Whoa. Everybody take a step back. Give Josh some breathing room - he came in here with a burden, and we’ve responded by . . . putting more bricks in his bag.
OK. Here’s my question. In the profession of faith, what exactly am I professing to?
You are professing to believe what the Creed states - carefully and precisely chosen words that delineate the essentials of the Faith, words that were honed and distilled over centuries for this purpose. Things that are not included in the Creed are not meant to be in the Creed, despite what some may tell you. Men of God died for those words. It is not for us to suggest that we know better than they what they meant.
I thought that I would be professing that I believed that everything that the church teaches is true. If I don’t understand it correctly, could someone please explain it?
First, I would have to say that almost no one who enters the Church as an adult can honestly stay they entered the Church without a doubt or quibble. Most of us came in with the fervent belief that this was, somehow, some way, the Church that Jesus founded, and that the Eucharist is Really Jesus, and how can I not be here and receive Him if that is True??? And if there is stuff in Church history and Church teaching that I don’t get or I don’t understand or I don’t agree with, but I believe that Jesus is here in a way that He is no where else, then I have to be here and I’ll figure the rest out, or I won’t, but He will and I’m okay with that.
I clung (and cling) to the prayer of the father in Mark 9:24 “Lord, I believe, Lord, help thou my unbelief!”
Next: At some level faith requires what is called, for want of a better term, a “leap of faith.” It requires stepping out on to what appears to be water, believing that if God wills it, the water will prove to be solid, or you will prove to be bouyant, or that there is an escher there that you can’t see . . . or that if you drown, the Lord will welcome you into His presence, because He has called you to take that step and He knows better and loves you more than you can ever imagine or understand.
What faith does not require is perfect understanding. St. Paul, of all people, wrote “For now we see as through a glass, darkly.” (I Cor. 13:12) We will not fully understand until we are freed of the limits of these finite minds.
Finally: Others have pointed out here that there are differences between the defined truths of the Faith (dogma) and the disciplines of the Church. This is true. We believe that the Faith is unchanging but it is to be applied in every age by the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit - so whether we observe the Sabbath on the 7th day or the 1st day of the week, or are obliged to keep kosher, or require priests to take vows of celibacy - those are disciplines which we accept the Church’s authority to regulate, whether or not we understand her reasons, but they are not doctrines of the faith as the Incarnation and the Trinity are. If that distinction is really your only stumbling block, you are very close to shore indeed! If you really feel the Church “contradicts” Christ you probably do need to spend some more time in investigation, but that does not mean your time has been wasted. Every obstacle you overcome, every tidbit you resolve in your own mind, will be used by the Lord in His service somehow. Your struggle will make it possible for you to assist someone else, and that, too has value.
So take as long as you need, study as much as you desire, question and examine and challenge and probe - but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you have to be 100% in agreement with everything that has ever been written or done by a church official to make your profession. It is enough to believe that Jesus is Lord and that His promises to His Church are true. It is enough to accept that you may not understand everything, and to be willing to be obedient even when you are not convinced. It is enough to say “Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief!”
