Welcome to Quietly Catholic. A blog about faith, christianity and Catholicism – but probably not quite in the way you would expect. Most things in this blog will be from a Catholic perspective; however, not necessarily just in the vein of “Catholic teaching says…”. There will definitely be some personal input because (for instance) this author doesn’t feel that Christianity and science are mutually exclusive of each other. Full disclosure – I’m not terribly witty but at times will throw something in with the hope that it will at least make you smile (maybe even chuckle?) a little. Right up front though, this blog will not make any attempt to tell you whether an individual will go to heaven or not. There will be many references to the bible and the bible gives some indications; BUT, the bible also says that humans cannot fully comprehend God’s mind and that the only judge is Jesus Christ. Hopefully this will also give some insight to non-Catholics and even to non-Christians about the real messages of the bible and especially of Jesus Christ.
So why “quietly” Catholic? It’s because this isn’t planned to be in-your-face evangelism. Instead the plan is to be more discussion-like and informative, for “non-believers” and also for those who are Christian. Hopefully it will become apparent why as we take this journey but in short, experience and observation have shown that being too “pushy” – especially in today’s society – does little other than create animosity. This is actually one of Jesus’ messages.
A little about your author: I was born and raised in rural, Northern New York. The town where we lived was very small – the proverbial “blink and you’ll miss it” isn’t much of an exaggeration. People were pretty grounded, there were few white collar people in the immediate area, and most were members of the old-school DIY society. There was a church at just about the center of town – United Methodist – and my family were active members. My faith life changed in my early teen years the same as a lot of others. I attended church less and less with the excuse “I don’t need to be at a church to pray to God.” This went on until I started seriously dating a girl who asked me to attend Catholic Mass with her. Long story short (you’ll hear the details later) I eventually converted to Catholicism and that is my faith today.
Now enough of the “why am I doing this?” and into the meat. But where to start? How about at the end. Yes, yes spoilers are frowned on today but in this case it really is the best way. Seeing where the path heads will help, I promise. So since this is about faith, Chrisitanity and Catholicism the end is in the bible. I’m sorry but you knew some of this would refer there! But the “end” isn’t the book of Revelation, or even in the story of Jesus’ passion and resurrection. It’s in one small exchange between Jesus and a scribe. Jesus gave away the whole plan in just a few sentences.
Quick sidebar: for those not familiar the shorthand bible reference of [Book] cc:vv refers to the book [Matthew], the chapter [chapter 22], and the verse(s) [verses 35-40]). All references will be to the New American Bible Revised Edition (Catholic) unless otherwise noted.
In Matthew 22:35-40 some members of the Jewish religious community were trying to catch Jesus and see if he would say something they could use against him. It reads, ”…and one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He [note: Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” The same event is described in Mark 12:28-31. Mark though has a follow-up wherein the law scholar (scribe) agrees that these are the greatest commandments and Jesus tells him “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” (Mark 12:34).
Now you may or may not be aware that starting within Exodus chapter 20 God gave the Law to Moses and Moses passed it to the Jewish people. This law includes what we know as The Ten Commandments but then there are very many specific details for Jewish Law spelled out in the bible through the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In some cases these details get very granular but if one thinks about it there are really 3 themes in all of it:
- Love God above all else
- Love your neighbor and treat them with respect
- Ways to avoid health issues
Wait, what? Health issues?!!? Yes – if you read it through there are a lot of items about what not to eat. Much of that appears to be things that are not really good for your long-term health. Also, there are sections about a person sick with issues like leprosy (at the time a significant health risk) and that individuals who had diseases should stay away from others. There weren’t a lot of real doctors in that time period so this helped people to reduce the spread of diseases.
The bottom line here is that the “law” – and really the entire bible – boil down to the two main themes as Jesus said. If you actually read the commandments though, the first 4 regard keeping God first. The beginning does spell out that God is to be held in highest esteem, then continues over the next three commands that no other gods are to be worshiped, God’s name is not to be used in vain, and to keep the sabbath day holy. But there is no specific command to “love your neighbor as yourself” or “treat others as you would have them treat you”. Commandments 5-10 talk about specific items – honor your parents; don’t kill; don’t commit adultery; don’t steal; don’t lie; don’t wish for the things your neighbor has. So Jesus brings these all into focus in the phrase “love your neighbor as yourself”. Think about it – what’s the best way to accomplish commandments 5-10? Well, if you treat everyone else the way you would like to be treated then those six things simply fall into line.
So if it’s that easy then why the big long bible? Why the Sunday services every week year after year where the pastor tells us how we should do things and explains the bible? That’s easy. From day 1 humans wouldn’t do what God asked of them. In the book of Genesis we’re told that humans did something (the apple or whatever rule God gave them) that they almost immediately disobeyed. One simple rule and they wouldn’t follow it.
Fast forward to Exodus – the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt and followed Moses to Mount Sinai. God gives Moses the Ten Commandments along with a few other words to detail what they mean. Remember – the beginnings of the commandments spell out no other Gods. Moses goes back up the mountain to seal the covenant and while he’s up there writes out the entire law for the people – we’re told he was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights this time (this may reference specifically 40 days and nights or might just mean “a very long time”). When Moses comes back down he finds the people have already found other “gods” to worship. Regardless of what these other gods were or what activities were being done the point is that they did whatever they wanted as soon as there wasn’t someone reminding them what they were really supposed to do. The bible shows stories like this over and over throughout. Think about it and in seconds you can come up with rules that are in place to keep people safe and well but those rules are skirted or even ignored. If we aren’t given constant reminders of things we take them for granted and think largely of what we want as opposed to what might be best overall.
So over time we’ll explore various subjects we deal with today and how they relate to the bible and Christian – particularly Catholic – life. Though perhaps you’ll find that a lot of things discussed are just useful in life. Hopefully we’ll all learn a few things and come closer to one another through this exploration.
Until next time, God bless and protect you