Catholicism: Almighty God and Humanity in all of its Supernatural Glory.
By Matthew James Bellisario
Man is a creature who is created with hopes, dreams and a sense of longing. He is created with a need for God, which for many of us is replaced for a need of created things. Man can create false gods, and man can disillusion himself with mere carnal delights and deny what he is really made for. Yes, he was made in the image and likeness of God, but man has been making false images out of God for centuries. Who is this Jesus of Nazareth that the Catholic man identifies himself with? We see Him as the Word made flesh, and Him who has dwelt among us. Not only has He dwelt among us, He still dwells among us, within us and around us.
The incarnation of Christ is the celebration of all that mankind is, or ever will be. It is God taking on humanity in all of its goodness, and yet it is God taking all of humanities deficiency and making it more than whole again. The Catholic man is not afraid to look upon the goodness of humanity, especially in the light of Christ. The Sacred Images that have graced Christian places of worship since the ancient Church began elevate us and bring us into contemplation of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. The images of The Blessed Mother tell us that Jesus was indeed human, yet all of her immaculateness tells us that Jesus was indeed God incarnate. The honor of the Saints in images and their relics tell us that God indeed saves and redeems us from our sins. Christ receives us in the Holy Sacraments. The water of Baptism washes away our sins, the mystery of Chrismation fills us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. When we sin we go to God and repent, we hear the words of absolution given to us by those in which He sent to bind and loose.
As we walk throughout each day in the hustle and bustle of the workplace, we can identify with Him who comes to take away the sins of the world. We can receive Him in all of His fullness in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. God has come to us in our own flesh, and in our own world, to save us. Catholicism is the incarnation in all of its glory. The true Christian faith leaves no stone unturned when it comes to our humanity, and our eschatological end. Catholicism is the Sacred Scriptures breathing alive among us. It is the living Gospel being proclaimed throughout the centuries, as if each century were really one in the same. Entering into the ancient churches does not leave us empty as if visiting a museum, but brings us into a sense of the eternal Word. Catholicism meets humanity wherever humanity is able to wonder. The Gospel tells us the only way to live in order to give Almighty God the glory He deserves.
I challenge anyone to provide one area of human existence that the Catholic Church will not stand up and proclaim the truth in. She will not give in to the world, yet she embraces the incarnation of Jesus in the world in order to give us eternal life. She sees the incarnation as a blessing and a path to eternal life. The world in its complete fallen state will not last, yet the resurrected life will go on. The Church gives us the truth in all of our humanity so as to see it in its perfect, deified state. Our sexuality can not be tarnished by contraception, homosexuality or cohabitation. Morality and virtue are always promoted and defended, while immorality and vice is rebuked. Even when modern man comes to corrupt humanity by modern vehicles such as cloning and the murdering of human embryos, who is equipped to deal with such malice other than the living Church?
Catholicism represents this purity of the incarnation in every aspect of our being. When one enters into the Divine Liturgy, which has been celebrated since the apostles, one cannot help but be taken up by the chants, the incense, the Holy Images before them, and the presence of Almighty God who makes Himself present among us. We can hear it, we can see it, we can feel it, we can breath it. The Sacred Scriptures, The Holy Images, The Holy Eucharist, the incense rising to heaven to give glory to God. There is nothing in our humanity in which the Gospel of the Church does not touch.
The Church calendar gives glory to God in all of His being as has been revealed to us through Divine Revelation. We see the Annunciation celebrated where the coming of Christ is announced by the Holy Angel Gabriel to the Immaculate Mary. We contemplate His birth and incarnation. We celebrate Him walking among us, healing the sick, proclaiming the good news and raising the dead. We see Him elevate mankind above his natural end to a supernatural end. We live and breath his cross and His crucifixion. We are called to live and breath His suffering, and yet we are called to live His resurrection as well.
Yes, we see Almighty Jesus in the Sacred Images, we see and honor His incarnation. When we see the Saints above our heads in sacred depictions we see Almighty God's glory shining through them, giving us hope that we may also rise to our supernatural ends. Where are the miracles of the ancients? In our Catholic faith miracles abound, just as if time had not advanced from the days of the apostles. Saint Padre Pio was an example of an apostle living in the present age, yet not different from the apostles that Christ appointed in His day. Many were lead to repentance through this Saint, and many lives have been changed forever from his witness. The Sacred Scriptures give witness to this kind of sacred faith. When we see Saint Peter's shadow healed the sick, we also see God doing the same in His Saints throughout the ages of His Church. Our humanity is now risen from the grave in Christ. Humanity has been deified. Mankind's deification is celebrated in its fullness in the Catholic Church. Where can Christ be met, loved and experienced in all that He is as the Word being made flesh? Not in any church that may hail itself as such, but only one that can prove its existence in her actions of worship throughout the centuries. It is His One , Holy and Apostolic Church that is the pillar of Truth. The Catholic faith is this Body of Christ existing beyond time and space. She is in the world, but not of the world. She is not afraid of celebrating mankind in the coming of Christ, as many today do who try and steal the Christian name. The Catholic Church is Jesus Christ giving mankind the eternal Word in all of the Holy Trinity's Supernatural Glory.