In a nutshell, through a long period of study and reflection I simply became convinced that the Catholic Church really was founded by Jesus, grown from a small mustard seed into a mighty tree, as he promised it would. In studying Catholic doctrine, which formerly I had been told was “man-made” and had nothing to do with scripture, I found that it is actually more consistent with scripture than the Evangelical theology I had studied before. In fact, it is completely consistent with scripture – I still cannot find a single contradiction, when studied and understood at depth. And I have been a studious Catholic for nearly 10 years, and am now earning a master’s degree in theology.
In coming to the conclusion that the Catholic Church really was founded by Jesus himself, in person, I also realized that if I am truly serious about following him regardless of the cost, and really take everything the bible says seriously, like the parts about being one Body and not getting caught up in division and controversy (which is endless in the Protestant world, in my experience), then I must become a Catholic. My ancestors left Catholicism either by choice or by compulsion during the English Reformation (I don’t know which); regardless, I needed to reverse the break and come back into union with the original Church.
And then read her post on the Catholic way of experiencing the world:
Probably the core, deepest thing about Catholicism is the reality of the Word become Flesh, not only in Jesus when he walked on the earth, but also, and significantly, on-goingly on earth in the bread and wine, which become His Body and Blood when consecrated by a priest during the mass. For Catholics, the primary encounter with Christ is not in the written Word of the bible, but in the living Word made flesh in the Eucharist.
It is a different, and very interior, experience, where one while still on earth becomes one flesh with Christ our Bridegroom through receiving his Body and Blood in the Eucharist. We are a people of the Word made flesh and dwelling among us in the Eucharist, and through the Eucharist in us. And through the Eucharist, the body of Christ, we are bound together as one Body, in him, as he told us to be, worldwide on earth and eternally in heaven. That is core Catholic identity. The Eucharist unites us to him, and binds us together as one in him, in a very deep, interior way that goes far beyond ordinary human words.
The bible is the expression of the mind of Christ, God speaking to us in human words, through human agency. Everything in it points to, leads toward, and culminates in Christ Himself, who is constantly descending and reaching out to us in the Eucharist, the great bridge from heaven to earth in which we, while still on earth, touch and receive heaven, and our God in heaven, into our very selves.
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