The Church Museum or Hospital?

Protestants are fond of the saying: "The Church is not a Museum for Saints but a Hospital for Sinners. "

However they analogy misses the point and in fact is a reflection of misunderstanding, which is of course what Protestantism is.


The Catholic Church is neither museum nor hospital.  It is the Kingdom of God on earth. It is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. It is it's own entity, thus there is no analogy. Saints heal and a statue or painting of their image helps us to remember and reflect on them. Indeed it also helps us to honor them. It is the kingdom of God on earth saying "well done good and faithful servant."  As the kingdom of God on earth "You are Peter and upon this rock I shall build my church I give to you the keys to the Kingdom, whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven to thus honor those who have transcended from God's earth bound kingdom to His heavenly Kingdom is perfectly appropriate and necessary. Thus the Kingdom of God/heaven on earth was founded by Jesus Himself and represents a junction a mystical union between the two Kingdoms -- the kingdom of God/Heaven on earth and the Kingdom of God/heaven in Heaven. This is how Our Lord fashioned it. To call the Church a museum or a hospital is to render it strictly earthly which is to miss the meaning of the word Church and what Jesus did -- what in fact his mission was that is to found his Kingdom on earth -- the Church. There are museums and there are hospitals and there is The Catholic Church there is no appropriate analogy.

The heartbreak of Protestant Friends and Relatives

It is always helpful to remember and reflect that whenever Our Lord speaks of the Kingdom of God/Heaven on earth, He is speaking of the Catholic, or if you prefer -- The Universal Christian Church. So, in today's Gospel -- The Gospel accordding to St. Mark 4:26-34, we see a foreshadowing of the Church as when Jesus said the gates of hell shall not prevail against us. During this Gospel Jesus strengthens our first bishops by foretelling the growth of the Church. This growth is described on two levels -- It's physical growth -- over the centuries since Jesus founded the Church, which was His mission, it has grown from a small group of believers huddled literally and figuratively underground to the worldwide Institutional we see today, indeed, protestations about its irrelevance not withstanding it is difficult to think of a more influential institution world wide -- and its spiritual growth or the growth which takes place within the individual member of the body of Christ on earth -- we enter through the narrow gate of Catholic School, Religious Education classes, and through conversion RCIA, the Church looks mysterious and barely scrutable. As we grow, walking with the Lord through the Liturgical year, receiving the sacraments initially and then continuously overtime the grace from these sacraments, indeed as our interior life grows, the Church grows and we come to see it as it was provided for us by Our Lord as Holy Mother Church and the means of our salvation.
It is at this point that we are able to see not just the Church but in contrast the World, which we are in but not of, as it really is. It is also at this point, that we turn with breaking hearts to see our separated brothers and sisters -- the Protestants -- as they really are. Though over the years as John Paul II has explained to us in His encyclical on Ecumenism, our separated brothers and sisters cannot be held responsible for the original heresies of Protestantism, sola fide and sola scriptura, being the two most salient of Protestant heresies, our heart still breaks. We watch them their noses pressed against the glass of misunderstanding and misinterpretation as we partake of the fullness of the banquet Our Lord had brought to all, and then through the other side of the same glass we watch as the chew on stale old tuna sandwiches as if these were all that Our Lord had provided.
And then we begin to act on their behalf praying, celebrating and dedicating Masses for them, when I think of the numbers of closeted nuns and brothers who dedicate their lives praying endlessly for their conversion, it is no wonder that we see the examples of Scott Hanh and his wife and the countless other separated brethren who come home to the Truth.
For we then begin to experience as Jesus described the external growth and the internal growth, as we step from the other side of the glass through the narrow gate and into the fullness of the faith that Jesus brought and bought for us, we begin to appreciate why we are here, is this not due to the same prayers of these same cloistered nuns and brothers, again a part of the church we do not see until we enter through the narrow gate When we see Jesus Physically present int he Eucharist, when we walk into a Church, anywhere in the world, and see a lighted candle near the tabernacle, and know that Jesus is physically present, and thus we genuflect before Him -- these are some of the things that Our lord was talking about when he compared the Church to a mustard seed and the ripening process of grain.
But even here it does not stop. This eternal growth of the understanding of the mysteries of the Church that Jesus founded never ends, until we pass from the kingdom of God/Heaven on earth to the Kingdom of God in Heaven, at which point all the mysteries, all the whys of understanding will be reviled to us, even the mystery of Protestantism, why our separated brothers and sisters would fall for such an obvious ploy of the devil -- to get people to believe they are actually "saved" or going to heaven, when they are not. This is the most heartbreaking aspect of being in the Church and seeing Protestant friends and relatives. why would they fall for such an obvious ploy, and remain convinced that the stale old tuna sandwich is what Our Lord wanted for them, and that their salvation is "assured" through the words of Luther or Henry VIII or any of the countless others who broke off from a branch that broke off from a branch, for once Luther started the precedent of Protestation and separation it could only continue, all connected by baptism to the original vine of truth started by our Lord, and at the same time all so far removed from our Lord's original vine that they can no longer see the entire truth and the fullness of the faith they are missing.

copyright 2011 Fred Celio

What's to stop "scripture alone" from becoming "scripture means whatever I want it to mean"?

A friend asked the question:

What's to stop "scripture alone" from becoming "scripture means whatever I want it to mean"?

Nothing.

Luther made each individual a pope/magisterium unto himself forgetting exegesis, and starting with himself. Once Luther was free to interpret the Bible as he saw fit then all were. Therefore, something which can mean anything is logically ultimately meaningless. Thus also by inference rendering his on concept and the heresy of sola scripture also meaningless. How can something that can ultimately mean what ever the reader syas it means be the final authority it, thus makes each individual the final authority, and thus not only the pope but their own and magestrium and ultimately theri own god.

Therefore it can be concluded that protestantism actually marked the introduction of moral relativism or at least opened the door for such.
The ultimate abuse of this are the fundamentalists or Evangelicals as some including themselves euphemistically call themselves, where it is the socio-political that is fundamental and scripture, and yes even tradition, is bent in service to the foundational soci-political point of view.

Since we catholics agree with some tenets like banning abortion, and the serious disturbance that constitutes homosexuality, fundamentalism takes on an aire of legitimacy within some catholic circles, one that it does not serve and subverts the intent of John Paul II's comments on ecumenism.

We Catholics are the bearers of the truth and thus the leaders, not the followers, and we cannot let ourselves be lead astray by those who ultimately have a contempt for us and thus for the truth, just because they have the correct political view on two issues.

I see many latching on to the correctness of the fundies views on abortion and homosexuality (however, I have not seen them show love of individual homosexuals, for without the sacraments and the grace provided, how can any human seriously claim to love the sinner and hate the sin) and accepting their whole point of view, which is clearly outside of catholic doctrine on the basic of christian principles.

This is a sad situation of our time, but we can see the devil's hand here, picking off individual catholics with a hand full of truth, and a bucket of lies.

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copyright Fred Celio 2009