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Saturday, March 2, 2013

Being Catholic: The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Stained Glass Window courtesy of  www.StainedGlassInc.com 

                   

The Catholic church has survived for the 2000 years since its foundation. The reason is that it holds the truth given to us by Jesus the son of God and passed down through the tradition of the apostles. It has survived through the good and the bad, through the truth and through heresy and error, through peace and war, and through saints and sinners.

The Church has the Holy Spirit as its guide, and as Jesus said " You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will never prevail against it" ( Mt 16:18) and later in the end of the Gospel according to Saint Mathew Jesus says " Behold I am with you always, even to the end of the world." (Mt: 28:20)
For this reason is that the church has and will always survive until the second coming of Jesus Christ. As Catholics we are blessed to have a revealed religion to us, that no other religion has. One that is founded by God himself through his son Jesus Christ.

The Good The Bad and The Ugly

As Catholics we are to stay firm in the faith through all generations and through all the trials that face us today. It is about showing the truth of God despise what the world is doing.

The Catholic church has had the privilege of celebrating during the good times. This good times have included the development of Western civilization through the Catholic church, and other times when converts have found the truth in the church. This are the good times, the times of celebration.  It is the times of the triumph of the Catholic church, where God's good news is seen in the fullness of truth found within the church.

Then there are the bad times, these are the times where heresy and error have entered the church. This include the rise of Arianism, Gnosticism, albigensianism, Protestantism, and the heresies and errors that face our world today. Most common of them are atheism, agnosticism, New Age philosophies and relativism. What faces our world today is more of irreligion and a lack of faith in God himself. Regardless Jesus reminds the faithful that the church will never be alone even in the darkest of times. It is through the Holy Spirit that truth remains.

Finally there are the ugly times in the church. These are the times of persecution and when blood is shed. This includes the crucifixion of Jesus Christ himself. It includes the start of the Church during the persecutions of Rome and the Jewish revolts against the early Christians. These are the times that saints are born out of martyrdom and faith.  Although this is not so much a problem in the western part of the world, it is still a growing problem in the East, specifically under Islamic and radical atheistic regimes and dictatorships, that this still occurs.

Yet the good, the bad, and the ugly is what makes up our Catholic faith and heritage. It is what gives history and truth to the truthfulness of the Catholic church. It is about celebrating the good, working through the bad, and persevering through the ugly.

 



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