Considering Catholicism (Part II)

As a Protestant who has been told so often about the “errors of the Catholic Church,” I have always taken it for granted that the Catholic Church was indeed in error—until now.

I will now explain some of the major charges brought against the Catholic Church by my Protestant teachers, family, and friends, as well as why I no longer accept them as legitimate.

The Saints and the Sacraments

I have been told that the adoration of the saints, the sacraments, and all the rituals of the Catholic Church do nothing but distract from Jesus. Like everything else I was told, I once accepted this as true. I thought it was horrible that Catholics would spend so much time thinking about anyone or anything other than Jesus Himself.

I now find something very desirable and honorable in these Catholic practices: rather than as distractions, I began to see them as similar to my taking a walk in the woods or along the beach to look at the beautiful things the Lord has created. If I reflect on them, and I appreciate them, that doesn’t mean I am taking my eyes off Jesus—not at all. Instead, I am being drawn closer to Him through His wonderful creations and through the symbols of Him that I see everywhere. The same can be said for the many paintings, statues, and rituals you will find in Catholic churches. They merely serve as reminders of heavenly things, not as distractions.

To call the sacraments a distraction from Christ is equivalent to calling sex a distraction from marriage. Both are wonderful, beautiful parts of a relationship. Just as sex brings you closer to your spouse and gives you a greater love and appreciation for him or her, so the sacraments bring you closer to Christ.

As for praying to the saints: I would once have considered this heresy. It now seems so clear to me that praying to the saints is no different from a Protestant asking another person to pray for them. If Protestants claim that there is only one mediator between God and man, and that that mediator is Jesus Christ, why ask another Christian to pray for you? When a Catholic prays to the saints, they are simply asking the saints to pray for them. Not only do I find this to be a good thing to do, but it is something I believe would be pleasing in the Lord’s eye.

Protestants often take pride in the fact that they can go straight to God; they love to claim that they need no mediator between themselves and God. While I believe this to be true--you can go straight to God—I do not think it is wise to deny your reliance on the Church as a whole. Paul makes the dangers of this clear when he says, “For the body is not one member, but many…And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you” (1 Cor. 12, 21). Just as an eye cannot tell the hand that it is not needed, we cannot deny our need for the entire body of Christ, including those who came before us and those who will come after us.