Who says?!

In my first post, I said that I wasn't going to get into the history of why I am now Catholic, but as this seems to be a topic of continual discussion in my current studies, now is the appropriate time to tell some of it...

After I decided that God existed when I was about 18, I went searching for him.  I started with what was most familiar to me with my nominal presbyterian exposure, that is to say,  I started with the protestant denominations.  I went to several Churches and heard sermon after sermon (most of which turned out to be about tithing) all which claimed to "know what the bible meant."  But this caused some inner turmoil for me.  What did the bible mean?  They all understood that this book was the "law of the land," but if it was so clear, why did they interpret it in different ways?  How long had people been interpreting scripture the way they had?  And most importantly: Who SAYS?!?!  I mean, if it is so easy to understand, why doesn't everyone see it the same way.  If the Holy Sprit is truly in charge of making sure that we all understand the scripture properly, then the only conclusion is that we would all agree!  No, something was mightily wrong with this perspective.  To add to that, nobody ever seemed to be able to explain where on earth this book-of-books came from.  I mean, why were those books in there and not other books?  Again, who says?!?!

My then-girlfriend-now-wife and her family were Catholic, so I decided to give that church a fair shot at these questions.  I should mention that having been raised by a Presbyterian and an Agnostic, my spoon-fed views on the Catholic church were, well, not good; not good at all.  They were the birthplace of heresy and tyranny!  :)  But, as nothing else seemed to make sense, I thought they should be given a fair chance to explain themselves and address my questions.  The sermons (or homilies as they called them) were frequently about how the people of the day would have interpreted the day's readings and how that applied to us here and now.  Oh, and each day had it's own reading that was read everywhere in the world, so there was terrific unity. This community that they were a part of that was much bigger than a block-party.  I enrolled conditionally in RCIA (the rite of Catholic initiation for adults).  I could attend classes with no-strings-attached, if I wanted baptized, great, if not, that was fine too.  Sweet!  I get to hear from the horses mouth what all of their nonsense is about.  And so it began...

My biggest questions were addressed right away.  Apostolic succession and the bible.  The Church didn't claim to be the best interpretation of the bible, it claimed to be THE church that Jesus founded when he said to Peter in Matthew 16:18, "You are my rock, and on this rock I will build my Church."  He didn't write a book, he founded a church.  And the Catholics claimed to be THAT CHURCH!  This was a bold claim.  But, then came apostolic succession.  They had a list of popes, a genealogy if you will, that listed pope to pope, the handing down of the church and the "keys to the kingdom" from Peter all the way to John Paul II (at the time).  Holy Smoly!  Evidence?  What is this?!  They too had claims to the bible.  My protestant friends never told me (or maybe they didn't know, or didn't want to admit) that the bible was actually produced by the Catholic Church!  Go look it up for yourself.  It was in 382 AD at the council of Rome, held by Pope Damasus I, that the canon of scripture was formed.  This is actually public knowledge, but seems to be a better kept secret of Protestant communities.  The Catholic Church was the Christian church of old, and the protestant bible actually belonged to the Catholic church.  (Until they, i.e. protestants, changed it; which is another post for another day...)

The rest of the story can be left for another day.  The Church not only had answers to all of my objections/complaints/misunderstandings, but they were strong answers.  The bible, in some ways, is like the Constitution of the United States.  What would happen if the forefathers wrote the constitution and then left it up for everyone to interpret on their own?  Pandemonium.  So, what did they do?  They left someone/something in charge of interpreting it:  The judicial branch.  It is in their charge to keep the spirit of the constitution alive and tell everyone what it means.  The Magisterium of the Church is a lot like the judicial branch.  It is the living teaching of the Church.  It tells us how we should interpret the bible.  We can see this analogy break down pretty quickly as men run the judicial branch.  But do men run the church?  Yes, and no.  Men are the physical and visible head, but as Jesus said in John 14:16-17

"I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it.  But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you."

In short, the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit.  It is up to the Holy Spirit through the work of men to maintain the teachings of the Church and a proper interpretation of the bible.  When will the Holy Spirit leave the Church?  We go back to Matthew 16:18 "... and the gates of Jell shall never prevail against it."  Never.  The Holy Spirit didn't guide the Church until the Reformation in the 16th century.  He stays with it now and will stay with it until the end...