My next piece was supposed to be on how Catholics can state that they are indeed "saved", "born again", and confident of heaven (in the biblical sense of these words), but for the past few weeks I've been busy living this Catholic/Protestant struggle rather than writing about it.  Before we talk about the words we can say to protestants, there are some dynamics of this situation that we have to be frank about.

In a perfect world, Mary says the right things that communicate to Ashley the truth of the Catholic faith and plants seeds that eventually lead Ashley to give the matter further study with the hope that she will return to the Catholic faith.  That is what we all pray for.  But it doesn't always work that way.  In fact, the matter is much more difficult in situations where a family was originally protestant and then someone converts to the Catholic faith.  In that situation, everyone's background and perspective is protestant.  The language barrier becomes total. 

That is my situation.  My entire family of birth is not only staunchly protestant, they are staunchly anti-Catholic.  While I have found that my ability to speak protestantese has been fruitful with less rigidly anti-Catholic protestants, it cannot bear fruit with my own family. 

Why?

While I firmly believe in objective truth, I also am aware that none of us views the world, history, the scriptures, or themselves in a purely objective light.  We are all biased.  When my family consideres history, they see justification of their position.  When they read the scriptures, they read Calvinism.  When they look at humanity, they see the elect and the damned. When they look at themselves they see themselves as the elect because they are committed to the belief system that all the above seems to certify.  Because of their core beliefs that control how they see all else, these "proofs" seem concrete and objective.

I was there myself five years ago.  I was absolutely sure of my position.  I gave wholehearted thanks for being one of the chosen few who had been blessed with an understanding of the truth.  Scripture read Calvinist to me though there were pleanty of passages that  seemed unclear and disconnected.  History, what little my peers delved into, seemed consistent with my beliefs.  The world certainly seemed to be full of the damned while my little community seemed to be an oasis of the elect.  I had no doubts and no questions about what I believed.  I was right and glad of it.

Now, five years later I am a Catholic.  (God had some major work to do to pull that one off.) It's amazing how the world makes perfect sense from a Catholic perspective.  It was an investigation of history that made the evidence for the Catholic Church so inescapable.  Scripture reading has become an adventure in discovering  Catholic truth and sacramental imagery.  There are no more disconnected passages.  Each word bears witness to the Catholic faith.  I understand myself and my life better.  I can see the traces of his grace as he led me along the way to healing and wholeness.  All the pieces fit.

So what makes the difference?  Point of view.  Everyone has a point of view.  Be a witness at a car accident and this will become obvious.  We all see things from a different perspective.  So how in the world does God establish a standard of objective truth and preserve and teach it through the centuries so that each generation can know and follow him? 

By way of the living, breathing, Spirit-filled organism that is the Catholic Church.

But how do you change a person's point of view so  they see the Catholic Church as the standard bearer of objective truth?

You can't. 

That is what I have been wrestling with for the past several weeks.  There is no way that you can make a person leave their position and come stand where you stand and see what you see. They have to be willing to come over to your position and check out the view. 

I know the only reason I was willing to take a look from the Catholic perspective was because the Holy Spirit worked feverishly to give me glimpses from a point of view I had never beheld.  It was an act of grace; amazing grace.  There has not been a single moment since that I have not been grateful that I was willing to consider another point of view. Not one.

But as a Catholic what do you do about those you love who refuse to look, or who revile and persecute you for your point of view?

First of all, you focus with all your strength on your point of view.  Learn your faith.  Bathe yourself in your faith.  Live it to the fullest.  Rivet your eyes on God's objective truth.  Then realize that the person you love who is so opposed to your position cannot see what you see.  Just as a person on the east coast cannot relate to the sun setting on the pacific, your loved one has no concept of the beauty of the sacraments, the peace and grace of Eucharistic Adoration, the comfort and support of the Communion of the Saints, or the soul-satisfying intimacy of receiving Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. 

Speak the truth in love.  Sharpen your communication skills by learning to speak their language. Pray fervently for those who do not believe.  But if you are in a situation like mine, realize you are truly powerless to change their point of view and your first priority is to deepen your own faith and live it with all your being.  Then give yourself to prayer and sacrifice for those who refuse to hear you.  Leave them in God's hands.  That is much  harder to do than to say.  But believe me, I am having to do it too.

The good news is that not all non-Catholics are as set in their point of view as others.  So next time we will get back to speaking protestantese.