TRUTH AND FICTION

As I read what Catholics had to say about the Catholic faith, as well as non-Catholic sources not tainted by fundamentalist views, I learned that the Bishop of Rome can be traced right back to Peter. I learned that the Apostles did in fact receive authority from Christ to shepherd and rule the Church, and that the office of Apostle was passed down, and even more amazing, I found those last two nuggets of information in the Bible! Odd, it was, to find out that the very verses of scripture that prove Catholic doctrine are the ones (the FEW ones) that fundamentalist exegetes tend to take non-literally. Hmmmm…..

My eyes were being opened, and it was exciting. The more I read, the more I saw that the Church, rather than being the ominous evil institution that it was painted to be, was actually, logically, and rationally the Church that Jesus founded. Moreover, there was the intangible attraction to Catholic writers, who wrote with clarity and precision, based on good sources and sound logic, distilled from 2000 years of the best minds humanity had to offer working fervently to find the truth.

It wasn’t to long before the historical argument had me convinced that the Catholic Church was the true church. Why history, as opposed to doctrine, was the key to my conversion, I’m not sure. I think perhaps it has to do with the fact that I was never un-convinced of the truth of Christianity, even when for more than a decade I was truly agnostic. Agnosticism being, at least in my understanding, the belief that it is impossible to know anything about God with certainty. Indeed, I had nearly given up all hope of ever believing again, ever being able to go to church again, ever knowing God at all, when I found the Church. God’s timing is always impeccable, hindsight has taught me. Or, as I heard it expressed recently, God cooks with a crock pot while we want him to cook with a microwave. Too true, too true.