Let me draw you a picture, the year is 2011 the month is December. There are people walking down the street, one person in particular. He is lost, he is looking for his home. The city is busy as busy can be, this person doesn't know how he got to where he is, he sees a church, he walks inside. There are strange people sitting in the pews, they are all wearing masks, dark masks and they are dressed in black. The man asks, "is this the church of the living God?" He is told to be quiet, he is interrupting the sermon. He asks again.."is this the church of the living God?" No one responds, someone comes out of the sanctuary, dressed in all white and approaches the man, "come with me.." he says, so the man follows him to the front row of the church. "Sit here." says the man in white, then goes onto the platform and addresses the crowd "We may resume the sermon!" all is quiet once again. For the next hour nobody speaks, there is no sermon being preached and one by one each person in the church stands up, puts their bibles on a shelf and walks out of the church. The man is left there alone, he sees the man dressed in white out of the corner of his eye walk out of a side entrance of the church, he has left something in a box on the wall. The man rushes to see what is in the box, it is a letter. "Dear church attender, Thank You for visiting our church, our doors are always open (but there is nobody here) our services are every sunday at this same time, (but nobody ever speaks) we don't have or believe in baptism or communion, you can tell by our dress that we have a strict dress code, we all wear black masks and robes, our bibles are put on the shelf after we leave, you can read them if you like, but we suggest than you don't. Thank you and God Bless. Signed the man in white."
I was born into the Catholic Church and was baptized as an infant, I had my first communion and reconciliation as a child, and was confirmed as a teenager. Although I was never devout, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour when I was 21 through an evangelical Christian radio ministry, which in turn gave new life to my Catholic faith. Although I remained a Catholic, I identified as a born again Christian. It wasn’t until much later in my life that I learned the difference between the two denominations and what they taught about being born again. Regardless, there was a significant change in my life back then, which continues to this day. Being Catholic is much like an identity to me and I remember growing up under the papacy of St. Pope John Paul II. The culture I grew up in was largely affected by his papacy, and the way the culture viewed the church was significantly different from the way the current culture views it. Growing up, the pope didn’t try to be rele...
Comments
Post a Comment