S
springbreeze
Guest
Dear friends
I have just held a dinner party and during the course of the evening the topic of faith and God arose. This is not the first time in the same company this topic has arose and as always my faith is attacked. These are good people, friends and family. I pray for their conversion to Catholicism daily. Tonight was particularly bad, there was no falling out or arguing in a bad way, but the attack on my faith and whether it is truth was incomparible in severity as to any other time. When they left I felt totally dejected. They ate from my table, accepted my hospitality and kindness towards them and proceeded to attack my faith and I felt so defensive of it I could have left the room and cried. I tried to explain that there is an intrinsic truth,there may be other ways of viewing or perceiving that truth, but there is only one truth, one God. It was as though it fell on deaf ears. I tried to say that Jesus was who He said He was or he was a mad man and a total liar.
My friends and family seem to think you can perceive God as you choose and a person can pick and choose and do as you like and God will not mind this. At one point my sister-in-law said that she recognises good and bad and I said, ‘how far do you recognise it?’ she said ‘to it’s ends’ then I said ‘do you keep sunday holy?’ she said ‘no’ I said ‘then you do not recognise good and bad to it’s ends’ She didn’t like this comment, but it is the truth and she had no answer to it other than to say ‘oh I must be going to hell’ I said ’ I didn’t say that, but by the same token you cannot say you recognise good and bad to it’s ends’.
My brother is a teacher and insists one can teach secular ‘goods’ without recognising the source of good, who is God, I say this is well intended, but to teach good without God is to omit the source of good and therefore is of limited effect, infact I think it is an insult to God, but didn’t say it was.
They persistantly asked me ‘who has the truth’, I stated ‘the Catholic Church does’, they asked ‘why’, I stated ‘that it is the Church Christ founded’.They twisted questions on me and my answers. I felt like nothing more than a fool, until I ended it in good humour by me making jokes about it, but inside my heart was breaking, my faith attacked. They said religion is the cause of all wars and discord, saying ‘look at us now arguing about the table’ that we should adhere to common goods between all faiths and stop preaching a particular faith, that to state one faith is the truth is to look down on the rest of the faiths in the world and individual beliefs, infact they said I was preachy and intolerant. I intended to be neither, but when questioned I will answer with the truth and they did not like the answers. They said ‘this is your truth, what you believe’, I said ‘no, this is God’s truth’. They said ‘how do you know it is the truth’ I said ’ because God himself revealed it in Christ Jesus’ they did not accept this.
They asked many questions, but didn’t want to hear the answers, they talked over me, refuting all of the answers I gave them and when I raised my voice to be heard, they accused me of preaching as though they themselves had not tried to preach their perceptions to me, shouting over me so that they could not even hear what I was trying to say in return to their questions. They brushed off my answers saying ‘you will say that you are a staunch Catholic, that doesn’t mean it is the truth’
In short they may as well have slapped me in the face, the hurt would have been less if they had done.
How do I handle this? Do I stop talking about God with my friends and family? I will continue to pray for them, but what do I do?
Thank you in advance for any advice.
God Bless you and much love and peace to you
Teresa
I have just held a dinner party and during the course of the evening the topic of faith and God arose. This is not the first time in the same company this topic has arose and as always my faith is attacked. These are good people, friends and family. I pray for their conversion to Catholicism daily. Tonight was particularly bad, there was no falling out or arguing in a bad way, but the attack on my faith and whether it is truth was incomparible in severity as to any other time. When they left I felt totally dejected. They ate from my table, accepted my hospitality and kindness towards them and proceeded to attack my faith and I felt so defensive of it I could have left the room and cried. I tried to explain that there is an intrinsic truth,there may be other ways of viewing or perceiving that truth, but there is only one truth, one God. It was as though it fell on deaf ears. I tried to say that Jesus was who He said He was or he was a mad man and a total liar.
My friends and family seem to think you can perceive God as you choose and a person can pick and choose and do as you like and God will not mind this. At one point my sister-in-law said that she recognises good and bad and I said, ‘how far do you recognise it?’ she said ‘to it’s ends’ then I said ‘do you keep sunday holy?’ she said ‘no’ I said ‘then you do not recognise good and bad to it’s ends’ She didn’t like this comment, but it is the truth and she had no answer to it other than to say ‘oh I must be going to hell’ I said ’ I didn’t say that, but by the same token you cannot say you recognise good and bad to it’s ends’.
My brother is a teacher and insists one can teach secular ‘goods’ without recognising the source of good, who is God, I say this is well intended, but to teach good without God is to omit the source of good and therefore is of limited effect, infact I think it is an insult to God, but didn’t say it was.
They persistantly asked me ‘who has the truth’, I stated ‘the Catholic Church does’, they asked ‘why’, I stated ‘that it is the Church Christ founded’.They twisted questions on me and my answers. I felt like nothing more than a fool, until I ended it in good humour by me making jokes about it, but inside my heart was breaking, my faith attacked. They said religion is the cause of all wars and discord, saying ‘look at us now arguing about the table’ that we should adhere to common goods between all faiths and stop preaching a particular faith, that to state one faith is the truth is to look down on the rest of the faiths in the world and individual beliefs, infact they said I was preachy and intolerant. I intended to be neither, but when questioned I will answer with the truth and they did not like the answers. They said ‘this is your truth, what you believe’, I said ‘no, this is God’s truth’. They said ‘how do you know it is the truth’ I said ’ because God himself revealed it in Christ Jesus’ they did not accept this.
They asked many questions, but didn’t want to hear the answers, they talked over me, refuting all of the answers I gave them and when I raised my voice to be heard, they accused me of preaching as though they themselves had not tried to preach their perceptions to me, shouting over me so that they could not even hear what I was trying to say in return to their questions. They brushed off my answers saying ‘you will say that you are a staunch Catholic, that doesn’t mean it is the truth’
In short they may as well have slapped me in the face, the hurt would have been less if they had done.
How do I handle this? Do I stop talking about God with my friends and family? I will continue to pray for them, but what do I do?
Thank you in advance for any advice.
God Bless you and much love and peace to you
Teresa
Carole
