior” (Polycarp’s Martyrdom, ca. 69-ca. 155). Though a different context, it still holds today in principle.
By 2012 and 2013, a deeper understanding occurred on anointed leadership in the Body of Christ when I discerned and entered the Catholic Church. One trait of the Catholic Church is that it is apostolic. This means in part that through the laying on of hands from the apostles through the ages the priestly gift extended from Christ the high priest continuing in holy orders. Holy orders means an indelible mark for spiritually anointed servant leadership to be given to select men through laying on of hands as bishop, priest or deacon. For a priest the ordination includes anointing oil. After that, one can be laicized or discern out to be an ex-clergy but the mark is there for all eternity. One can be an ex-president but in the truest sense of identity, ontologically, never really ex-clergy.
Reading the early church fathers, I learned a more robust perspective to formal ordination by God’s grace through the principle of ex opera operato. This was articulated in the 3rd century and defended again the in the 4th by Augustine. It is the principle that a sacrament does not operate by an intrinsic holiness or other trait of the person for it to be effective.
So if a mass occurs through a priest that is secretly stealing from the church it is still a valid mass. One can also be a bad cleric with holy orders and still be a cleric dispensing sacraments or a sacramental blessing validly. This was encouraging to me on the objective reality of it though I had no illusions that an anointed priest was a perfect priest.
I had just enough reasonable expectations as I came into the “Summer Of Shame” in 2018. This included a Pennsylvania report on priesthood sex abuse over decades and the exposure of Cardinal Theodore McCarick. The latter was credibly accused of sexually abusing adult seminarians and several minors. He was the most highly esteemed cardinal in the US and some whispered could be the first American pope. Now he is laicized and is Mr. Theodore McCarick.
What gives me peace first is that God knows what he is doing as well as permitting. The apostles panicked in the boat in a deadly storm so they complained to Jesus. He calmed the storm and urged them to have more faith. Likewise, even the “barque of Peter” in the Catholic Church, the papacy, will not sink even when there is corrupt leadership.
Second, God raises Samuels and Nathans through the ages like St. Paul. When Peter, the first pope, wavered in his personal conduct about the inclusivity to the Gentiles Paul rebuked him in public. Peter may have implied a humility to that rebuke because years later he referred to Paul’s writings as scripture in one of his papal encyclicals.
Later is the example of St. Catherine of Sienna. For decades the main Vatican residence was in Avignon, France with financial corruption and plush living for the hierarchy. Pope Gregory XI wanted to move it back to Rome but was afraid of an assassination attempt, the cardinals would not like it and there was chaos in Italy. Yet she urged him in a prophetic voice.
“The wolf is carrying away your sheep, and there is no one found to help them … the hungry sheep await your coming to hold and possess the place of your predecessor and champion, Apostle Paul. For you as Vicar of Christ should rest in your own place. Come, then, come and delay no more; and comfort you, and fear not for anything that might happen, since God will be with you” (“Saint Catherine of Siena, As Seen in Her Letters,” Vida D. Scudder).
She was not a rebel but is a canonized saint and one of only a few dozen doctors of the Catholic Church in it’s 2,000 history.
In recent years there has been a voice of correction to Pope Francis in an open letter called a dubia. The cardinals who wrote it were Cardinal Raymond Burke, Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, and recently deceased Cardinals Joachim Meisner and Carlo Caffarra. The cardinals tried to voice their concerns privately and due to no response made it public.
Last, is the priestly consideration for the believer. That is not a typo. Though one is a Christian without holy orders in apostolic succession through the laying on of hands, the Bible is clear about a royal priesthood and complimentary wording to this effect in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Though few have the prophetic calling to rebuke a spiritual leader, it is incumbent to all to pray for them. Furthermore, inquire on how to support the good and the bad. It is fitting to do so since to be Christian is to be a intercessor no matter what your calling.
This is on my mind at the time of this writing at a personal level. As I write this, I am an Aspirant to become a deacon in the Catholic Church. Is there another “Summer of Shame” to come again soon in the Catholic Church. It is my hope that by the grace of God, and my prayers as a part of it, that God in his court will make things right.
The other bone-type focus of service is in marriage which we will look at next.
Days ago was Easter which is a great day in the year when Christians celebrate the Resurrection event and, when possible, as a happy and united family.
But for some Christian families it is a time of frustration when a family member comes down the aisle on Easter Vigil (Saturday night) and enters into the Catholic Church. What many Protestants see as a tragedy occurs all over in the Western world. Though the traffic is overall still more of Catholics becoming Protestants, the gap in direction seems to be getting shorter each year.
So for family interactions between ex-Protestants turned Catholics and their family or friends, the tension can be thick with even accusatory questions. How could you leave Christianity to convert to Catholicism? Why are you worshipping idols? Don’t you know how mistaken the pope is all the time in his airplane interviews and other scenes? How could you betray everything you have been taught in the Christian faith (possibly this comes from your parents who nurtured you in the Christian faith).
In the interest of full disclosure, I am personally an ex-Protestant turned Catholic. I was raised in a non-Christian household, a Protestant for 30 years and became a Catholic 9 years ago. This was done after much prayer, Bible study, research into the early church fathers and countless hours watching good apologists from both sides have robust debates.
Next in my self-disclosure are my intentions. First, I would be happy if you joined your loved one in full communion with the Catholic Church. Second, if that does not happen, I would be happy if you have a respectful and correct understanding of the Catholic perspective.
To further especially that second item, I am making some suggestions below. I will start with the easiest and go up from there.
First, read the Bible with us. You can look up site like the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to subscribe to the lectionary. The Bible is read and preached on every morning of the year except Holy Saturday and even then is read that night at Easter Vigil. If you stay at it for three years you will read about 90% of the Bible. About 1 out of 20 would be a book that is not in Protestant bibles but you can skip that if you are uncomfortable. The benefit is seeming some of the material foundation from the foreshadowing of Christ and the substance through a Catholic lens. And you may actually like what passages are matched.
Second, keep an open mind beyond anecdotes you hear about Catholicism or eureka moments that seem to prove Catholic error. Isolated anecdotes can be used against Protestantism unfairly as well and surely you would not think that is fair. To sift through for substance one should look at core beliefs by core clergy in the most formal contexts.
In that vein, you can buy a copy of the Catechism of The Catholic Church. It was published in 1992. Although it is not declared formally as an infallible document itself, it is a pope-approved summary of the Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and teachings of The Magisterium. The most quoted source by far in it is the Bible.
Third, consider the semantics problems that are likely to occur. If a Baptist and a Pentecostal, both being Protestants, can talk past each other with different definitions on words, how much more can that happen between Catholics and Protestants? This is why it is important to give the benefit of the doubt and inquire before assuming what Catholics mean. For example, do Catholics “pray to Mary” as in asking for her goddess powers to do something by her intrinsic power? Or is it like Sherlock Homes asking a witness, “Pray, continue” but for their Christian family intercession?
Also in semantics, remember that Latin based languages cluster in thought around the nuances of Catholic theology better than a greatly Germanic language like English. For example, when a Protestant hears “holy” they think it can only mean God or in rare instances a place clearly touched by him like the Holy Land. In languages like French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese some word like san, santo or santa is about someone who is set apart with an extrinsic grace and not an intrinsic self-sufficiency independent of the Triune God. Again, benefit of the doubt is key.
Fourth, although I love conversion stories, take a look at writings or speeches from Protestants who have not become Catholics but affirm Catholics as fellow Christians. CS Lewis, Billy Graham, Chuck Colson, JI Packer, Rick Warren, and Luis Palau have affirmed Catholics as Christian brethren without losing lifelong Protestant association in any way nor have indifferentism tendencies. Could they be missing something or actually getting something right?
Fifth, but possibly first, listen with an open mind to your loved ones story. Ask non-judgmental questions and try to understand what their journey is. Consider the possibility they made their change with sober judgment.
There is another part to their choice process: they are not rejecting you and may even be complimenting you. Some come into the Catholic Church, like myself, having a lot of foundation in Old Testament, soaking in the Gospel, and yearning to live out what is in the book of Acts. If you are their parent or former pastor your stirring them to revere the Bible and follow Jesus where he leads may have been pivotal. You just may not like it.
There is one possibly daring thing you can do with your newly Catholic loved one at some point: go to mass with them. You may have many assumptions of what you are going to see. Therefore, I suggest you google the layout of the mass, read the lectionary of Bible readings for that day and then see if the mass parts can be found in scripture (e.g. We read or sing the Hosanna words from the Triumphal Entry every Sunday).
So to all of my brothers in sisters in Christ who have loved ones who have “swam the Tiber” (the river by Vatican Hill), I pray God’s blessing to you in your adjustment. I hope you can take my comments and find a meeting place with your loved one. Even if it does not include literally walking into a Catholic parish.
“To bind up the brokenhearted.” This verse struck me as a child reading my Bible on the school bus. It was among the things Jesus said He was going to do in His inaugural speech in Luke 4. My thoughts were for Jesus to heal my heart of pain and insecurity and spread some healing around as a particular calling. Could He do that? Would He do that?
I was born in 1970 in Portland, Oregon, the youngest of four children. My parents did not raise me as a Christian. My running joke was that they loved to drink and party, while their children rebelled and became Christians. In my first encounter with Christ, at age eleven, I said the Sinner’s Prayer with my cousin on a rainy day in Newport, Oregon. Later, I spent some years in the Foursquare Church, a charismatic denomination that planted in me a sincere love for the Bible.
I struggled with school and social situations. The negative words of family and peers affected me. A conventional diagnosis might be that I had ADHD and anxiety disorder. They told me to “try harder” and “be on the ball.” I was starved for affirmation.
The “Brad” Years
In February of 1989, I received an affirmation through an older man, “Brad.” He was a Christian visual artist and spoke from a blend of Christian streams like Word of Faith and prophetic charismatic perspectives. Focused on discipleship, Brad highlighted some verses I had overlooked.
One focus, from the book of Acts, described the early believers: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). Brad’s interpretation emphasized that Constantine came around in the year 325 and brought a “mixture from Babylon.” So, through the “revelation knowledge” that we believed came to people like us, we took it upon ourselves to discern these scriptural elements, outside of organized churches, in our house groups. The irony is that we affirmed the gist of the Nicene Creed of 325. But that irony was lost on us.
Brad was influential in my life when I married, and we brought my wife into the fold. We had two girls, then a boy.
Over the years, our discipleship grew legalistic. We were told that Brad was an apostle. There was increasing pressure to move back to the town where the church was centered and avoid working in specific industries. They pressured me to attend meetings 60 miles away to be a better disciple. These pressures, with many behavioral norms put on us, were huge issues for my wife. She left me for another man.
A few months before she left, they gave me “counsel” not to cut myself off from the fellowship in order to keep my marriage. They told me to put the Bible aside because I was too much into the “religious spirit.” They told me to “stop leaning on others in the Body of Christ.” They told me, “Stop praying for your personal needs.”
I prayed according to their counsel over the next two months, and it felt like my prayers were bouncing off the ceiling. So when my wife was about to leave me, the second-in-command at church told me, “Well, you were warned.” I believed him, thinking I must not have prayed enough. I went two days in a row, “to fight off the demons,” with my intake being three-quarters of a glass of water each of those two days. It was on me to “get the victory.”
The Case for Re-orienting
September 5, 1997 was the day my wife left. (My children were five, three, and less than one year old at the time.) I was so distraught that my employer gave me the day off. I went to The Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother, known to the locals as The Grotto. It’s a Catholic monastery in Portland built on a precipitous hillside. I figured those Catholics were at least good for places of silent prayer. At The Grotto, I looked down from a cliff high enough that I briefly considered “the easy way out.” By God’s grace, I kept walking. I looked at the exquisite wood carvings about the temptations of Christ in the wilderness grounds. I perceived weariness on the face of Christ and, in that, a sense of His humanity. I began to get “re-oriented” to basic Christianity. I felt an impression from the Holy Spirit that Christianity and relationships should have a foundation of love, trust, and respect.
I knew that I needed to mend my life by following those principles – with Christ’s help. On my first day back in church with a healthy, well-balanced congregation, the hymn they were singing was “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand.” They never sang it again until more than a year later, the Sunday after the court finalized my unwanted divorce. It was a great comfort to me and, no doubt, not a “coincidence.” That season had a recurring theme of the unlimited love of God (agape).
I renewed myself by reading about Christian apologetics and spiritual abuse. For a while, I chose to use a Bible with as little commentary as possible — like avoiding too many chefs in the kitchen.
My Crisis Years
Crisis colored the next several years. I had custody modifications, was injured on the job, and injured again in car accidents. My pastors sided against me after several private meetings with my ex-wife. One used the toxic “house church” period against me, even though it was four years in the past.
Although I was mostly in healthy church settings now, there was a root of bitterness. I nurtured a resentment inside of me that was founded on a false contract. This carried me away from the basics that God had spoken to me that day at The Grotto.
Sometimes there is sinful thinking in the Christian life. There can be presumptions, such as “name it and claim it.” These presumptions, which became my own, tried to hold God obligated to hold up His end of the contract and reward me for my holy choices by blessing me and preventing harm. How could He allow harm to come to me, harm like divorce, depression, spiked-up anxiety, injuries, and vast loneliness?
In hindsight, I can say where that contract existed: only in my head. Nowadays, I could tell my younger self that I had forged the name of Jesus and pretended it was a binding contract. It was like saying to God, “I do for You; You do for me.” There were periods where I thought stupidly, selfishly, and solitarily, acting out my search for romantic affirmation. It always left me empty.
After years of this, I tore up my “contract” and learned the basics all over again. I went to a tremendous Protestant church in Portland called Imago Dei Community (the name means “image of God”). They valued worship and beauty, truth, and authentic community. Those values soaked through my hard heart like rain in the soft Oregon soil. Little did I know that God was planting seeds there for what He was about to do.
Marital Bliss
During this time, I went to a coffee shop concert to support a musician friend who was sharing sets with a beautiful young woman who sang and played guitar. Her name was Summer, and we had a great chat between sets.
Though God meant her to be my wife, the Lord still had work to do in both of us for more than a year. For me, it included dealing with my codependency issues. Now, later in my life as a therapist, I describe this to my clients as having a fuzzy boundary on where oneself ends and the other person begins. As a single man getting more grounded in faith, healing meant not seeing a wife as another savior.
A year later, the time was right for me and Summer to date, and we decided to attend the same church. She hit it off well with my three children, and we were married on October 14, 2006. She suffered a miscarriage, then we had a son and a daughter. She supported me in building on my few college credits to get a bachelor’s degree in Social Work. We led a home group for our church for several years. I started a modest business supporting the needs of adults with developmental disabilities and was getting more defined in addressing the needs of humanity as a social worker, informed by my Christian faith. Life was good — or was it? Was it enough?
Is This All There Is?
In the last two years of my undergraduate studies, I started asking myself several questions. I wondered what Communion was all about. I figured that, if it was instituted so close to the cross, it should have more meaning than we assigned to it. Also, I questioned whether or not it accomplished something tangible. Finally, I considered that, in Communion, something ought to transcend that meal if it was actually connected to the cross.
I even wondered about things connected to the doctrine of Christ Himself. In particular, I considered how Jesus could be born without sin if He came from a sinful woman. My logic was that, as an inheritor of Original Sin, Mary would necessarily have to be unholy and unfit to contain the Holy One. Without an explanation for that dilemma, it all seemed strange and left me hanging.
Furthermore, having witnessed and experienced so much division in the Body of Christ, I considered how there should be a design for the unity of this Kingdom (John 17:21). I suspected that part of the solution lay in the Ten Commandments.
An Odd Development
In the spring of 2012, as I approached graduation from college, I heard something strange from my eldest daughter, who was 19 at the time. When I asked her if she could watch the younger kids one night, she said she had to do something, but she mumbled the details.
“What?” I asked.
“RCIA,” she responded. “It’s for those who may be interested in becoming Catholic.”
I was okay if that worked for her, but God forbid that I myself go into that area of Christianity! I wanted to be spiritual and relational in my church and not be a part of what I considered “dry” ceremony.
The Lord’s Prayer
Three months later, my family of four moved to Wickenburg, Arizona. We lived on my in-law’s property while I established residency and applied for a Masters in Social Work at Arizona State University. Although we found an excellent non-denominational church, my earlier, gnawing questions caused more discontent. My heart pivoted towards God, opening up my blind spots.
He answered my prayer by priming the pump of my heart with a greater desire to pray the Lord’s Prayer, also known as the Our Father. It rattled in my head and heart morning, noon, and night. I was meditating on it backwards and forwards, settling on the line about the Kingdom. I knew in my spirit that His Kingdom should be something I can enter into in some form on earth. I thought I should have perceived it by now with my various denominations and light theological training. I prayed many times for the Lord to show me this Kingdom.
The New Kid
In the fall of 2012, something was triggered in what I had been praying. One night, I was flipping through the cable channel guide on the TV and saw a program title and show summary for “Genesis to Jesus.” Well, I had always appreciated how the Old Testament is fulfilled in Christ.
Feeling like I had heard everything, here was this “new kid” named Dr. Scott Hahn. I had never seen a Bible teacher with such insight on how the Bible fits together. I proceeded to read a few of his books, then another book by Pope Benedict XVI. I watched many vigorous debates on YouTube between Catholic and Protestant apologists.
Pope Benedict wrote about beauty drawing us up to heaven and tied it to knowing Christ in His incarnation, with the Church as His Bride:
[It] is not merely the external beauty of the Redeemer’s appearance that is praised: rather, the beauty of truth appears in Him, the beauty of God Himself, who powerfully draws us and inflicts on us the wound of Love, as it were, a holy Eros that enables us to go forth, with and in the Church, His Bride, to meet the Love who calls us (Pope Benedict XVI, On the Way to Jesus Christ, Ignatius Press, 2002).
Between prayer, the Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, YouTube debates, and some exposure to the early Church Fathers, things clicked into place. I will now summarize how they answered my questions.
Connecting the Dots
I could now appreciate Communion, seeing what it was about. Christ instituted the Eucharist under the appearances of bread and wine. He is present in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.
Yes, Communion accomplished something tangible. It is the objective means through which we, together, can partake of His divine nature. I compare it to when I supported adopting parents: in raising your adopted baby with pheromones, spit-up, tears, and other body fluids, they do indeed become your real children. Let naysayers beware.
Communion in the Eucharist is a result of the cross, with Christ offering the unique atonement. The sacrifice of the Mass is an extension or reverberation of His work on the cross. It does not undermine Calvary at all, but rather is an extension of it.
It was fitting that Jesus was born without sin by a mother who was also without sin. She was “full of grace” in the perfect sense; Greek language scholarship supports this. I learned that she was “full of grace” through the retroactive grace of Jesus on the cross that preserved Mary from sin. God was her savior in a privileged way when the Immaculate Conception occurred.
I stood in awe of the calling of unity founded in the Church. Christ founded a literal, visible Church (Jn 17:3, 21). As for the Ten Commandments, I learned where they have their place in the New Covenant in Christ. They are covered extensively in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
It got even better. I realized those patterns from Acts 2:42 were found by reading the early Church Fathers and connected directly to the modern Mass! The priest carried on Sacred Tradition, passed on since the time of the Apostles through apostolic succession, by laying on of hands. The fellowship of the brethren stems partly from the fact that the Catholic Church is the most diverse form of Christianity on earth. The Breaking of the Bread was the Eucharist, and there was both a liturgical and personal-prayer spirituality in Catholic tradition like none other. My relationship with Jesus was only encouraged.
Things came together in such a way that I knew I needed to be Catholic. I knew I needed to tell my wife, Summer. She laughed with me as I played the Ave Maria scene from Sister Act, but as we laughed, my thought was, “Oh boy, I hope she doesn’t freak out when I tell her the news.”
My Catholic Coming Out
That fateful night, while staying in her parents’ small guest house, I reached out, held her hand, and fessed up: “I believe the Lord may be calling me to the Catholic Church.” She stiffened immediately and replied, “I’m a Protestant. I married a Protestant. If I were to become a Catholic, I would have to give up every gift that God gave me.” Thus began a year of contention, with many tears on both sides.
That weekend, I went to our regular morning church with her and the kids. After that, I went alone to Mass with eyes wide open for an event that would be, for me, both new and timeless. I attended the noon Mass, which was in Spanish, and found myself feeling at home. Being bilingual in Spanish, I recognized some of their songs like “Alabare.” The parish was humble in size, but I had a sense of an angelic presence. Though I returned home joyfully, it was bittersweet because of the tension that awaited me there. It was as if I had gone on a date with someone else.
When I met with the RCIA director, she noticed that my wife and I had both been married before. I explained that, since my wife’s ex-husband was mentally ill from the beginning and then abandoned the marriage and since my ex left me for someone else, I considered us biblically free. She then explained Catholic teaching, and I, then, had to explain annulments and the reasoning behind the Catholic viewpoint to my wife, who was already upset.
God’s Timing
In February of 2013, I went to my first Catholic Men’s Conference and found that I had not left behind my evangelical fervor but, rather, discovered it replanted in the soil I was meant for. This conference was full of men on fire for Jesus!
Although the tension at home was still present, a few months later, I found joy when I was received into the Catholic Church at the 2013 Easter Vigil. The pastor heard our marriage stories and convalidated us. (I found out much later that this is not in line with the teachings of the Church. I made sure we initiated annulment processes after attending a Canon Law class.) My eldest daughter was received into the Catholic Church the same night back in Oregon.
Other family and friends scratched their heads, not knowing what to make of my odd life change. I emphasized that I was not disrespecting the spiritual investments of Protestant pastors and loved ones. I was appropriating the godly discernment built into me to follow Christ where He led.
I also did not leave behind the fire of Pentecost. I went from my Holy Spirit encounters to the community context in the Sacrament of Confirmation. I moved from a context where I had subjective encounters with Christ, which were indeed edifying, to the objective context that Christ founded in the Church. I started my blog as I learned more about the fullness of truth.
My wife continued to make snide remarks, but she would also apologize. I had my moments and needed to apologize, too. We would hug and cry and recommit to listening to each other, even when it was hard. We moved to Phoenix, and life got busier as I entered my Master’s program. We found Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish. This was the former parish of Catholic musician Matt Maher, who wrote a contemporary music liturgy. My wife joining the music ministry here made an excellent bridge.
Some Softening
After several months, I saw my wife’s heart finally begin to soften.
She read Rome Sweet Home by Dr. Scott and Kimberly Hahn. She was struck by Kimberly’s perspective, as the daughter of a Protestant pastor, on the Church’s view regarding life issues. I had my three children from before, and together, Summer and I had one of each. But why stop there? So along came another one! Our boy was born during my Master’s program.
Summer decided to enter RCIA. She resonated with exploring what the Catholic Church was doing, even if she might never join. The director, Todd Covarrubias, was a godly, lifelong Catholic. He also had an evangelical fire, making him joyful and bold. He called people to be disciples of Jesus Christ and Catholics. Imagine — both/and, not either/or! His passionate manner challenged her assumptions.
Later on in the 2013–2014 RCIA year, I mentioned that she had not made any sarcastic comments about the Catholic Church in two weeks. She said it didn’t feel quite right to her any more.
I joked that it could be because I had been asking for Mary’s intercession for two weeks — which was true. She gave me a look and a laugh like, “All right, smart guy!”
Soon, she shared with me that she had decided to enter the Catholic Church. At Easter Vigil, the night she was received, they played “The Easter Song,” a Keith Green composition dear to me. God was making things fall into place. For the next three years, we were involved in a Catholic charismatic covenant community.
Still Learning
There was growth, adaptation, and suffering, too. I have had many theological questions answered, and knowing Christ from the heart in the trials we encountered has been precious to me.
However, the paradox of suffering and blessing is a reality. In my Christian life, I have meditated on St. Peter preaching about times of refreshing on the day of Pentecost. While I still believe the Holy Spirit can be active in that way, there are also those times in between. In those times, we can learn that grace is still active in our faith. This is the tension of the paradox.
My understanding of blessing and suffering became clearer in the traumas that followed. After our daughter was born (our baby number four), Summer suffered a miscarriage at seven weeks. Then another at ten weeks. We determined yet another pregnancy to be “home free,” only to find out that our son had passed at 18 weeks. This called for a stillbirth protocol. These three losses in a row occurred within a period of only 18 months. I cried out, “Abba, Father,” and He was there. So was the Church. Deacons supported us in burying our children at a Catholic cemetery. One of the deacons brought personal experience of his own on this as he listened and consoled.
My faith was still standing. I had torn up my contract a long time ago because, as was reinforced by Catholic teaching, we are called to a covenant of unconditional love. Having a conditional expectation of God leads to despair and darkness. To know Christ in covenant love — an interpersonal exchange without conditions or expiration dates — is an end in itself. Encountering Christ is what matters, not assumptions of what we are supposedly entitled to.
Still Planting
We are all called to be wounded healers. God works in me through my private, informal prayer and in His Sacraments. God inspires me in my work as a licensed therapist. Though I work in a secular setting and cannot explicitly evangelize there, I am inspired to draw out, by asking the right questions, a hunger for the beautiful, the true, and the good.
By God’s grace, I have become more clearly faith-based through helping in RCIA after moving to Minnesota in 2019–2020. I have also contributed to parish spiritual formation through the pandemic period. Through the working of the Holy Spirit and my training at the Kino Catechetical Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, I am able to pass on the Faith to those inquiring into God’s ways.
By God’s grace, more conversions in my family have happened. A few years after I became Catholic, we visited my older brother and his wife. We planted seeds on the usual suspects: the Pope, Mary, the Eucharist, then Mary again. Over time, my brother corresponded frequently with Ken Hensley from the Coming Home Network (thanks, Ken!). He and his wife are now in full communion with the Catholic Church.
I have found the covenantal love of God beautifully expressed in the Church. I have hope for this life and the life to come, and I want to share that hope. If I pause to look, I see that “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).
As I write this it is New Year’s Day 2022 and we are approaching the international Week of Prayer for Christian Unitycoordinated by the World Council of Churches.
Another year has gone by with another year of division, yet not without opportunities for this to change.
Dr. Peter Kreeft repeatedly says in his talks that, “brother tend to stop fighting when there is a madman at the door.” These last two years has been very difficult for Christians. There has been horrible persecution of Christians in China by the CCP with Catholics and Protestants suffering together. For them the madman at door is called CCP.
In America the last two years there has been coercion with ridicule, professional sanction and fines for Christians who do not comply with mandates. Some of the time the mandates have been restricting church services while allowing big box stores to be open. Sometimes there are Christians who discern their convictions against the vaccines. The madman at the door here is government intrusion “for your safety.”
When we look across the divide amongst us, are we really in a time to debate if Luther’s theology was godsend? I can only hope for the day we have that luxury.
So with this in mind, I want to throw in my two cents to Christians of good will among the Christian branches of Catholics, Coptic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant. I appeal to the conscience formed in you by the Holy Spirit.
Just by listing all of these groups as valid Christian branches I may be in trouble with someone reading this. To some it is “so clear” that one or more of these groups are marginally Christian or not at all. On this too, allow the possibility that Christ is actively saving outside of your group.
All four have martyrs.
All four agree on at least 66 books of the Bible.
All four affirm that Christ is fully God and fully man.
All four look to Christ’s return.
With that said, I will offer some suggestions on what Christians can prayerfully consider this week.
“…..AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS”
When Christ spoke of forgiveness he meant it for our good and for our salvation which is to the exclusion of revenge mentality. There has been wrongs, even atrocities done in past generations. Forgiveness is not an injustice of saying the wrong was right but that there is room for redemption for the wrongdoers. Such is the application of righteousness in its fullness. And if the wrongdoers are long dead, and you allow it in your theology, pray for their souls too.
To live this out is Christianity 101.
SEMANTICS BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT
Even when the language is the same, groups may need a translator still. Because of doctrinal distinctives some words take a life of their own and then the ecumenical dialogue breaks down needlessly. So to be sure, ask what a troubling term means to the person you are engaging with. Without the metaphorical translator it takes hard work to listen and not assume. So listen carefully and respond slowly.
ECUMENICAL WORK
Dialogue can be much more complex than action. Action often does speak louder than words. We should look for opportunities for both because each may enhance the other towards Christian unity.
Even so, barriers sometimes exist out of a collective muscle memory of “us vs. them.” One example was when I was on Facebook in a group for mostly Group A (I wish to write as neutrally as possible). Someone asked if it is alright for Group A to work with Group B in prolife work. I am in Group B and chimed in asking, “Good question. One should ask the unborn baby 20 years later how they feel about being saved from abortion through the teamwork of A and B groups.
There is a great example in acts of charity. It is hard to do acts of charity to the world without loving each other. Christ said the world looking at us would know we are his disciples in that we love one another. I could call this a love loop in the best way. Serving the needy does not require a theology degree from any Christian branch.
Another example is in a work of art. Since art can contain beauty, and beauty leads to goodness and truth, Christians can set themselves up for God’s blessing of unity in joint projects. It is like we disarm ourselves while picking up a joint painting.
An example is in the TV series called The Chosen. The creator of it is a Protestant and son of a co-writer of the Left Behind series. The actor who plays Jesus received his Christian baptism as an Eastern Orthodox, was confirmed Catholic and is in the Catholic sphere. The actor who plays St. John is the son of an Orthodox priest. The actor who plays Judas is Coptic. Their theological advisors are Catholic, Messianic Jewish and Protestant.
What they have created in the first two seasons is beautiful, true and good.
BLUR THE TITLES
We can get caught up in the title of the group we belong to and fail to see truth embedded in the identities of the others.
We should all be Catholic. Literally the word means “according to the whole.” Figuratively, it means universal. God wants to save all parts of us not just some. And he wants to save the world if they will just believe (John 3:16).
We should all be Protestant. We should all be willing to speak truth to power where it is needed. And I write this as a Catholic who knows that both Sacred Scriptures and canon law allow rebuke even to a pope.
We should all be evangelicals. The word euangelion is the word for the gospel. It means a message of systemic change for a great victory. We should all be messengers of the gospel that saves.
We should all be Messianic. We should see how “the New is concealed in the Old, and the Old is revealed in the New.” Christians together should plumb the depths of God’s covenantal layers of work that point to Christ as the fulfillment.
We should all be Orthodox. Orthodox means “right teaching.” All of the groups I have named affirm the Nicene Creed with differences on what “one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic” mean in their fulness. But 95% agreement is pretty good for a place to start.
VALID AND LICIT
Perhaps you have a loved one who has left your branch of Christianity and report they have had a great encounter with Jesus Christ where they are now. To summarize Marcus Grodi, a Catholic who helps non-Catholics become Catholic, say “That’s great!”
Such a perspective goes with discerning valid and licit. If someone calls on Christ as Lord they will be saved (Romans 10:9). Someone could in good conscience believe that their group is the most in line with Sacred Scripture. But something valid can happen in Christ still. For your fellow Christian to come over to your side which you believe to be licit is ultimately God’s business and up to you to dialogue respectfully at the right time and place.
MIX AND MATCH
A Christian can enjoy teachings and art of other branches. I am a Catholic who listens to a mix in my podcasts. 80% of the podcasts or Youtube channels I consume are Catholic but the other 20% are Orthodox and Protestant. For Orthodox I listen to Hank Hennegraff- – Hank Unplugged and Lord of The Spirits with Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick and Fr. Stephen De Young. I recently got a book from the same tradition by Fr. John Behr. For Protestant there is In The Studio with Michael Card, The Ten Minute Bible Hour, and Alisa Childers to name a few. I do not lose my connection to my grounding as a Catholic and am sentimental about the Protestant material since I used to be one.
There is a liberty in finding truth in the other branches including the following phenomenon: “This teaching does not contradict my branch, but my branch fails to go to this direction.” That is liberating while humbling at the same time. Try it. You just might like it.
“I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me (John 17:20-21).
jembenjamin 