Welcome to "Catholic Hour," the new blog of My Catholic Faith Delivered!
Our goal is to provide posts that will not only inform you about the Catholic faith, but also inspire and challenge you to make the faith come alive in your lives. We will do our best to engage you, not only through online discussions and interesting links (and occasional humor!) but even more by calling you--and us--to be all that God has created us to be.
Over the next couple weeks, we will take a closer look at what we mean by "Catholic Hour." Today we'll start with "Catholic." Clearly we're a Catholic site. After all, we're My Catholic Faith Delivered. We're upfront and joyfully unapologetic in our presentation of what the Catholic Church actually teaches.
Now, the word "Catholic" has many different connotations, some positive and some negative. For some people, "Catholic" implies the exclusion of those who aren't Catholic, or maybe just "not Catholic enough." For that reason, I want to be clear that we are Catholic in the widest, most inclusive sense. All are welcome here. To explain how that can be, let me introduce you to my patron saint, St. Ignatius of Antioch.
St. Ignatius lived very shortly after the time of Christ. He was the third Bishop of Antioch (the first, incidentally, was St. Peter himself). You will recall that it was in Antioch that followers of Christ first became known as Christians (Acts 11:26). St. Ignatius was a disciple of the Apostle John, and also knew St. Polycarp, another famous apostolic Father who eventually became the Bishop of Smyrna, in what is now Turkey.
What makes St. Ignatius of Antioch such a significant figure in Church history is that when he was to be martyred in 107 A.D. during the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan, he was brought to Rome for execution. During this journey to Rome he wrote seven letters to different Churches about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. The amazing thing is that these seven letters have been preserved. St. Ignatius' writings have been precious gems of the apostolic faith for Christians in every generation!
In one of his seven letters, St. Ignatius wrote, "Where there is Jesus Christ, there is the Catholic Church" (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8:2). This is the first recorded use of the term "katholikos," or "catholic," in reference to the Church. The word means "universal."
So, the Church is catholic, or universal, in her scope. She is the embodiment of inclusivity. While Catholics, myself included (big-time), don't always effectively communicate through their words and actions this reality, the fact is that the Church is for everyone. It's a hospital or rehabilitation center for sinners, not a country club for saints. Thank God for that!
So in that spirit, at this blog we will embrace author James Joyce's description of the Catholic Church: "Here comes everybody." So welcome, everybody! My name is Leon, and I am a sinner.
The Church is universal. God's plan for salvation encompasses everyone. In the Book of Genesis, God promised Abraham that through his descendants all peoples will find blessing (Gen. 22:17-18). The New Testament begins with St. Matthew's identification of Christ as the "son of Abraham" (Mt. 1:1), the definitive fulfillment of the promise of universal blessing made to Abraham. Through His suffering, death, and Resurrection, Christ opened the doors of salvation to all men and women.
Lastly, the Church is catholic not only because she has already received from Christ the fullness of salvation (see Eph. 1:22-23), but also because she has been entrusted with the mission of bringing the Gospel, well, to everybody.
So while it may be handy to have a "daily delivery" of the Gospel for our own edification, we understand that this teaching isn't just for us. It's catholic. It's for everybody.
May this blog, and all the dynamic, online courses at My Catholic Faith Delivered, lead us to a renewed zeal, so that through prayer and witness we might draw others to new life in Christ.
For personal application: What do you think when you hear the word "catholic"?