What do we say to Protestants about the Bible?

So many of us these days are friends with protestants, even some of us feel close to the so called evangelical or fundamentalist Christian movement – the fundies. It is true the fundies are with us on the evil of abortion, and it is also true that we are related to them through the sacrament of baptism. They were baptised into the kingdom of God/Heaven on earth -- the Catholic Church aka the Christian Church universal.

I have thought about the evangelical or fundamentalist movement a great deal, and I do have some things to say about it. I also have had first hand experience, having been part of the Calvary Chapel sect of the fundamentalist movement. I'll tell you right now you know what it means to be persecuted if you sit around listening to them bash Catholics before and after their prayer breakfasts, Wednesday night prayer meetings, and Sunday "services." Make no mistake about it, John Paull II's encyclical on ecumenism not withstanding, we must remember that THEY are out to convert or "save" us. And they love luring folks away from the church that Jesus founded. So, we need to take the lead in our encounters, friendships etc. We can be kind but firm in our knowledge of the Truth. I have been accused of being a little too firm, but to me they are in a house that is on fire, and it would no be loving to try and coax them out. In fact I yell "fire" get out.

Today I would just like to share with you an allegory or “parable” if you will, that I hope illustrates one of the heresies of Protestantism and fundamentalism in particular. That is their doctrine of sola scriptura , i.e., The bible first last and always. They say if it is not in the bible according to their strict arbitrary literal understanding, then it is not Christian and is thus valueless. They are of course hard pressed, when ask for the chapter and verse of things they value like say the “the sinners prayer”.

It is important to remember that inherent in our ecumenism is evangelization, and that we Catholics are the leaders, by virtue of our knowledge of the truth. They are joined to us by baptism but in evangelizing it is important that we make known to them, and it is incumbent upon us to make them aware, of just what that means, and what it does not mean. Ecumenism does not excuse the heresy. It excuses many from blame for the original heresy of their particular sect or root.

Nor does ecumenism excuse us from our duty to tell the truth. And the truth is that after baptism, if one does not receive absolution in the manner prescribed by Jesus, and documented by us in the Gospels (which by the way are Catholic documents) then one is no longer a member of the kingdom of God/Heaven on earth. That is we lose our salvation.

It is our obligation to evangelize them from a kind yet firm position, grounded in our knowledge of the truth.

And I'm tired of hearing that Catholics don't know the bible -- it's our book -- we are they only ones who do know it. Every week or every day at mass if one is fortunate enough to be so situated as to attend daily mass, we have the scripture read to us and explained to us by one trained with expert first hand knowledge of it's meaning and dedicated to us for that purpose. There are no fundie pastors that I have met or heard that know the bible better than a Catholic priest.

So here's my little allegory. I call it sola scriptura?

Sola Scriptura ?

Go get a copy of the marine corp. manual, take it home study it. Don't forget to rip out the five chapters that contradict what you are doing. Get other people together to study it, implement it in your life, get the people who you study it with to implement it in there lives. Oh, don’t forget to get your official marine corps manual concordance, so you can look up words and phrases like “simper fi”, “Iwo Jima”, “Helmet”, “Grenade”, and “Honor”, etc. Now does this make you guys marines? I think not.You are missing pretty much everything that it means to be a marine. You haven't had the training that they have done for years you don't have the history -- the understanding of what it means to BE a marine as passed on from the founder of the marine corp to his first lieutenants and on down through the ranks through the years – the direct link to the founder of the marine corp. and writers of the manual, nor do you have the word of mouth testimony (those unwritten instructions that the founder himself – who by the way did not write the manual -- passed on to his first lieutenants, things the marines have been doing for years), nor do you have the true meaning of what the manual says. Because, of course, outside of the marine corp., the manual is MEANINGLESS.People who belong to bible studying fellowships who believe in the doctrine of solely scripture, scripture first, scripture only -- sola scriptura are no more Christians than are the people who got together to study the marine manual are marines. Now that you and your friends have studied the marine corp manual. Go out in front of a marine corp. recruiting station and as people walk in hand them a tract from the manual and get them to come join you. Go to a marine corp. camp and do the same thing see if they will join you marine corp. manual studying fellowship. But don't call yourselves that. Call yourselves, "marines". Go to the veterans day parade and hand out tracts from the manual there, and tell them to come to your marine barracks. Let people know that you have the way that all they have to do is study the manual with you and they too can be marines.Oh yes and erect marine corp. manual studying colleges and graduate what?Experts in misunderstanding the marine corp. manual.And OHHHH yes don't forget to call yourselves not just marines but "heroes(saints)", because after all everyone who is part of your marine corp., manual studying fellowship is a "hero(saint)", after all the manual says that doesn't it? Forget about honoring real marine “Heroes(Saints)” like Colonel Louis C. Plain and Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone; or Gunnery Sergeant Donald A. Levesque (RET); or Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham ... etc.; for after all the manual tells us not to do that, right?Then, go up to a real marine (if you dare) tell them what you are doing, and ask them what is wrong with it?

Copyright Fred Celio 2009

The Assupmtion of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Two excellent homilies today on the daily scripture page. One from the Deacon and on from the Hermitage. But these can be found at http://www.stmicahelgodsknight.com/. I look for your suggestions on what else may need to be included. There you will find today's Roman Catholic scripture readings as well as an excellent homily from the hermitage of our lady of Guadalupe.

When I think of this day, well I wonder what it must have been like to be present, the rapture as our partly christian friends would understand it. I spent some time at Calvary Chapel, "learning" to live like first century Christians, which was my longing at the time.

Little did I know that I was learning from them, and the Episcopal Church, that what I was longing for was to come home. Home to the Kingdom of God/Heaven on earth -- the Catholic church.

Refer to something called "the rapture" but without an understanding of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is as foreign to me now as the idea that one can "walk with the Lord" without following the liturgy. The Liturgical year allows us to literally walk with the Lord, as they did in that first century.

Imagine if you will being huddled in the attic waiting. Waiting for what, Jesus was dead hanged from a cross; even though He had promised to send and advocate. Where was this advocate? Well the Holy Spirit was among them all the time. Our Blessed Mother was there; she having had the Holy Spirit with her, as these brave men now huddled at her feet for fear they would meet the same fate as Jesus, and waiting for the Romans. Instead they had her strength from the Holy Spirit, who dwelled within her. And behold Jesus appeared to our nascent church, our first magistirium, hand picked from the beginning for this sacred calling of carrying on the kingdom on earth.

And Jesus showed himself in His glorified body, and breathed the Holy Spirit into them, while at the same time ordaining them, save St. Peter who was ordained prior to the Crucifixion separately, and given the keys to the kingdom of God on earth, that God himself humbled to found.

Filled with the Holy Spirit and thus the courage to move on with the building of the kingdom. They now had what Blessed Mother had and then some. For they unlike Blessed Mother knew sin. She as the stand in for eve, never knew sin.

She was and is not divine. She was just a susceptible to sin as the rest of us or having been born immaculately conceived without original sin was nonetheless just as susceptible as Eve. But where Eve succumbed to temptation, blessed mother did not. Not even when they hammered the nails into his hands. God whom she knew as a human mother.

For this she was and we all were rewarded with "rapture" the Assumption. This we celebrate today as part of the liturgical year, Universally. We literally walk with the Lord.

Please pray for those who are sick, and the souls who suffer in purgatory, as we celebrate the triumph of our blessed mother, who crushed the serpents head rather than listen to him.

Peace to you all

copyright Fred Celio 2009