Question:
I would like to offer the following for your reflection and hope that it can clear up some of the confusion concerning the Catholic Church that exists out there. 1) We didn’t remove any of the commandments. The one in question refers to worshipping false gods (graven images) and I can assure you that we hold to it quite strictly. To God and God alone belong all glory, honor and worship. By the way soulwinner, why did you all remove six books from the Bible? 2) As to only one mediator, I agree with you completely as do all good Catholics. There is only one mediator between God and man and that is Jesus Christ (not the Pope, the Virgin Mary, Billy Graham or the Bible). Jesus is the mediator, the others fulfill the same function that you and I perform everyday – we teach and preach by our words and examples. They just do it in a more official way as leaders of the Church. Yes, we say and believe that the Holy Father is the Vicar of Christ here on earth, but that does not make him Chirst. He has authority only because of God. One who receives power from another cannot be greater than the one from whom his power comes. 3) Never make a graven image. Unfortunately, the Bible contradicts itself on this one. Please read the following: Numbers 21:8-9 – And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." So Moses make a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. Sounds like a graven image to me – but then again, God said it was okay. Remember, the commandment against graven images was written before the Incarnation when people fashioned images of bulls, goats or dragons and called them images of God. One Jesus Christ was born, God took on an image that could be fashioned by human hands in art. I’m pretty sure that you agree with me that Christ is more important than the Bible – thus we can’t condemn Christ for making the greatest "graven image" of them all – his body crucificed to the cross. A graven image refers to something fashioned for worship, like a god. In the Catholic Church we have statues and pictures that function in the same way that the photographs and pictures in your home and the statues in city parks and the state capitol function. They are a reminder of people who lived their lives in complete devotion to almighty God. Just as we fashion statues to our American heroes so that we remember their heroic deeds (we don’t worship them). In Church, we remember the heroic deeds of those who have gone before us. 4) Yes the word "Mass" appears many times in the Bible. "Mass" is a Latin word which means "To be sent forth." (Missa). From my readings of the Gospel and the Pauline letters, the disciples and all would be believers are continuously being sent forth to preach and live a life worthy of Christ. Also, all the Gospels and some of St. Paul’s letters mention the Eucharistic (Greek = thanksgiving) meal that Jesus celebrated before his passion and death. The Mass is centered around this meal (present many times in Scripture). (Mt. 26:26- 30); (Mk. 14:22-24);(Lk. 22:14-20); (1 Cor. 11:23-26). Jesus commanded us (as well as St. Paul) that we should remember his loving action and proclaim his death and resurrection. This is what we do when we celebrate Mass. Oh, by the way – when did Jesus ever say the word "Bible". He mentioned, "Scriptures", "Torah", "Law" and "Prophets". He never read a New Testament, only the Old Testament. If he never used the word "Bible", why do we have one. (You can see that claiming the exact word "Mass" as non-existent in Scripture is just as stupid as the argument that I make concerning the Holy Bible). I can also make the same claim concerning the "sabbath day" that seems to cause so many problems. No where in the Hebrew Bible does God ever use the words, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Instead, the days are numbered as first, second, etc. Who decided that the first day was Sunday or that the Sabbath day was Saturday. (Not God). Human beings assigned days to the numbers and the early Christians decided to meet and worship on Sundays for various reasons. First: they had been expelled from the synagogues and thus could not worship on the Jewish sabbath. Second: Sunday was the day of the Resurrection; Third: Sunday was the first day of the week and thus symbolized the first day of their new life in Christ. What God wants is that we set one day aside to come together and give thanks and praise his name as a Christian family. 5) I agree with you concerning the one and only sacrifice for our salvation. But you lack a proper understanding of the notion of the Catholic understanding of sacrifice. God operates outside of time and space (because He is omnipotent and thus cannot be limited by time and space). Though, through Jesus Christ He chose to enter our time and space and endured the one great sacrifice on Calvary for our salvation. The one sacrifice that for all of OUR time would set us free from death. Since there is no time in God, for Him this sacrifice is an ongoing gift of love given by Jesus Christ and unlimited and unbounded. When we celebrate the "sacrifice" of the Mass, we are not repeating or replaying or performing another sacrifice. We are simply remembering and commemorating the one Great Sacrifice of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 11:23-26). We can only do this, because he is continually doing it. Every time we sin, we put Christ back on the cross where he died to set us free. 6) Concerning your confusion about baptism, I would ask you to read the following (and I’m not going to write them all out since you probably prefer a different translation of the Bible than the Catholic one). John 3:5 Titus 3:5 Mark 16:16 Romans 6:4 Col. 3:10 Gal. 3:27 Mt. 28:19-20 7) As to Mark’s reference that ONLY God can forgive sins, then why did both St. Matthew and St. John both say that Jesus gave the power to forgive sins to his disciples? (Mt. 16:19 and Jn. 20:23) As human beings, we (Catholics) are not perfect and have made plenty of mistakes over our nearly 2000 year history – but we learn from them slowly but surely. As a church though, we seek only to follow the will of God as handed down to us from Jesus Christ through the Apostles. What Jesus told us to do is perfect – that doesn’t mean we always got it right – but we are trying. As Christians we have our faith, hope and love in Christ Jesus to unite us so I can assure you, don’t worry about us going to Hell – we believe in Christ Jesus just as you do. Why don’t we spend more time praying for the poor souls who have not found Christian enlightenment instead of fighting with one another. For heavens sake, we are all Christians and there are enough enemies of Christianity out there to keep us occupied for a lifetime. Hope you have a good and positive day tomorrow filled with Christ’s blessings. God Bless! Brian
Response:
Was this a typo? Did the original poster mean: "Catholics, please go to hell"?
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