Layers - in the knowledge of God and the path to holiness
Learning about God is like unwrapping a head of lettuce, pealing back one leaf at a time. Always there is another leaf below. We will eventually reach the center of the head of lettuce; but we will never unwrap everthing there is to know about God.
The path to holiness is like pealing an onion. God shows us what is sinful and convicts us that we have sinned. No matter how sweet the onion, there are always tears in the peeling. No matter how sweet the grace of repentence, there are always the pain of letting go of the sin. As the peeling of the onion reveals another layer, so God shows us what we lack in holiness, drawing us ever closer to "be(ing) perfect even just as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48
What I Believe
Why I am and always will be a Catholic. "So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. Tthe living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever." John 6:53-58 The words and actions of man cannot sanctify. Only the priest, empowered by his ordination, can invoke the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into Jesus so we can receive Him - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity into our bodies and souls. This is the core of the Catholic Church; without this there is no purpose or meaning to the Catholic Church. There are other ways to holiness, to grow in grace; there is no better way than union with Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
Why do we need to go to Mass on Sundays (and holy days)? Why can’t it be our own personal choice to go or not to go as we feel? The commandment is to keep holy the Sabbath. In the early Church the Christians went to the synagogue for the reading of Scripture and then gathered on Sunday, the Lord’s Day of Resurrection, for the “breading of the bread.” This was the term they used for what we call the Mass. After 70 A.D. the Christians no longer were allowed in the synagogues and the readings of Scripture were united with the “breaking of the bread.” Early writings describe proceedings which are very similar to what the Mass is today. Why the command to go to Mass? It is a Church command which, under its power to loose and bind, The Church deems necessary for the salvation of our souls. Why necessary? God does not need us to worship Him. He is complete in Himself. Man needs to worship God. To worship God gives acknowledgment that we are not of our own making, that we cannot live on our own, that we need God’s help in all facets of our lives and that we know that god is the One who supplies all that is good to us. Why specifically the Mass? The Mass is the offering of Jesus on Calvary to the Father. What could be better? A prayer in bed? A song of praise in the wilderness? Beyond the worship of God that man as a creature needs to give, the Mass is the primary source of our sanctification. What could sanctify us more than Jesus Himself in the Eucharist? There is usually a place to go to Mass wherever we are. To put our plans first is willfully putting ourselves first, before God, making an idol of ourselves, leading to an eternity without God.
