As it is typically used, the term Christian can mean either of two things. Many people would equate it with not Catholic. A Christian — that is, a Protestant — would be one who claims to revere Sacred Scripture and accept the forgiveness and salvation offered him through the perfect Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross; he believes in angels, grace, Heaven, and hell (usually); he recognizes the cosmos as God’s creation, the devil as God’s enemy, and this life as a place of temporary sojourn for God’s elect.
A Christian in this first sense, though, is not a Catholic. He does not believe in showing any particular devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary nor to the saints; he sees no point in honoring relics nor in praying for the deceased, nor in perpetuating the Sacrifice of Calvary through the Sacrifice of the Mass. He does not acknowledge Christ’s Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament nor the authority of the Pope as the successor of St. Peter, nor, as a rule, the intrinsic necessity of Baptism for membership in the Mystical Body. He looks upon a great number of the teachings and practices of the Catholic Church as so many vain traditions of men, whereas he, as a Christian, professes to follow, simply and strictly, the Christ revealed to us in the Gospels.
That is precisely his error.
The Christ of the Gospels never intended His religion to be based on a written document. Instead, he founded a Church — that is, an divine-human organization having as its sole purpose the safeguarding and promulgating of His message of salvation until the end of time. Written documents, we all know, are subject to interpretation. Actually, they require interpretation, and, if interpreted poorly, inaccurately, or dishonestly, they can be made to have a meaning completely contrary to what their own authors intended. The founding fathers of the United States knew this, and so they set up the judicial branch of our government in order to interpret the Constitution in accordance with the American ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It was a wise move, humanly speaking.
Would Wisdom Incarnate have shown less forethought?
Our Divine Savior had need of neither people nor books to go about His work of teaching all nations (cf. Mt. 28:19) all the truths they must know and live by in order to reach their heavenly homeland. He could very easily have remained on earth after His Resurrection and traveled the globe working miracles to authenticate His claim to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
But He did not.
Christ left this task to men, appointing to His followers the glorious mission of being other Christs on earth. He ennobled them and enriched them with His own authority so that whoever heard and obeyed them would be hearing and obeying Him (cf. Luke 10:16). They were to teach the world all things whatsoever He had commanded them (cf. Mt. 28:20). Teach by speaking (cf. Rom. 10:17), teach by writing (cf. II Tim. 3:16), and — most important of all — teach by example.
Christianity based on Scripture alone, where each man is his own pope, his own authority, claiming to operate under the direct guidance of the Holy Ghost, results in the thousands and thousands of “Christian” denominations we see in the world today.
Is this what Our Lord intended? That His followers should be arguing among themselves whether or not to baptize infants, whether or not contraception and sodomy are acceptable, moral practices, what are and are not the requirements for entrance into Heaven? How could this have been the Plan of our Teacher and Guide — that His own followers should be always at odds on such critical questions, left to fend for themselves, as it were, groping for truth within a mirkwood of contradictory opinions?
Thanks be to God, this was never Christ’s intention.
What Our Lord left us, what the Apostles received from Him, and what His True Church has been protecting down through the centuries, is belief in one Lord — Whose standards and expectations do not change from denomination to denomination, era to era, culture to culture; one Faith — which can be known by hearing and humbly obeying those who possess authority to teach in Christ’s name; and one Baptism — the outward sign by which men are visibly incorporated into one visible, unified body of true followers of Christ.
And so we arrive at the other, more accurate definition of Christian: Christian means Catholic.
Our Lord did choose, in His unfathomable wisdom, to leave weak, fallible men as the living custodians of His Gospel. They were commissioned to hand on intact those truths that they had received. Christ promised that He would be with them in the Blessed Sacrament until the end of time (cf. Mt. 28:20); He promised that the Holy Ghost would be guiding them both individually and corporately so as to ensure that no error would ever be taught officially by His Church. For, as all the early Christians believed — and all true Christians down through the centuries — Christ and His Church are one: the Head and its members, the Bridegroom and the Bride. The Church can no more deceive the world than Our Lord Himself can. Individual members may stray from the flock, yes. Shepherds themselves may betray her and do untold damage to souls. But it must needs be that such scandals come, Our Lord said (cf. Mt. 18:7). The Truth will endure in spite of its enemies: What men must believe and how men must live in order to attain salvation will always be accessible to men of good will.
That God chose to employ men in the sacred task of transmitting His Truth to the world is a mystery. That God should have become a man at all is a deep, impenetrable mystery. But does it not stand to reason that we can only worship that which transcends reason? If God’s ways were not above our ways, then He would not be God.
The bottom line here is that humility is the state proper to creaturehood, for He made us and not we ourselves (Ps. 99:3). It takes humility to accept the message of salvation from the mouth of a person who himself may not always live up to the ideals he professes. It takes humility to obey Church authorities when we see their lack of conformity with their Divine Leader; to confess our sins to our fellow sinners. It is the humility that says, “If this is how God wants it done, then who am I not to do it this way?” Children are supposed to be obedient, and we are supposed to be as little children (cf. Mt. 18:3).1
This is why Catholics are the only valid claimants to the illustrious title of Christian: because Our Lord said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (Jn. 14:15), including such hard ones as, “Eat My Flesh and drink My Blood” (cf. Jn. 6:54). Catholics do. We do not understand it fully. But we believe it because it is what we have received from the authority that God Himself established (cf. Mt. 18:17). A true Christian looks on God as his Father, and thus, with childlike candor, is ever ready to follow His counsels, to honor His commands, to respect His wishes, and to imitate the example of perfection left us by His Son. Our eternal happiness depends on this humble, childlike docility: our willingness to imitate Our Lord, to cooperate with the grace by which He would perfect in us the supernatural virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
Especially charity. For, ultimately, the world will know we are Christians by our love (cf. Jn. 13:35).
Christ Handing the Keys to Saint Peter, by Pietro Perugino. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
— Footnote —
1. In our day, there is a caricature of obedience that is used against faithful Catholics. We speak here of true Catholic obedience.
