{"id":145409,"date":"2023-08-08T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-why-do-catholics-have-confidence-in-their-beliefs\/"},"modified":"2024-09-17T11:35:43","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T15:35:43","slug":"ask-a-priest-why-do-catholics-have-confidence-in-their-beliefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-why-do-catholics-have-confidence-in-their-beliefs\/","title":{"rendered":"“Ask a Priest: Why Do Catholics Have Confidence in Their Beliefs?”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Q: There are around 4,000 different religions, all using their Bible to prove their religion is right. So how do you have such faith in yours? This is where I\u2019m at: Hinduism is the oldest religion, so logically seems like a good fit. Judaism, which holds that God spoke to its people in a unique way, seems like a greater fit; but it seems unfair to the rest of the population. Then Christianity seems as though it\u2019s amazing — but why didn\u2019t God talk about this stuff in the Torah? That is, why didn\u2019t God say, \u201cI\u2019m the one and only God made up of three Persons\u201d? Or why didn\u2019t he say in the Torah that \u201cThe Messiah will be my Son whom I will send down\u201d? I\u2019m lost and seeking. I\u2019ve always believed in God and I want a relationship with him, not for rewards or everlasting life but because I just want a relationship. Please help. \u2013 Luke<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/em><\/p>\n

A:\u00a0It sounds as though the Holy Spirit is nudging you to seek the truth.<\/p>\n

It’s good that you want a relationship with God without thinking of the rewards that might go along with it. That shows purity of intention on your part. That is a good way of approaching religion.<\/p>\n

In fact, that notion of a relationship<\/em> helps us to put the Bible in context and to understand why God might have revealed things the way he did.<\/p>\n

God didn’t reveal everything of himself at once. He revealed himself in stages, first to Adam and Eve and the later to the patriarchs and the Israelites.<\/p>\n

He probably didn’t reveal himself explicitly as a Trinity since the Israelites lived in a world where pagan gods were listed in abundance. The idea of the Trinity (three divine Persons in one God) would have sounded too much like three gods to the ancients. That would have been confusing to them. They had to understand first and foremost that there is only one God.<\/p>\n

As for the identity of the Messiah: The Old Testament is full of subtle references pointing to the coming of Christ. “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures” (Luke 24:27).<\/p>\n

Christians can detect these references because we have the benefit of what Jesus revealed. The ancients weren\u2019t comparably equipped.<\/p>\n

One way to spot some of the Old Testament references is to get a Catholic Bible and look at the footnotes in the New Testament that refer to passages in the Old. The New American Bible or the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition would help.<\/p>\n

Catholics can have confidence that theirs is the true faith, in part, because both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition attest to what we believe today.<\/p>\n

Sacred Tradition is the teaching of Christ and the apostles passed down orally. Sacred Tradition helps us to interpret Scripture. In fact, Scripture came out of Tradition, since things were transmitted orally before they were written down.<\/p>\n

Tradition can be found in various sources: the writings of the Church Fathers and other Christian writers, some of whom date to the first century; the councils of the Church; and the liturgy, which is embedded with theological meaning.<\/p>\n

The Church Fathers and councils speak of the sacraments \u2013 baptism, the Eucharist, holy orders, etc. \u2013 the very things Catholics embrace to this day. And the papacy, which is with us still, can be traced back to St. Peter, to whom Jesus gave authority (\u201cthe keys to the kingdom of heaven\u201d \u2013 Matthew 16:19).<\/p>\n

At the heart of the Catholic Church is Jesus Christ, our savior and redeemer, the Second Person of the Trinity who took on human nature and walked among us. In him is the fullness of what God wanted to reveal to mankind. The one Church he founded survives to this day: the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

It might help to get an overview of the Catholic faith. A few suggestions would be: the Youth Catechism (or YouCat<\/a>); the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (accessible online<\/a>); and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (a heavier read<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Helpful if you are curious among specific topics is the Catholic Answers site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Above all, get to know the person of Jesus through the Gospels. He’s your best friend.<\/p>\n

I hope some of this helps. Count on my prayers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Edward McIlmail, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC"},"description":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC, ordained to the priesthood in 2001, taught theology and Scripture at the then Mater Ecclesiae College in Rhode Island and is now a part-time chaplain at Overbrook Academy in Greenville, R.I. He holds degrees from Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut, the Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum in Rome, and Northwestern University in Illinois. He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith & Family magazine and an editor of the Zenit news agency\u2019s English edition. He has written for\u00a0SpiritualDirection.com\u00a0and\u00a0ePriest. Fr. McIlmail also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South\u00a0and assisted with mission work in Mexico. Born in Philadelphia, he worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. His contributions to RCSpirituality include responding to\u00a0Ask A Priest\u00a0questions and sharing his insights in our\u00a0Weekly Newsletter.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/emcilmail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145409"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=145409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}