The Simple Enormity of Catholicism
Why the Catholic Church is the Only Church That Fits God
While driving to Mass the other day, a bumper sticker caught my
eye. It read, “God is too big to fit into one religion.” As I
passed the driver, it occurred to me that this would only be
true of a man-made religion.
Christ, as we know, started a religion. When He built the
foundations of His Church, he never meant that it should sprout
into a thousand self-serving philosophies (disguised as
theologies) that claim to hold only the truths as they relate to
specific times and circumstances. If this were His purpose, then
there was no need for Him to build a church at all. His silence
alone would have bid men to invent religions that revolve around
their own preferences…which is exactly what the pagans had
done for years.
But Christ did start a church…and He does indeed fit
into the church, because it was tailor made to fit Christ
specifically. Where as fractions of this Church were started by
men to fit men specifically. And this is apparent just by
glancing through the thousands of teachings of those who have
broken from Catholicism.
For example, while some are preaching the dreamy theology of
salvation by ‘faith alone’, other extremists are pushing for the
philosophy that grace alone can justify man. And then sill
another (much smaller) group claims the severe truth that only
our good works can justify us. Christ will never fit into any of
these, because none of them are complete.
Only the Catholic Church can fit the works, grace, and faith
into a single creed that gives proper balance to each…and
recognizes all of them as part of man’s salvation. Not just
seeing each of them as portions, but seeing all of them as
completions. And this is the super-natural quality of
Catholicism that is often rejected. Not because it limits God,
but because it limits man.
But this illustrative approach isn’t limited to creeds. The
attitude and personality of men are as much a part of the church
as the teachings. While the Franciscans follow strict rules of
simplicity, the Jesuits adhere to the life of complexity. And
while Catholicism allows for the charismatic, it none the less
allows for the intellectual.
We as men are reflections of Christ. We were made in His image,
so our quirks and personalities are just as sacred as our
doctrines. But when we reject one for another, we try to limit
Christ by filling a philosophy with ourselves. And when we allow
anything without constraint, we try to take Christ out of
religion altogether. The really fantastic property of the
Church, is allowing one thing but admitting another.
The Church sees good in food and drink, but arrests gluttony
with fasting. She understands the sanctity of sex, but answers
lust with a binding marriage. She recognizes the conscience as a
great source for personal direction, but bars free-thinking with
church authority.
This is why God can fit into one religion…because God
made one religion. One that He could fill himself with, and one
that would include all men.
