Can I Ask a Serious Question Regarding Catholocism?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Singinbeauty
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Singinbeauty

Guest
Why is it that you have to go through so much to become catholic and receive communion and such? Or do I have this wrong. It just seems to me that in order to get close to God through your sacriment of communion you have to jump through a LOT of hoops to get there. And even then can be denied access for one reason or another. Maybe I am missing something but I can’t find anywhere in the bible where people had to go through a class to become a christian and deserve communion.

It’s not ‘do you have faith in Christ and have you been baptized?’ and if you say yes you partake in communion, it’s ‘are you catholic?’.

Denying someone Christ, as you believe that your communion is, just because they haven’t been through the class and confirmed in your church seems really wrong. But again, maybe I am missing something…🤷
 
Singinbeauty said:
Why is it that you have to go through so much to become catholic and receive communion and such? Or do I have this wrong. It just seems to me that in order to get close to God through your sacriment of communion you have to jump through a LOT of hoops to get there. And even then can be denied access for one reason or another. Maybe I am missing something but I can’t find anywhere in the bible where people had to go through a class to become a christian and deserve communion.

It’s not ‘do you have faith in Christ and have you been baptized?’ and if you say yes you partake in communion, it’s ‘are you catholic?’.

Denying someone Christ, as you believe that your communion is, just because they haven’t been through the class and confirmed in your church seems really wrong. But again, maybe I am missing something…🤷
Click to expand...
A person should know what a church believes and stands for before they join.
Don’t you think? For example if they don’t know what communion is truly about, then it does them no good.
 
BelFarfalla said:
A person should know what a church believes and stands for before they join.
Don’t you think? For example if they don’t know what communion is truly about, then it does them no good.
Click to expand...
I agree to an extent. I know that my pastor, before leading the congregation in communion last week, told us that if we had not accepted Christ into our lives and were not decided then we shouldn’t partake. That I get. But if someone believes and has studied on their own why make them wait? They should go through the class but to deny them Christ just because they haven’t gone through it just seems wrong…
 
It’s like a marriage. Although short courtships can and do result in a long, happy marriage, a longer courtship is a wise plan. A couple should know each other well before they get married. It’s not just about love and happiness, it’s about the budget and the dishes and how many kids and dogs vs cats vs. iguanas and football widowhood and figure skating widowerhood–you get the idea.

Also, if a couple follows God’s plan and waits to have sex until they are married, the wedding night and consummation is soooo very sweet!

I think waiting for the Lord and anticipating that First Communion is like waiting for the wedding night (I was a virgin). The wait is hard, but it is so worth it.

The year of preparation in RCIA allows the convert to get to know every nook and cranny of the Catholic Church and what the faith is all about BEFORE getting involved and then deciding, “Nghh, we’re not compatible.”

According to history, in the early Church (New Testament) new converts had it even tougher! TWO YEARS of preparation before being admitted to Eucharist! And they weren’t allowed to even see the Eucharistic sacrifice until they were baptized and received into the Church.

I realize that some of this was to prevent spies from infiltrating and betraying the Christians to the Romans. But it was also to make sure that the convert was rooted and grounded in the faith.

You say that there is nothing in the Bible to indicate a “waiting period.” Well, Jesus spent three years with His disciples before He went to Calvary, died, rose, and ascended back into heaven. He could have redeemed them anytime. He could have said, “Follow me,” and then gone straight to the Cross and sent them the Holy Spirit to give them power to be His witnesses. But He had a lot to teach them and they had a lot to learn.

We’re no different than the disciples! We need time, too.

And just because you’re not receiving Jesus in the Holy Eucharist doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy a spiritual communion with Him and the other Christians. In the three years that I attended Mass and studied the Catholic Church, I prayed a little prayer that I found in a Catholic prayer book: “I believe that you, O Jesus, are in the most holy Sacrament. I love you and desire you. Come into my heart. I embrace you. Oh, never leave me. May the burning and most sweet power of your love, O Lord Jesus Christ, I beseech you, absorb my mind that I may die through love of your lov, Who were graciously pleased to die through love of my love.”

I know that you are asking why non-Catholics who are Christians can’t take the Holy Eucharist, too. Catholics believe that Jesus gave authority to the Church, beginning with Peter, to “run things” here on earth.

The Church has always had the rule that only Catholics can take Holy Communion.

If you don’t believe that the Church is in charge (not the Bible), then you will certainly not accept the Catholic ruling that only Catholics can receive Communion.

So it comes down to an authority issue.

My suggestion is that whether you agree with it or not, you obey the authority. After all, you are not being asked to commit any sin by the Catholic authority when they ask you to abstain from Holy Communion. So it shouldn’t conflict with your conscience to abstain. It may conflict with your interpretation of the Bible, but Catholics don’t accept the Bible as the sole authority.

If you were visiting another country with different laws than the U.S., you would obey the laws of that country. When you are in a Catholic Church, you are in a different “country,” so it’s respectful to obey the “laws.”
 
Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. (NAB)

The verse states that they were devoted to the teachings of the apostles AND to the communal life, to the breaking of bread. Breaking of bread to me means the Eucharist (communion).

In order to devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles they would have to know what the apostles taught. They would have to know the teaching in order to be devoted to them.

How are people taught? One way would be a “class”. Having a teacher to teach and students to learn….

Catholics believe in Apostolic Succession. We believe that the teaching of the Church today is the same teachings of the apostles.

So seeing people devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles and to the breaking of bread… it only makes sense to me that people that wish to join the Catholic Church go through a class first (i.e. RCIA). This way they can learn what the Catholic Church teaches and see if they can devote themselves to it.

God Bless!

PS: A relative of mine recently decided that she wanted to be Lutheran (LCMS). For the last 5 months she has been attending what they call “confirmation classes”. She will be confirmed in the Lutheran Church this weekend and will receive communion there for the first time.

Also, our children have to go to special class before they can receive communion and/or be confirmed.
 
Not to mention is “Communion” meaning a unity. Does the one wishing to partake believe the same things as those they are Communing with? Do they accept the the Eucharist is physically Christ, papal infallibility, the intersessions of the saints, same belief in the graces of Sacraments, confession before a priest, no contraception, the priest is in the person of Christ, etc? You get the picture. One does not hold to the teachings of the Church they are no longer in Communion with the Church and to partake of Holy Communion (Eucharist) would be breaking the unity Christ commands us to keep.
 
Cat said:
You say that there is nothing in the Bible to indicate a “waiting period.” Well, Jesus spent three years with His disciples before He went to Calvary, died, rose, and ascended back into heaven. He could have redeemed them anytime. He could have said, “Follow me,” and then gone straight to the Cross and sent them the Holy Spirit to give them power to be His witnesses. But He had a lot to teach them and they had a lot to learn.
Click to expand...
While you make a lot of interesting points I wanted to address this first. Yes, Jesus took time before going to Calvary but the people of the time had HIM. While your communion allows you to bring Christ literally into your body they didn’t have to do this. They had Him right there in the flesh speaking and loving them. If I were to believe that the eurcharist embodied Christ literally and felt such a surge and need to have Him within me I would have to wait because HUMANS decided that I wasn’t worthy yet. Even though Christ already sacrificed His life to make me worthy.

This is how one outsider sees it… No offense intended truly.
 
Cat puts it so well.

When I grew up emmersed in Christianity - I knew the Bible backwards and forwards. By the time I was a teen, I’d had more in-depth study of Scripture than many Bible College graduates.

I will never forget the day when I realized that there were writings from the earliest Church - documents that told us how the early Church operated, real hard details. I’d never heard of these writings. Wow! The process then was much more than just pray the sinners’ prayer and BAM that is it. There was a process to joining the Church.

Study the ECFs, you will see that there is a process - and it is soooo worth the wait!
 
Yeah, it seems like there is alot of **** you have to go through to become Catholic. Baptism isn’t nessesary. It is just symbolic. What really matters is that you feel God’s love in your heart. In the end, it doesn’t matter what you believe, or even if you are Christian. What truly matters is that you have the Divine’s love in your heart and recognize that others have the Divine’s presence too. In the end, God, Goddess, Spirit, are all the same thing. The only difference is the way people worship.
 
Cat said is quite well. I am also a convert and prayed a very similar prayer week after week. I encourage you to do a spiritual communion next time you are at Mass, if you too believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Concerning the Early Church, they were more strict than most Catholic Christians today regarding the reception of the Blessed Sacrament. The idea that all truths must be explicity mentioned in the Bible or they are therefore false, is not in the Bible. This is not something the Early Church believed at any time. The Catholic Church has a lot of extrabiblical ideas, but nothing is antibiblical.

If you believe that we are antibiblical, you must also believe that the Early Church went radically astray from the truth within a very, very short time. If I had to believe that the Church went radically astray, I would not be a Christian at all. I do not believe that reflects well on God to allow His people in darkness for well over one thousand years.

Clearly, I do not believe that. The Church came before the Bible, and was guided by the Holy Spirit right from the start. An ordained structure and authority was established. Otherwise, what does that say about God?

I encourage you research the Early Church Fathers more. They were overwhelmingly Catholic in belief and in practice.

Your question was very reasonable and appreciated. May God bless you in all things!
 
blacktiger057 said:
Yeah, it seems like there is alot of **** you have to go through to become Catholic. Baptism isn’t nessesary. It is just symbolic. What really matters is that you feel God’s love in your heart. In the end, it doesn’t matter what you believe, or even if you are Christian. What truly matters is that you have the Divine’s love in your heart and recognize that others have the Divine’s presence too. In the end, God, Goddess, Spirit, are all the same thing. The only difference is the way people worship.
Click to expand...
Remember that line of thinking when you marry.🙂 Will you be all right if your spouse sits around, not working or helping pay the bills, never lifting a finger to clean or help with kids, just sitting there adoring you. All that really matters is that your spouse have love for you in their heart right?

Why would God expect anything less?

God, put his laws upon our hearts. Additionally his grace pulls us all toward him. When you ask yourself questions such as what is the meaning of life? Why am I here? You are responding to his grace. Animals, after all, don’t ask about the meaning of existence.

Religion is mankind’s answer to these deep questions and because of Grace many nonChristian religions can have aspects of truth and beauty in them. But ultimately the fullenss of the truth is only found in Christianity and further in Roman Catholicism.

Besides every religion can not be correct, especially when some of them teach such widely varying dogma.
 
Singinbeauty said:
While you make a lot of interesting points I wanted to address this first. Yes, Jesus took time before going to Calvary but the people of the time had HIM. While your communion allows you to bring Christ literally into your body they didn’t have to do this. They had Him right there in the flesh speaking and loving them. If I were to believe that the eurcharist embodied Christ literally and felt such a surge and need to have Him within me I would have to wait because HUMANS decided that I wasn’t worthy yet. Even though Christ already sacrificed His life to make me worthy.

This is how one outsider sees it… No offense intended truly.
Click to expand...
Christ sacrificed Himself to make you worthy. The key here is to make you worth – to perfect you. This is a major distinction between our theologies on salvation – imputed vs. infused righteousness.

Most Protestants believe they are declared righteous by Christ. (Imputed)

Catholics believe we are made righteous by Christ (Infused) because of what He did on the cross for our sin. The graces Christ merited on the cross are applied to us through the Sacraments and other graces, that we will be perfected, as He calls all His children to be.

It’s because of God’s love that He wants us to receive Him worthily during Holy Communion.

“For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died” (1 Cor. 11:29–30).

Now, if this was only symbolic and had nothing to do with Christ’s atoning death on the cross, why would God allow them to get sick and die?

This should be helpful. There is a section for Non-Catholic Christians in the link.

catholic.com/library/Who_Can_Receive_Communion.asp

One other thing that convinced me that Jesus was truly present in the Holy Eucharist are countless miracles. After coming home, I didn’t need “miracles.” (…though I did experience one!) Receiving Him is unquestionably a great priviledge, joy, and piece of heaven.

He’s calling you dear sister. He’s calling you.

livingmiracles.net/Eucharist.html
therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/engl_mir.htm
 
There can be a true presence of Christ without the Eucharist.

I just the other night was listening to the radio show Changed Forever with Fr. Larry Richards on Relevant Radio via the internet. I didn’t catch the whole program because was having PC problems. 😦

I did catch Fr. Larry saying what makes the Eucharist stand out, what make the presence in the Eucharist different, is the intimacy level you can have with Christ in that moment of receiving him through the Eucharist.

He compared that difference between the difference there is between talking to your spouse on the phone and having martial relations with your spouse.

In both cases there is a true presence of your spouse. However having martial relations with your spouse would be more intimate. (Or at least you hope :p)

In martial relations your spouse is giving him/herself to you in a very intimate way.
In the Eucharist Christ is giving himself to you in a very intimate way.

I’m thankful that I can have the kind of intimacy with Christ through the Eucharist. Just like I’m thankful for the intimacy I share with my DH through martial relations.

I wish I was able to listen to the whole program the other night.

I do believe that the bit I heard was from his talk “How to get more out of the Mass”.
Which can be bought from his web site.
 
There is also an aspect of the Eucharist that can be harmful to those who don’t truly believe in it when they take it. Paul said that some people were getting sick because they weren’t correctly discerning Jesus in the Sacrament. They were eating and drinking condemnation. I’m not looking at the Bible just now, so I hope I’ve got the essence of Paul’s writing.
 
I thought the same thing why oh why do I have to go to all of these RCIA classes. 🙂 I thought I understood everything that was important well…I didn’t know everything and still don’t but I’m so glad I went through it all to help me to grow and believe deep in my heart this is God’s One True Church
and who knows maybe your helping someone in that class by your presence…:angel1:
 
Allweather said:
There is also an aspect of the Eucharist that can be harmful to those who don’t truly believe in it when they take it. Paul said that some people were getting sick because they weren’t correctly discerning Jesus in the Sacrament. They were eating and drinking condemnation. I’m not looking at the Bible just now, so I hope I’ve got the essence of Paul’s writing.
Click to expand...
Here’s the verses you are looking for. From the KJV:
1Co 11:23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
1Co 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
1Co 11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
1Co 11:26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.
1Co 11:27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
1Co 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
1Co 11:29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
1Co 11:30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
Click to expand...
 
Singinbeauty said:
Why Maybe I am missing something but I can’t find anywhere in the bible where people had to go through a class to become a christian and deserve communion.
Click to expand...
a careful reading of the Acts of the Apostles will show that even the apostle Paul, after his conversion, went through a lengthy period of instruction before he began his ministry, and that he was instructed to hasten to the home of a certain person for instruction on what to do next. You will further see that all converts received instruction first before baptism and the other sacraments.

The preparation in the early Church was long and intensive, sometimes years, because the catechumen was inviting martyrdom by conversion, and that step could not be taken without full knowledge of what he was embracing. It takes as long as it takes to prepare for Christian initiation, because being a Catholic is tough, and it is not a step to be taken lightly. One cannot be allowed to profess the faith, without being instructed in the elements of that faith, and cannot be allowed to assume the obligations of the faith, without understanding the nature of those obligations.

a perusal of the gospels will further demonstrate that the apostles received 3 years of intensive instruction from Jesus before he judged them ready for the Sacrament of the Eucharist, instituted the night before he died.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top