The Question Crying For an Answer: Why Be Catholic?

church, reform, revolution

church, reformIf you were on a committee to interview candidates for principal of a Catholic school, what question would you ask the candidates?

I was on such a committee a few years ago. One of our first jobs was to decide which questions we would ask every candidate. My suggestion was: Why be Catholic? The other committee members agreed. Every candidate seemed surprised by the question and struggled with it, although some answered better than others.

What is your answer? Does your answer quickly come to mind? Do you have much to say or only a little? Are you glad to be asked? At least you do not have to answer in front of eight people who are interviewing you for a job you want!

All Catholics should be able to answer this question. Every Catholic should know why he or she is Catholic—and not Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, or anything else. Every Catholic should be able to tell others why he or she is Catholic.

This question is crying for an answer at a time in world history when people only have more options of lifestyles and value systems and when more people than ever are willing to experiment with what it means to be human.

I will provide the answer. I will try not to give “my” answer. I will try to give the Church’s answer which I have summarized from Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition as they have been interpreted by the Magisterium. And so I will try to give God’s answer. I will have failed if any part of the rest of this column inadvertently contradicts Catholic Doctrine.

There are two basic answers to the question, “Why be Catholic?” 

The first: God wants every human being to be Catholic.

The second: being Catholic is the best way to be a fulfilled, fully alive human being—regardless of age, ethnicity, income, occupation, gender, sexual orientation, location, culture, citizenship, disability, marital status, or any other factor.

God Wants Every Human Being to Be Catholic

The fullness of God’s Revelation, the complete Revelation of God, is Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, fully God and fully human, Who alone is (as we Catholics say in the Gloria) the Holy One, the Lord, the Most High.

Jesus Himself founded the Catholic Church. The first followers of Christ, the first Christians—the Twelve Apostles, St. Mary Magdalene, etc.—were Catholics, although that was the end result, not the initial result, of their encounter with Jesus. By the time Jesus ascended into Heaven, the first Christians had the Eucharist and Sacred Tradition but not all of Sacred Scripture, so they were not Protestants. And they had the leadership of St. Peter, so they were not Eastern Orthodox.

Jesus founded the Catholic Church for the same reason that God created us: in order to have a relationship with Jesus, His Father, and Their Holy Spirit. Jesus calls every human being to follow Him and to be His friend. The best way to have a relationship with Jesus is through the creed, morality, worship, and prayer of the Church.

Quiz time:

  1. True or False?  There is one true God.
  2. True or False?  There is one true religion.

Although it is accurate to say that there is one true God, it is better to say that there is not one true religion, which would make all other religions completely false, but that there is one truEST religion.

There is goodness, truth, and beauty in non-Catholic religions and philosophies, but the fullness of truth, goodness, and beauty is in the Catholic religion. God’s Revelation can be found in non-Catholic religion, but God most fully reveals Himself in the Catholic Church. Non-Catholics, even atheists, might find eternal salvation (if they are sincerely doing their best to discover and live THE Truth), but God’s primary way to save the human race is the Catholic Church, in which alone (to put it most accurately) subsists the fullness of the means of salvation.

We have seen that we can start with God and take a kind of “top-down” approach. Be Catholic in order to be what the one true God wants every human being to be. Be Catholic because it is the best way (not the only way) to know, love, and serve God. Be Catholic because it is the best way (not the only way) to be a follower and friend of Jesus Christ. Be Catholic because it is the best way (not the only way) to reach eternal salvation.

The Best Way to Be Fulfilled

We can also start with human experience and take a kind of “bottom-up” approach. The best way to think, the best way to be happy, and the best way to be a good person is to be Catholic.

Be Catholic in order to think the best way. As St. John Paul the Great pointed out, there are two basic ways of thinking, of knowing the reality: (1) Faith, which is the knowledge that comes from God, and (2) Reason, which is the knowledge that comes humans figuring things out. Catholic thinking is the best way of knowing the truth about reality because it is the best way of harmonizing Faith and Reason.

It might be a surprise that there is a Catholic way of thinking, not just a Catholic way of acting (e.g., Mass every Sunday, being pro-life, etc.); but there really is a Catholic way of thinking. The Catholic way of thinking is the best way of harmonizing Faith and science, Faith and history, Faith and economics, Faith and psychology, Faith and every secular way of thinking.

The Catholic way of thinking will NOT eliminate all mystery, but it is the best way to wrestle with mystery. Mystery will not be eliminated for us human beings until we meet God face-to-face.

Be Catholic in order to be happiest. Let’s be clear about happiness. As St. Augustine says, human beings are really happy when they get not what they want, but what they should want.

What we humans should want is much more than feeling good. A happy life is not a life lived on an emotional high or physical high. What we should want is a good existence—a perfect existence even, which is much, much more than emotions and pleasure.

Being Catholic—real happiness—does not so much take us away from things as much as it puts things in their proper place and gives things their proper use so that things do not become false gods or dehumanizing. Being Catholic does not take us away from wine, romance, and song as much as it puts wine, romance, and song in their proper place so that we control them and they do not control us.

The greatest human happiness is loving and being loved, which is best done the Catholic way. It is my opinion that the Devil is currently having great success, including within the Church, by spreading a false definition of love and a false definition of happiness.

Perfect existence and therefore perfect happiness will only be in the Kingdom of God so even the best of Catholics will not be perfectly happy in this life. It is because we humans will only find perfect happiness in the Kingdom of God that we all have our crosses to bear in this life, and being Catholic is the best way to carry our crosses. It is because we will only find perfect happiness in the Kingdom of God that Death really is Sister Death, as St. Francis of Assisi called it, and being Catholic is the best way to deal with mortality.

Be Catholic for the best way to be a good person. A while back there was a popular book called The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. Whatever insights that book offers, the seven greatest habits of the most highly successful people were offered by the Church long before that book. The seven greatest habits of the most highly successful people are the Cardinal Virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude and the Supernatural Virtues of faith, hope, and love. The key to becoming a good person is growing in these virtues.

Of course, no one is perfect and without sin, but nothing helps a human being deal with sins, weaknesses, and limits more than Catholicism does.

Being Catholic fulfills the deepest human needs and hopes. Of course, non-Catholics find some degree of truth, happiness, and being good. Be Catholic because it is the best way (not the only way) to know the truth—to value Reason and yet transcend Reason. Be Catholic because it is the best way (not the only way) to be happy and because it is the best way (not the only way) to be a good person.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

In summary, Why be Catholic? God’s answer is: Because it is what He wants and because it is what our human nature most deeply wants. Yes, God made us to know, love, and serve Him. Yes, Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

Our English word Catholic comes from two ancient Greek words kat’ holon, which mean “according to (kat’) the whole (holon).”

So being Catholic is having (1) the whole, complete way of knowing, loving, and serving God and (2) the whole, complete way of being truly fulfilled. Be Catholic in order to not settle for partial truth, partial goodness, partial beauty and in order to not settle for reductionisms, mistakes, falsehood, evil, idolatry,

But there is another way in which Catholicism is holistic, the ultimate way of being holistic. Pleasing God and being fulfilled are two sides of the same coin—when we rightly understand God and we rightly understand human nature and fulfillment. St. Irenaeus rightly understood both God and human nature, which is why he said, “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.”

Be Catholic in order to put together all the pieces of God, creed, worship, prayer, morality, salvation, Faith, Reason, truth, human nature, happiness, fulfillment, being good.

We human beings are restless. Sooner or later, we need more out of life. We get bored.  Life gets stale. Be Catholic because it is the best way to find transcendence. St. Augustine deserves to be quoted as often as he is: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” Until we find absolute rest in the Kingdom of God, the best way to find rest is in the creed, morality, worship, and prayer of the Church. To paraphrase G. K. Chesterton, the greatest adventure in the world is orthodoxy. It is the best way to find transcendence from human restlessness and to participate in the greatest adventure.

Finally, one quick reason NOT to be Catholic: Do not be Catholic in order to belong to a perfect organization. Only the Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of God. The Church is both a Divine and a human organization. In spite of the truth, goodness, and beauty of Catholic doctrine and life, the Church has always been and always will be comprised of sinners, like me.

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13 thoughts on “The Question Crying For an Answer: Why Be Catholic?”

  1. Marty – That question has never come up, though I am a cradle-Catholic who was born into the Church in the 1950’s; raised by devout Catholic parents (Great Depression/WW-2 generation Catholics); attended Catholic Grammar School where the Sisters of St. Joseph provided the instruction; attended CCD while enrolled in a public high school; and sent a year of higher learning at a Jesuit University. My formative Roman Catholic education, receipt of First Communion, serving as an Alter Boy, and Confirmation occurred during the transformative years in the 1960’s of Vatican-2 (also, the transformative years in our Nation’s history with the anti-establishment counter-culture, and civil rights movements, not to mention, the anti-Vietnam War movement). My spouse, who is a non-Catholic, and I have at times have danced around what Catholics really believe, and I struggle with giving coherent explanations (the Baltimore Catechisms fall short) other than I have a deep and abiding faith in the teachings of Jesus Christ as set-forth in the Sermon on the Mount; my faith in the Resurrection; and God’s mercy and forgiveness of my sins. My faith in Christ’s teachings, and belief in the Sacraments and the Mass are the only things that has kept me devoted to my Catholic faith, while repeatedly witnessing experiences over thirty years in the military and as a law enforcement officer that would try most men’s souls. Evil in this world is real, and must be dealt with for the protection of the innocent, the weak, and the infirm; and to save the soul of our nation. Now in the latter years of my existence, I have come to believe that God puts us where He wants us, where He needs us, to to enable and show His continuing love for us whether or not we deserve it. I also often think of trying to be worthy of the following timeless words of a devout Catholic from another turbulent era, that I much admired –
    “I do not care very much what men say of me, provided that God approves of me.”
    St Thomas More — A Letter to Erasmus, 1532.

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  3. Because this particular question was so muddied and trivialized at my daughters’ Catholic high school and at my local parish CCD program, 5 of my 6 children are no longer Catholic.
    They no longer receive the graces of the sacraments. Heartbreaking.

  4. Or if you need a concise answer – “Why be Catholic?” “Because none of the alternatives completely makes sense.”

  5. Thank you for a good thoughtful article .
    Listening to the Scriptures with the point in the article might bring out more in this realm too , such as
    1 Cor. 3: 22 – 23 ‘ all belong to you , you to Christ and Christ to God ‘ ;
    thus , if one does not quite want much to do with The Church that is of The Lord’s , then one would have to wonder if one is choosing to set oneself apart from all else as well , at least to a degree ;
    when we consider those who are ready to kill and get killed , for the ( alleged ) promise of the 72 virgins , how much more of whole / Catholic promise is what we have and are to be hoping for – a wholeness of relationship with ALL , in Christ .

    1. Laurence Charles Ringo

      Hmm…And here I am thinking that Jesus the Christ was our Savior. Isn’t that what the man whom you Roman Catholics appropriate as your first pope affirmed in Acts 4:12, or did I misunderstand him? Anyone? ?

    2. The Catholic Church is THE Church that was founded by Christ, and the bishops are the successors of His Apostles who are consecrated as such by the laying of hands down to this day, hence the tradition of the Apostolic succession.
      As Christ said to His Apostles, “As the Father sent Me, so I send you.”. The Orthodox Churches also share the tradition of the Apostolic Succession, but not the Protestant ones.

    3. Laurence Charles Ringo

      Hmm…What does the parroting of standard Roman Catholic groupthink have to do with the Savior, Albion? The Risen Christ is the Savior of ALL CHRISTIANS,not just the ones with a particular designation. According to the Word of God, if I …”confess with my mouth’Jesus as Lord’, and believe in my heart that God has raised Him from the dead, I will be saved”… (Romans 10:8-10)—So, to that I say: PRAISE GOD AND AMEN!! It doesn’t bother me at all to repudiate the man-centered religious system known as Roman Catholicism; our Savior didn’t invite anyone to any -“ism” , He invited me to Himself, and here I’ll FOREVER BE, HALLELUJAH!!! And that’s ALL I have to say about that (ala Forrest Gump ?)—God bless you.

    4. I am not implying that non-Catholics will be damned; the message that I am trying to get across is that that Catholic Church contains the fullness of truth because of the Apostolic succession while other denominations share some of the truths with her. The fact that there are good Christians who happen to be Pentecostals, or other, does not make their denominations more true. As for Catholic groupthink, what about the groupthink of the happy-clappy types of Christians who think that, unless you are “born-again” on their terms, you will not be saved. Moreover, there are thousands such independent groupings who can’t agree with one another on doctrines and morals, and thus many more independent groups are formed around a “pastor” who claims to be inspired by the Holy Spirit.

    5. Laurence Charles Ringo

      Hmm…I was unaware that we could,,,”get to Heavy and avoid Hell”…by dint of a particular label, Albion. If that be the case, what need of Jesus Christ? Anyone

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