I don’t see what’s so restrictive about Catholicism. You can do the minimum, or you an get all the benefits of the indulgences ( don’t believe in them)
I don’t necassarily agree with the poster you responded to but I have to point out a few things based on your responses. You say that you do not believe in indulgences. Okay, may I ask why? What evidence to the contrary has led you to this conclusion or is it simply a personal decision brought about based on your own personal opinion? Please help me to understand.
devotions, prayers, medallions (superstition, don’t believe in them)
Again, what led you to believe that prayer or devotion is a superstition? I can understand where you might be confused about religious medals (though if you’d like to correctly understand this issue I would be happy to explain why we have them) but I can hardly understand way you would see prayer as superstitious. How did you come to this decision?
statues ( adds nothing to my faith experience),
Well, there is nothing wrong with your position here and the Church does not require you to embrace any statue. Since statues are simply objects and not items to be worshiped, I don’t have issue with your position here.
saints ( don’t feel the need to pray to a middle man),
Again, it’s not a requirement for a Catholic to pray to a saint so there is no issue here either. However, having said that, my personal opinion on the matter is that if I can go to a brother or sister here on earth and ask them to pray for me, then I certainly can do no worse by going to a brother or sister already standing before the throne of God and ask them to pray for me.
archangels ( over emphasis on guardian angels and angels in general),
Really? How so? The Church sees angels as God’s messengers. Guardian angels are simply messengers assigned to each individual in the hope of guiding them toward the Truth of God. Angels (guardian and otherwise) see God. They speak to God. Why is it wrong to venerate them. They are worthy of standing before God. Should that not be respected? Can you point to a man or woman who is worthy of this? We see in Joshua 5:14 that he (Joshua) fell prostrate before an angel. Then we see that Daniel did the samething in Dan 8:17. Then again we find Tobiah and Tobit falling to the ground before the archangel Raphael in Tob 12:16. We do NOT worship angels nor do we hold them up as gods. They are servants to God. Yet they are holy and we know this because nothing unholy is in Heaven.
confession ( is my biggest issue, there is one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us from every wrong doing),
Let’s go further with this since you have identified this issue as your largest issue against the Church. Let’s start by proving that Jesus Christ did in fact give His disciples the power to forgive sins. Please see John 20:19-23. You may notice that Jesus gives the authority to forgive and NOT TO FORGIVE. In order for one of the disciples to determine which sins to forgive and which sins not to forgive they must have needed to actually hear the sins… confessions. (On a side note, isn’t it awesome that this actually took place on Easter Sunday and that our God used breath to institute this authority? The only other time God used His breath on man was during the creation!!! One gave phyiscal life… one gives spiritual life!!! Praise God!)
If we look at 2 Cor 5:17-20 we find St. Paul explaining how the Apostles are ambassadors of Christ’s work of reconciliation (do you recognize the word reconciliation?). Next look at James 5:13-16. Here James makes clear that the sins of the sick are forgiven in this sacrament of annointing. He specifies that the presbyters (priests) must be called. They obviously have a power the ordinary Christian did not… the power to forgive sins. Look back for a moment at John 20:21. Please recall here that Christ says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Here the Apostles are to continue the mission of Christ. The essence of that mission is the forgiveness of sins. Finally, I’d like to point out one last thing. Catholics and protestants both agree that their clergy (ministers) can be used by God as instruments in physical healing. Why then is it so hard to believe that God would use them for spiritual healing as well? To forgive sins. Which is more important?
Mass ( don’t believe in the real presence, Mass brings me no closer to God)
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Well, my brother then you simple deny scripture. It cannot be anymore plain. Before responding to this post, please read the entire chapter of John 6. Then read the following:
Mk 14-22-24
1 Cor 10:14-17
1 Cor 11:23-29
Mt 26:26-28
Lk 22:17-20
Lk 24:30-35
Once you have read those verses turn to Jn 4:31-34 and then Mt 16:5-12. Both of these verses describe Jesus speaking about food in a symbolic sense. The disciples believed that he was speaking of real food, but Jesus shows them in plain, unmistakable language that He is only speaking figuratively. Now compare this with Jn 6:51. Jesus says we must eat His flesh in order to have life. In Jn 6:52, the Jews interpret Him literally. Jesus then repeats again and again (verses 53-56), in the clearest possible language, that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to have eternal life. Take special note of verse 55: “my flesh is true food and my blood true drink.” This is NOT the language of symbolism. Furthermore, I find it rather interesting that we find that Judas also didn’t believe in the Eucharist (look at the last 2 verses in Jn 6).
Now look at 1 Cor 11:27 and please explain how one can sin by eating and drinking unworthily of something that isn’t real? St. Paul says, "whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily
sins against the body and blood of the Lord. If this is all symbolic how can the result then be sinful?
Lastily, I say this… It wasn’t until the reformation that this was even an issue. Up until that time, no one (I’m sure that there were one or two but no one by enlarge) claimed this to be symbolic. So, why is this rather new concept even being thrown out there?
I’ll close my argument by suggesting an extremely interesting book that you may find absolutely fascinating.
Eucharistic Miracles by Joan Cruz.
God bless and I hope that I have helped to shed some amount of light on your concerns with the Church. Please let me know if I can help explain further.
