Translations
Questions
Photo By: Flickr/Kelly Teague
We all have questions. Why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green, or at least it should be if I watered the lawn? Who will win the Stanley Cup? Did they really kill off my favorite character on that TV show (sadly they did)? All of these questions keep humanity moving forward in big and small ways.
Most questions are trivial. They can be answered quickly with doing some simple research. Just look at any child in school. They are researching answers to their paper or homework assignment on the internet nowadays. The answers are relatively easy to find.
Now how about questions of faith? Some of those are easy to find. Why do we pray to the Saints and those who have passed from this life? Ask anyone in a Protestant church and you will get back an answer similar to “you are worshiping false gods.” It is misunderstanding why we pray for intercession. As Catholics, we know why we pray to the saints, for help with getting our needs to God. Just like when we were children, we would ask one parent to talk to the other parent for something we wanted. The answer for that kind of question is relatively easy for those of us Catholics. Then there are the questions that aren’t so easy to find, and understand.
When I was going through RCIA, I had questions, LOTS of questions. I’m sure the Deacon who ran the program was glad when I was done. I had the simple questions about praying to Saints, what the bells meant during Mass, why do you genuflect before entering or exiting the pew. Those were questions that were just figuring out why.
The harder ones came later, as I began to understand more of what the Catholic Church believed. Some were about recent events in the Church, yet others were age-old questions. Growing up protestant (I spent time in the Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran and non-denominational churches) I looked at Mary as just the mother of Jesus. Her role was limited. She gave birth to Jesus, then popped up here and there throughout the Gospels until His crucifixion. I never understood the whole devotion to her.
Just before the Easter Vigil in 2010, I was in church preparing to do the sacrament of Confirmation in the Catholic Church. The “Mary Issue” kept banging around in my head. My upbringing was still holding me back from seeing what Mary truly was. I even refused to do the Hail Mary prayer (which I now see as one of the most beautiful prayers the Church has given us). A seminary student came up to me knowing I was in RCIA and was about to become Catholic. Somehow he knew I had something weighing on my heart about the whole process. After explaining out my “Mary Issue” to him, he said the words I needed to hear. “Never stop questioning. Keep looking for your answer. Just don’t let the any issue deter you from your journey towards our Lord.”
How simple. How profound! I was finally put at ease. I could become Catholic and still have doubts about certain things. It took me a few more years to be able to somewhat understand what Mary’s true role is in our faith. I know I will never completely understand it, until I can ask the Lord Himself and He shows me in a way that I will understand.
As an 8th grade catechist, I am usually the last person to have kids in a religious setting before Confirmation. On the first day of Religious Education every school year, I always start out with what that seminarian told me. “Never stop questioning. Keep looking for your answer. Just don’t let the any issue deter you from your journey towards our Lord.” I demand my students ask the hard questions. I don’t have all the answers, I never will. When I don’t, I have them come up with an answer themselves. They usually do in a few weeks.
If we accept everything on blind faith, we will never have a deeper understanding of what lies beneath the surface. Questions are good. They imply a lack of understanding of anything we don’t know. It shouldn’t stop there though. We need to research, read books, listen to theologians, talk to fellow Catholics, talk to Deacons and Priests. Sometimes our question can help them learn more about their faith as well. The more we question, the more we learn of God’s infinite love for us, all of us. Just don’t let the question, or issue, deter you from your journey towards our Lord. Make the question the starting point to understanding His grace.
Just remember what our Lord said to us in Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Ask the hard questions, seek out the answers, and knock on every “door” available. You will eventually be shown the answer.
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About the Author
Faith has been a big part of my entire life. I grew up in the churches that my parents took me to as a child. We have been members of Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran and non-denominational churches. I was always searching for the whole meaning of everything, and church was a place to begin to search.
I went to the University of Dayton for college for many reasons. First, being from the Chicago area, it was close to home, but not close enough for the dreaded parental unannounced visit. It was also highly ranked in what I wanted to major in, Audio/Video Communications, and finally it was Catholic. While at the time I wasn’t Catholic, I knew how the Catholic Church stood its ground when it came to specific issues, and those issues lined up with my own personal beliefs.
While at the University of Dayton I volunteered at a local church in their youth program. It wasn’t Catholic, but it helped me explore more. When I did attend Holy Mass, it was because of a girl who was Catholic. The messages began to sink in. This was reinforced in my regular studies, as I had to take a religion class at least once a year. Nuns who lived on and near campus taught these classes. We looked at religion from many points of view such as, how do Christ’s teachings resonate in today’s world, what are the subtle changes that can we make in a word in the scripture to bring the text alive for those of us alive today without changing any of the meaning of what Christ said, etc. These women of faith made me think long and hard. While not totally understanding what was happening, I was becoming more Catholic every day.
Our instructors who were either priests or nuns didn’t seclude themselves within the halls of academia either. They brought the real world to all of us. The nun who taught my Religion and Film class would go to the Vatican over spring break and meet with Saint Pope John Paul II to discuss film and culture (I actually got, and still have, a cross that he blessed by him on one of her trips) with those living, leading and learning at the Vatican.
Another instructor, a priest, showed me that religion (i.e. Catholic beliefs) had a place in Washington DC. He taught my introduction to Political Science class. He regularly went to DC to talk with members of Congress about what it meant ot be Catholic, and their responsibilities to the Church was just as important as their responsibilities to their constituents.
These two people of the cloth impacted me in a way I wouldn’t realize for over a decade.
After leaving college I looked for a church home. I told myself (and my wife at the time) that I wanted to be as close to Catholic without being Catholic. I still didn’t understand a lot about the basics of Catholicism, but loved the teachings.&nb
