Believing with the Church
Fr. Campbell
Note: TradCatKnight is not sedevacantist therefore not an endorsement for the position
One
of the best things about being Catholic is that you can believe without
question everything that has been revealed by God and taught by the
Catholic Church. Except, of course, the false teachings, the heresies of
Vatican II, and the false “popes” who sponsored it. But the smallest
child can believe what the True Church believes, and be a Catholic.
As
Catholics we don’t have to constantly sift everything through our
intellect so as to decide which doctrines are worthy of belief and which
are not. To do so is a great mistake. But we just believe all of it
because it has been revealed to us by God “Who can neither deceive nor
be deceived.” What a relief it is to find that we don’t have to figure
out everything for ourselves beginning at square one. We could never
arrive at certainty because of the weakness of our human intellects and
the wounds to our human nature caused by Original Sin. But God would
not, could not lie to us because His very nature is Truth. Perhaps this
is part of what Jesus meant when He said, “You shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free” (Jn.8:32).
Faith
makes us free. Worries and anxieties take flight, and it becomes easier
to smile and take life as it comes. Faith enlightens everything, for
“we know that for those who love God all things work together unto
good…” (Rom.8:28a).
This
does not mean that we give up the use of reason and go by “blind faith”
as some think we do. Plain common sense tells us that we must believe
God when He speaks, as He did through the prophets and through His
Divine Son, Jesus Christ, and the Church He founded and sent forth to
preach the Gospel. This is not blind faith, but a most reasonable and
intelligent decision. It stands to reason that we must believe God’s
word.
In fact, only the true believer is able to think clearly and see things as they really are.
Those
who do not have faith, even if they are brilliant geniuses with
multiple PhDs, and have access to vast stores of knowledge and
information through the great libraries and the internet, can never
arrive at a certain and secure knowledge of the truth. Pontius Pilate,
no doubt a well-educated man of his time, asked of Our Lord skeptically,
“What is truth?” The Pharisees, too, as we hear in today’s Gospel
(Mt.22:34-46), without faith, were left speechless when they could not
answer the challenging questions of Our Lord: “And no one could answer
Him a word; neither did anyone dare from that day forth to ask Him any
more questions” (Mt.22:46).
We
must believe what God tells us because He is infinite Truth and
All-knowing. Can we do better than that? Can the tiny created human mind
think more clearly than the Creator Himself? This is pride at its
worst. It is entirely reasonable to believe what God has revealed. Those
lacking true judgment and discernment think they can choose for
themselves what is worthy of belief. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There
is no God’” (Ps.13:1).
For
almost two thousand years the Catholic Church has believed what God has
revealed. But a disastrous change came with Vatican II. And the
apostasy at the Vatican gets worse every day. Because of the example of
Francis Bergoglio, who worships with Jews, Muslims, and whoever wants to
join the group, most of the Novus Ordo crowd now believe that one
religion is as good as another, and that truth can shift gears from one
religion to another.
Even
the young and innocent are not safe from the rot. Catholic Psychiatrist
Rick Fitzgibbons writes in the opinion column of LifeSite News (Sept.
2, 2016):
“In
my professional opinion, the most dangerous threat to Catholic youth
that I have seen over the past 40 years is the Vatican’s new sexual
education program, The Meeting Point: Course of Affective Sexual
Education for Young People.”
When
did the Catholic Church stop believing in the words of Jesus Christ, “I
am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but
through me. If you had known me, you would have also known my Father”
(Jn.14:6,7a)?
When
did the Catholic Church ever forget the words of St. John in his first
epistle, “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He
is the Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. No one who disowns
the Son has the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also”
(1Jn.2:22,23)?
How,
then, can anyone who calls himself Catholic claim that we can witness
to the True God together with those who deny the Son? How can they be
called “believers”? Can they be “believers” without faith?
The
fullness of what God has revealed is found only in the Catholic Church.
Pity the poor human beings who have not yet received the gift of faith.
They wander “in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Lk.1:79b). The
Catholic Church has always taught that Sanctifying Grace comes to us
through the Sacrament of Baptism, and that all must believe and be
baptized: “Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to every
creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who
does not believe shall be condemned” (Mk.16:15,16).
We
are not given this great gift for ourselves alone, but that we might
share it with the people of the world. We must pray for them and share
the Gospel with them in every possible way, with the greatest respect
for the people of all religions, even though we know their religions are
not from God and do not lead to life.
