Below are the notes for a talk given by the Rev. Canon John F. Fergueson as part of the “WHY?” series of Adult Education classes at Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Kenmore.

Why be a catholic Christian?

Introduction

The Book of Common Prayer Office of Instruction (Catechism), using the word catholic as a descriptor of the Church, defines it as follows: The Church is catholic, because it proclaims the whole Faith to all people, to end of time.

The whole Faith (with a capital “F”) includes not only the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, but also the sacramental rites of confirmation, ordination, holy matrimony, reconciliation of a penitent, and unction; the Holy Scriptures, the four fold orders of laity, bishops, priests and deacons, the Daily Office, and the calendar and observances that make up the Church Year.

The whole Faith also includes the theology, spiritual practices, and the compendium and deposit of theological and spiritual writings we call Tradition (with a capital “T”).

The statement to all people, to the end of time in the BCP definition implies a living continuity with the Faith that has gone before us (all the way back to its origins) and will continue after us until time ends.

Thus, the BCP definition, and the way in which I seek to live out my faith in Jesus Christ, coincide. I’m happy to claim that I’m a “catholic” Christian.

But why be a catholic Christian? There are many expressions and ways of living out faith in Jesus Christ (especially in America), so why choose this “catholic” way?

Well, here are my reasons for making that choice:

Life-Giving Sacraments

The Prayer Book states that the sacraments are “sure and certain” means by which we receive the grace of God. They are also the means through which the Paschal Mystery is made real and present in our midst, and (to quote the Prayer Book) “in which Christ unites us to his one offering of himself.”

From adolescence onward, I have believed and experienced the truth of those definitions.

After my Freshman year at college, I fell into a period of real anxiety. I went to the minister of the Baptist congregation my family attended and asked him to give me communion. After a half-hour of trying to convince me that that’s not really what I wanted, he gave in and did a communion service with me. My intention and his were certainly quite different, but my anxiety disappeared.

I still recall my first Eucharistic liturgy in the Episcopal Church with my wife Ginny and her family. I had no clue what was happening, but I knew what was being said matched what I had believed in my heart for so long. I had come home! I floated out the door.

In Viet Nam, and in my subsequent grappling with the meaning and consequences of that experience, receiving the Eucharist has literally kept me from self-harm, and the Reconciliation of a Penitent has kept me sane.

Simply put, I know in the deepest recesses of my being, that the sacraments are life-giving. Knowing that, I need to live out my life in an expression of Christianity that holds the sacraments at the very core of its existence.

I’m a catholic Christian, because the sacraments and a living sacramental life have quite literally been the means of salvation for me.

Reality Based Process

I was raised in a Christian expression that viewed redemption (salvation) as an event, followed by a life lived with some anxiety about “losing” that redemption.

Catholic Christianity, on the other hand, views redemption and spiritual transformation as a life-long process.

The reason why the Eucharist and Reconciliation of a Penitent are repeatable (daily, if necessary) is because we need to constantly be reunited with the Paschal Mystery and receive Resurrection Life. It is a reality based understanding that we get off the track and lose our way to God over and over. Thus, the sacramental system provides continuing points of unifying contact, so that we might be “ransomed, healed, restored and forgiven” at least weekly.

Every day of my life, I am reminded of my need for life-giving, transformative contact with God. I’m a catholic Christian because the means for that contact, along with the understanding that my spiritual transformation is a life-long journey are always available to me.

Time-Tested Spirituality

As I implied in the last two sections, the spiritual life is very important to me. I need to know that the spiritual practices I use have some tested potential for being effective.

Catholic Christianity provides me with those practices. The Daily Office, sacramental devotion, observance of the Church Year, contemplative prayer, Lectio Divina and spiritual direction are long honored, time-tested spiritual practices of catholic Christianity.

I can find persons and writings (some from earlier centuries, some contemporary) which can guide, support, inspire and encourage me.

I’m a catholic Christian because the spiritual practices, and the experience and insight of other catholic Christians (both ancient and contemporary) enable me to live out the relationship with God I avidly desire.

Culture & Identity

I need and desire to have my life deeply rooted in a culture that undergirds and supports the way I have chosen to live my life, and the goals I hope to attain. For me, that is clearly not the predominant secular culture.

I do choose to live in real engagement with that predominant secular culture, but I don’t want to live in it such a way that it becomes my primary cultural identity. I’ve made that choice because the predominant secular culture often posits values and goals that are diametrically opposed to the ones I have chosen for my life.

Catholic Christianity provides a culture, based around observance of the Church Year and sacramental devotion, that allows me to have a primary cultural identity in harmony with my life-goals.

It’s a very rich culture, because people have been living it, and lovingly embellishing it for centuries.

Like all cultures, it has to be learned, and a commitment to living it has to be made, but living it has been a great joy! I have discovered all kinds of people who share that culture with me. I’ve shared celebrations and solemn occasions very different from those most familiar to me, yet in the midst of them felt that bond of belonging, support and shared identity that is so important to human life.

I’m a catholic Christian because in this expression, I’ve found a cultural life and identity, no matter where I am, that does not undermine or violate my life choices.

Communion of Saints

One of the disturbing features of my childhood (and my mother’s mental illness) is my almost complete isolation from my father’s and most of my mother’s families.

I barely knew my paternal grandmother. I have a paternal aunt that I recall meeting only twice, and an uncle that Ginny and I met once in adulthood. I have never met any of my first cousins, or almost all of my parents’ extended families.

Additionally, my mother fabricated and taught me family histories for both herself and my father, that in later years have proved to be fictitious.

The last act in disconnect was that, a few years before my parents’ death, my mother told their new physician that they had no living children. (A fact I discovered in trying to get information about my father’s medical condition.) Crazy, huh?

The end result of this is that I don’t have much real connection to, or knowledge of, a real family history that extends beyond my own lifetime.

In a very real way, I’m a person without a connection to a past that could give me any true, lasting sense of identity.

Fortunately, the catholic understanding of the Communion of Saints has provided me a true sense of being grounded and connected to a very personal past.

My baptism incorporated me into the Body of Christ and the Communion of “all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light, that multitude which no one can number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom, in this Lord Jesus, we for evermore are one.”

I have all the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins I could ever imagine. I have a history and a past that I can claim as my own, because I’m part of it.

I can read the letters my Christian family wrote, learn their life stories, pray with them, and have them be a conscious part of my life as the Church Year unfolds and their lives are commemorated.

I’m a catholic Christian because in the catholic understanding about (and spiritual awareness of) the living Communion of Saints, I’ve found the incorporation into a history and personal past that I’ve otherwise been denied, and that human beings need in order to be grounded in a sense of personal identity.

Beauty

Beautiful sights, beautiful sounds, beautiful words, beautiful things to touch, and even beautiful smells are all an integral part of the catholic Christian experience of worship.

The first extant descriptions of places of Christian worship describe artistic decoration (albeit primitive) of the worship space.

I’m a catholic Christian because catholic liturgy affirms human nature by engaging the senses with beauty, encouraging us to reach beyond the intellect to a joyful encounter with the God who is the source of all beauty.

Lots of Companions

It’s worth noting that from the first decades of the Church, and continuing for 1,500 years, what I’ve claimed as catholic Christianity (with a few occasional and short lived exceptions) was Christianity.

For the last 300 years of that 1,500 years, catholic Christianity was divided between East and West, but even two expressions still fall within the Prayer Book definition of catholic.

Having taken a European history survey class early in my Freshman year of college, during Christmas vacation, I asked the Baptist pastor noted earlier (I must have made him sorry to see me) what he thought were the most important things that happened in the life of the Church prior to the Reformation. He responded, “nothing much.”

I’m not much of a historical intellect, given to lofty musings about the grand movements of history, but that answer wasn’t congruent with what I’d been learning.

Early in my seminary experience, I reflected upon the answer, and the possible rationale he had for giving it to me. I realized that the appeal to the continuity of history is important to some people, and not to others. The historical continuity of catholic Christianity was not at all important to him, but I knew it was very important to me.

Every year, before the beginning of the Great Vigil, I try to spiritually focus upon the millions of Christians, who throughout the last 2,000 years, have stood before a fire blazing in the darkness, lit a candle from it and proclaimed: The Light of Christ! Thanks be to God! – announcing to the world that the One killed by suffering, death, evil and sin is alive!

It is both comforting and inspiring to know that what I’m doing in my lived-out expression of faith in Jesus Christ has been done by those who’ve preceded me. It has stood the test of time; every generation has lived out this catholic expression of Christian Faith, and thereby borne witness to the truth of it in their lives.

Recent estimates claim that 15% to 20% of the world’s population are Roman Catholics. If you add to that number all the Orthodox, Anglicans and Lutherans, along with smaller bodies such the Old Catholic, then the majority of Christians in the world are still catholic Christians. We have companions, too numerous to count throughout the world!

I’m a catholic Christian because the majority of Christians still practice the catholic expression of Christianity. No matter where I go, I’ll be able to find a sister or brother in Christ who practices the expression of faith I’ve chosen. There will be a place of sharing and solidarity wherever I go. Thus, I will always be at home!

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