A Conversation with a Catholic

First, allow me to send out a sincere apology to all my avid readers (Uncle Tone) who have been upset with me for not blogging. I do apologize, things lately have been insanely hectic. However, now that I have a bit of room to breathe, I'm back with much to say.

I think today I'll begin with the number one thing on my mind, a lovely conversation that I just had with my mother this past week. Lets begin with a little background information. For anyone who may not know, I am Puerto Rican, this essentially means that in order to be born into this mighty race it is pretty much mandatory that you be Roman Catholic. Therefore, I was in fact born and raised Catholic. The issue now lies in that I can no longer consider myself Catholic. The reasons why I will get into shortly, however this has been a source of great frustration, sadness and even anger for my mother, and as I found out, my immediate family as a whole.

Here is where I run into difficulty following the Catholic faith. #1, and this one's a biggie, the "sacrament" of confession. As I'm sure many of you know, the idea of confession in the Catholic faith states that in order for you as a sinner to be forgiven of your sins you must go to a priest for absolution. They will also tell you that if you do not go you are not forgiven and may not partake in communion and you are no longer Catholic. They will rob you of salvation, but whats funny is that they can't take what Christ has already bought. Their backup for this act is Jn 20:21-23 which states:

"21Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

This does, I admit, make sense when read quickly. However, I found that in reading this passage in the full context Jesus' teachings, another meaning leaps out at me. When we think back to the acts of Christ and his message, it is hard to miss our one main calling aside from loving one another and that is discipleship. Christ calls us to become disciples of Him and of His word. He tells us that through acceptance of Him we gain life and that it is through Him and Him alone that we can go to the Father. What was His purpose on earth? I'll tell you that I am not a scholar or theologian, however I am a Christian and I did learn that Christ came to this earth to be crucified and die, and not for fun or because he had nothing better to do, but to free us from sin, to bear the weight of sin on his shoulders and shed his blood as the final sacrifice, the lamb, for us. I ask you, who are we to tell Him that that price was not enough? How can we as humans, creations of the Lord God enter into a confessional and confess nothing more than Christ's blood was not enough?

We are asked to do one thing, that is to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and once we have done this we have attained salvation and are called to live a Christian life. As a part of this life we are called to be disciples of Christ's word. Without this word there is no salvation because there is no acceptance of it. This shows the importance of the mission laid before all believers. The disciples were asked to do this, to bear this responsibility. In the passage above Christ says, "as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you". Christ is sending his followers out to preach His word and to bring others to salvation, salvation that has already been bought. He is not granting them the power of forgiveness. Christ is not dependent on the decisions of men. He is telling them that when the preach to tell believers that they are forgiven. It is not in their power to withhold forgiveness, but rather it is on their shoulders if they do not. If they fail to minister to the world, they have in turn held bound the sins of men, they have not brought the already paid for salvation to the world and have cost the untaught heaven. This is not a power, it is a responsibility, and it is one that all believers, priest or lay are entrusted with.

One final thought as this piece is bordering ridiculous in length. The first act that Christ performed after his death was the destruction of the temple. The biggest act in that moment was the tearing of the curtain that separated the Jews from the covenant, essentially the one thing that kept the people from God, and only the high priest could enter once a year to ask for atonement. With his sacrifice, Christ tore down this divide and gave access to God the Father to all believer, through his blood and his body. No longer can only one enter, and no longer can a curtain divide us. What is the priest in the confessional if not a curtain, a curtain that Christ has already torn down. I leave you with this final question again, who are we sinners to tell God that the blood of his only, innocent and begotten Son is not enough to pay for my sins?

We will save the other issues for another blog, lets take some time to pray and meditate on this question.

Looking forward to your responses,
Franc