THE WONKER

This is my faith.

Did you see the maiden issue of the newsletter published by the San Bartholomew Parish of Malabon City (Manila)? It’s called Know The Truth and underneath the title is this tagline: ‘A publication to defend the Catholic faith.’ Of course the Catholic Church has to defend itself. You are a Catholic, aren’t you?

Not that I go to mass every Sunday, but yes.

It’s a very different kind of newsletter. No editor, but judging from the article on the inside back page titled ‘I write this … that you may know …’ by Fr Paul Kaiparambadan, then he must be the Editor. Not a Filipino, I guess, by the name.

Maybe not. And what did he write?

I will read to you the very first paragraph on page 1 of the article, ‘The Bible proclaims: Jesus is God.’ Here it is:

‘Jews crucified him for blasphemy. Being a man you make yourself God’ (John 10) was his crime. But the Church he established boldly proclaimed he is the Living God. Thousands of them became martyrs just for that cause. Roman Caesars and Neros worked hard to kill his church, but Rome became its capital. Now new ‘churches’ have re-emerged here with old dreams. Iglesia Ni Cristo spends millions in TV shows to propagate ‘Jesus is not God. He is only a man. The Church he established is dead. The Catholic Church is an apostasied Church.’ They try their best to prove it from the Bible! All tricks are used to confuse Catholics. Hundreds of them are already trapped in their propaganda. Many are wounded and pained because of harsh criticisms against the Catholic faith. What is the truth? What does the Bible really say about Jesus?

‘Apostasied’ means abandoned. They are probably thinking of so many Roman Catholics converting out. The Iglesia don’t think that Christ is God. Don’t forget that the Iglesia was founded by Felix Manalo in 1914. That’s not a very old church, is it? No tradition at all. Unlike the Roman Catholic Church of antiquity. About Christ as God, well, the New Testament says 30 times that Jesus is the ‘Son of Man’ and 30 times that he is the ‘Son of God.’ That’s what the Bible says.

Is that enough proof?

No. There is also the papal testimony. Where the Pope mentions Jesus or Christ, the Pope states or implies that he is God (God the Son).

Why do you believe in the papal bull? He he. How can the Pope be sure that Christ is God? You Catholics believe too much in the Pope.

We Catholics believe in the teaching authority of the Pope, in the Magisterium.

Oh. Suppose the Pope is wrong?

In a doctrine or dogma, he can’t be wrong. In any case, we don’t stop at what the Bible says, we don’t stop at what the Pope says. We Catholics have a third witness.

And what is that?

Tradition. What the great writers said, what the great theologians, the would-be saints said. What does tradition say about Jesus being/not being God? Ask the old folks. What they know or believe is local tradition. Read history. Even Martin Luther, the father of Protestantism, believed the Jesus Christ is God. That’s also tradition. A culture cannot survive without tradition. Image from Jie Jun AEP CA1 who captions it simply ‘Tradition’ (flickr.com/). Victorian is tradition, dating back to Queen Victoria of Britain (19^th century).

But the Bible is the sole authority of the truth, isn’t it?

That’s what the Protestants assert: Sola scriptura – the Scriptures only, the Bible only. We Catholics assert the truth as established by the Bible plus by the Magisterium plus by tradition. No more, no less. Three witnesses.

I didn’t know that!

I assure you millions of Catholics didn’t know that either.