How should I respond to a high school student who asked me, “Why should I follow the rules and moral teachings of priests and bishops when they are being found to disobey these very teachings themselves?”

This is an extremely important and valid question.  Why would we follow a faith that has “sinners” as its leaders?  Well, let’s look at how Jesus dealt with this question?  “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.  Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.  For they preach but they do not practice.” (Matt 23:2-3) 

It’s quite interesting that Jesus comes right out and calls the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites in their practice yet he still commands the crowds to “do and observe whatsoever they tell you.”  How could this be?  Follow and observe what the hypocrites tell you to do?  There must be some strong validity to the authority that comes from the “chair” upon which the scribes and Pharisees are seated.  Could it be that Jesus is not only speaking to the Jews, but that he is also speaking about the future of His Church?  Perhaps this passage is to warn us that leaders within His Church would also sin, but that sin of the messenger does not change the truth of the message.

If we are “holding out” in order to find a church that has a perfect human being as its leader then I am afraid to tell you that there is no such church.  However, it is interesting that this is the excuse that many lazy Christians and Catholics use to justify their own spiritual sloth.  “I’m not going to church, it is full of hypocrites!”

Let’s look at this statement.  First, we must not equate sinner with hypocrite.  A hypocrite is one who justifies their sin while a sinner can be a person who knows that they struggle and is therefore looking for forgiveness and healing.  With this definition who could be considered more of a hypocrite, the one who justifies their sloth and excuses themselves from attending church by pointing fingers at other, or the one who tries to do something about their sinful state by seeking God’s forgiveness and healing at church?

Thankfully, God did not make the transmission of His forgiveness and truth dependent upon the worthiness of His instruments.  In other words, God still communicates his teachings to us through unworthy and even sometimes broken priests and bishops.  This is the reason why the validity of a Catholic sacrament does not depend upon the purity of the priest performing the sacrament in order to be affective.  God, from the beginning of time has dispensed His Spirit and grace through unworthy and sometimes extremely sinful people. 

This is all the more reason that we should be praying non-stop for our priests, bishops, and anyone who stands up to lead in the Church.  As we know hypocrisy amongst Christians is scandalous and extremely more so is the hypocrisy of a priest or bishop.  There is perhaps no greater victory for Satan than to lead a priest astray.
Let us never allow the unfaithfulness of a priest or bishop to cause us to doubt the beauty and truth of the message of Jesus Christ and of His Church.

What do Catholics really believe about the bible?

First of all, we believe the bible is authoritative, however not our only authority for truth.  “The Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence." (CCC #82)  We see then, that as Catholics we follow closely the words of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, when he commands them to hold to two types of tradition; written (scripture) and oral (apostolic tradition).  "So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter" (2 Thess. 2:15).  It took at least 300 years for the early Christians to decide (by the guidance of the Holy Spirit) which books would be included and excluded from the bible.  This was done formally at the Councils of Hippo 393 A.D. and Carthage 397 A.D.  Why is this significant?  Because for almost 400 years of Christianity, there was no “set book” to follow and so there must have been another source of Spiritual and theological guidance; this “other source” of truth is Apostolic Tradition.

Is the bible without error?

As Catholics we believe the bible to be inerrant.  This means that when properly interpreted according to the interpretive authority given to the Church, the scriptures contain no error.  What about discrepancies in certain parts of the bible or in the different versions of the gospels, how do we explain these?  For example, in the book of Genesis, if the sun is created on the third day, how do we calculate the first two days if there is no sun for reference to be able to measure the earth’s rotation on its axis?  Does this prove that the bible is incorrect?  No, this shows us that thankfully as Catholics we have two interpretations of scripture; Literal and Spiritual.  The story of creation was written in an allegorical sense and thus it is interpreted with spiritual interpretation, meaning it is not taken as a literal story.  While I could spend two more pages on this topic, one thing is for certain.  Interpretation of scripture can and has been easily confused over the centuries because we misunderstand “how” and in what “sense” it was written.

Is the bible divinely inspired?

We believe that the “word of God”, the bible is indeed inspired by God.  What does this mean?  Do we believe that God took possession of the biblical authors or sent His angels to whisper the words of scripture in their ears for them to write down on paper?  No, but we do believe that God chose certain men and at certain times their writings were written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

 We also mean that because the Bible is divinely inspired it possesses the power to speak to the human heart unlike any other book in print, yes, even Harry Potter.  I realized this again just last week as I was praying Psalm 95 with my knee in a brace and on ice, “Come, then, let us bow down and worship, bending the knee before the Lord, our maker.”  I recently had reconstructive ACL surgery, causing me to be immobile and unable to bend my knee and these words spoke to me in a uniquely different way than they ever had before.  Was it coincidence?  We believe that the bible is “ever ancient, ever new” and that its words can pierce every heart of every age and it can even pierce the same heart in different ways over time.  This is the beauty of scripture that depending upon the situation of our lives, God may have something different He would like to tell us.  Are we reading His inspired inerrant love letters looking for His will for our lives; or do we settle for Harry Potter?

This is the tenth of a 10 part series “Faith and Reasons Behind the Mass.”

 What is the most important thing that you could possibly do this week?  If you have been following my series on the Mass and if what we as Catholics believe about the Mass is indeed true, then you should have a pretty good sense of where I’m going with this.

If we take our Catholic profession of faith to its logical conclusion, then the most important thing that we do on a weekly basis is attend Mass and receive our Lord in the Eucharist.  Now, the next question is, why is it so darn difficult to live this reality?  So often the urgent things of our lives get in the way of those things that are truly important.

 Why is it so easy for us as Catholics to approach Mass as just another “check” on our to-do list for the weekend?  In my last article on the Mass I ended by mentioning some prayers that we can offer in our pew after having received our Lord in the Eucharist.  Sadly, for many Catholics, we don’t even make it back to the pew; we receive and leave.  I still remember when I first heard the comparison about the one man who left Jesus’ Last Supper early?  Hmmm…perhaps it’s not completely reasonable to compare all early Mass departures to “Judas,” but hopefully it at least gets us thinking about what could possibly be important enough on the schedule to necessitate leaving the “Banquet of our Lord” six or seven minutes early; before we have been blessed and sent in peace.

 Perhaps a good question for reflection at the end of this series on the Mass is, “Why does the Catholic Church place the weight of ‘grave sin’ upon those who would miss Sunday Mass?”  Well, I would like to suggest that it is not the Catholic Church who imposes “grave sin” upon those who miss, but rather “grave sin” or separation from God is the natural consequence of us placing the things and events of this world before our relationship with the Lord of all things.

Imagine a relationship where the lover avoided entering the home of the beloved.  Or imagine that you loved someone and were constantly being invited to share in a deeper physical, emotional, and spiritual intimacy with them and you chose rather to vacation, to shop, or perhaps watch a football game.  How much division might there be in that relationship?  Sin is not punishment handed down by the Church, but rather the separation that comes as a result of our free choice to place “the world” before our relationship with God.

 If we use God’s gift of free will to choose to be separated from God’s invitation to intimacy (the Eucharist) in this life, God allows us the freedom that this choice might resonate into eternity.  Why would we desire to spend eternity with a Beloved whose gifts and relationship we chose to ignore during life?
I will be the first to admit that in this life it is extremely difficult to perfectly live out and to completely understand all that we profess and believe about the Mass.  However, I have also been given the gift of being able to “taste and see how good the Lord is”, through the sacrament of the Eucharist and it tops all that this world has to offer.  Let us sincerely pray that we and all of our brothers and sisters in Christ might never grow weary in seeking and learning about this miraculous gift that God gives us in this “one flesh union” with our Lord that is the eternal gift of the Mass.

             I remember a summer not too long ago when I was still fairly new to seminary studies and I was in the midst of a serious struggle with my decision of whether or not God was calling me to remain a seminarian with my home diocese of Salina or to leave for another diocese.  A few short weeks earlier, two seminarians, who had entered seminary for our diocese at the same time as I, had left seminary and another had decided to transfer to a different diocese.  Thus, at the time, it seemed as though there were just four of us seminarians left.

            Thankfully a priest mentor of mine told me to spend the summer in residence in a parish in the diocese; the parish I was assigned to was St. John the Baptist in Beloit.  It was in that summer assignment that I remember attending a conference at the Mother House of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Concordia.  I don’t remember much about that conference, but I remember especially struggling that day with the weight of my decision, feeling somewhat alone, without seminarians or priests my age to talk to or lean on.   So, I did what any normal young man would do, I went to look for something to eat; I went to lunch.

            I remember not knowing many people in that cafeteria, and in fact, I sat down at a table by myself to eat lunch.  While seated eating my lunch (before anyone else joined the table), feeling sorry for myself, a religious sister hobbled up to me.  She was obviously quite aged and she wore a black and white veil and an old black habit that had seen many years of use.  I had never met her before, and she didn’t bother to introduce herself.  She simply walked up, patted me on the shoulder, looked me straight in the eyes and said, “You will have helpers soon.”  She turned around and hobbled away.  In that moment, I thought to myself, “How bizarre!  What on earth was she talking about?  Obviously her age is affecting her mind.”  Then God’s peace began to sink in and her words began to bore a little deeper into my heart.

            Was this “little old nun” a messenger of God?  Was she telling me to stay the course, to be patient and to hope and pray for future seminarians and priests in our diocese?  The words have echoed in my mind and heart over the years.  What about you; what do you think?  At that time, we had five seminarians in studies for the Diocese of Salina.  We now have 14 seminarians studying for our diocese, have more than I expected in the application process for next year and God willing will be ordaining two priests this summer.  Praise God for His goodness in leading us to follow His path.  His plans for you and for each of us are always so much greater than we could ever accomplish or hope for on our own.  Continue to pray to the Harvest master to send out laborers for His harvest in our diocese as we continue to build a culture of openness to vocations to priesthood and religious life.