Dearest Father Angelo,
I am the young man “former evangelical” who wrote to you about six months ago that he had reconnected with the Catholic Church. I use quotation marks because I never actually formally joined the evangelical church, but I sympathized with its doctrines, also influenced by the fact that my parents were evangelicals for a period of their lives. The answer to my question was posted on the site last week. First of all, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart not only for the answer you have given me but also for all yours answers that I follow daily and which have been of great help to me on the journey of faith that I am taking.
I’m back to write to you for your advice on how to deal with some of the turmoil that unfortunately often arises in my mind and that I haven’t yet fully been able to overcome. Let me start by saying that since I last wrote to you, in June, I have started following Mass every Sunday. I also spoke directly with a priest, confessed, and received the Eucharist for the first time in many years. I cannot overlook the fact that my path of rapprochement with the Church has brought some positive fruits into my life, which I would like to share with you:
first of all the decision to marry my girlfriend (…)-
Perhaps you’ll wonder why, then, I still have so many doubts… Well, to be honest, I can’t explain it either… Rationally, it seems to me that the Catholic Church is the real way forward, but in spirit, perhaps I remain “scandalized” (I don’t know if that’s the right word) or influenced by some non-Catholic arguments or ways of seeing things. The issues I cannot fully accept are those relating to the cult of the Madonna and the Saints. I know it’s actually intercession, but praying to someone other than Jesus raises in me the doubt that I’m doing something wrong in God’s eyes, the fear of “betraying” the Lord….although rationally I know well that, according to Catholic doctrine, these prayers are still addressed to Jesus. So I ask you, how can I overcome this rock, which seems enormous to me at the moment? How can I live full communion with Jesus? How can I progress in faith and have peace in my heart?
Especially in this last period I feel like I’m at the center of a great spiritual struggle, in which I must continually cope with these thoughts…
Perhaps these doubts are also fueled by the fact that I often see people who declare themselves Catholic but who ultimately are inconsistent, especially in terms of morality… and this produces a certain scandal in me… For example, my girlfriend’s parents have their house full of sacred images, holy cards, little bottles of blessed water, but then they say they don’t go to mass because in their opinion it’s not important to go every Sunday… they let their teenage son listen to music by openly anti-Christian and even satanic rock bands…. how is this possible, I wonder?
(…)
Lately, some of my acquaintances, who were previously evangelicals, have started a Bible study with some of their Jehovah’s Witness acquaintances. … I have pointed out to them the stark contrasts between the doctrines of Jehovah’s Witnesses and those of evangelicals themselves, especially on the question of the Trinity, and the survival of the soul after death, two points on which the interpretations of evangelicals and Tdg are exactly the opposite! In fact, the doctrine of evangelicals is much closer to the Catholic one than that of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
These disputes led me to deepen my knowledge of the Bible and also the Church Fathers, especially St. Polycarp and S. Augustine, whose texts are wonderful.
Sorry for the length, but I wanted to share some aspects of my life with you, so you can understand my situation well.
I thank you again for your time that you will want to dedicate to me. You pray for me. The Lord bless you.
Response from the priest
Dearest,
1. Going from evangelicals to Jehovah’s Witnesses is like going from frying pan to fire.
The tdg are not Christians because they deny the fundamental truths: the Trinity and the divinity of Christ.
I’m glad you read St. Augustine: it makes you understand Scripture in an infinitely deeper, healthier, and more sanctifying way than evangelicals and even more so than tdg.
St. Augustine is a witness to the faith of exceptional intelligence. Even as a boy, he surpassed all his peers in Carthage, which was then the second most flourishing city in the Roman Empire, in this respect.
2. But I come now to the remnants of evangelism left in you: a certain opposition to devotion to Mary and the cult of saints.
You will know well that the Lord himself has asked to appeal to the prayers of the righteous.
In the book of Job God commands Job’s three friends: “Go to my servant Job…, my servant Job will pray for you, that I, out of respect for him, will not punish your foolishness” (Job 42:8).G
In 2 Mac 15:13-14 Onias, high priest, attests to the appearance of a character “clothed in a marvelous majesty and full of magnificence” who ensures his victory. And of him he says: “This is the friend of his brothers, the one who raises many prayers for the people and for the holy city, Jeremiah the prophet of God”. The Jerusalem Bible comments: “This is the first record of a belief in the prayer of the righteous dead for the living.”
3. St. Paul asks for the prayers of his brothers in the faith. And do you believe that the prayers of those who are before the Lord are less powerful than those who are still pilgrims on earth?
At the end of your email write: “you pray for me”.
I do so willingly and I do so by appealing to the intercession of the Saints and first and foremost of Our Lady.
I am convinced that the prayers of the Saints are more powerful than mine.
The Saints have not ceased to love, to help.
What they did here, now they do now from beyond.
S. Domenico on his deathbed made this beautiful promise: “Don’t cry. I will be more useful to you after my death and will help you more effectively than when I was alive” (See Jordanian of Saxony, Libellus de principiis Ordinis praedicatorum, 93).
Equally S. Teresa of the Child Jesus: “I will spend my heaven doing good on earth” (S. Teresa of the Child Jesus, Novissima verba).
4. How can we not remember how much Christ promised his faithful servants!
He assured that he would say: “Well, good servant! Because you have shown yourself faithful in the little, you receive power over ten cities” (Luke 19:17).
The ancient Eastern kings used to reward some brave and deserving men by giving them the administration of certain cities.
Jesus said that he will do a similar thing from there.
In Revelation we read that the saints will reign together with Christ.
What kingdom would it be if they could do nothing?
5. But I wish to say a particular word for Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
To her Jesus from the cross entrusted John: “Woman, behold your son”. Now Saint John had a brother, James, and also had a mother, who was present there among the others(“Among these were Mary of Magdala, Mary mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the children of Zebedee”, Mt 27,56).
Why entrust Mary with the task of caring for another woman’s son, with his mother present there?
In reality, Jesus entrusts Mary with a particular role, that of being spiritually mother of all: Jesus entrusted us to her, to Her whose prayer is infinitely purer and more powerful than ours, to Her whose presence is as fearsome as there can be for demons (“I harbor enmity between you and the woman…”).
6. Furthermore Jesus says to John: “Here is your mother”.
But John already had a mother, and there present, as I told you.
If Jesus had only wanted to say to take care of Mary because He was dying, well there was his mother’s sister. She too was right there (“Her mother, her mother’s sister, stood by the cross of Jesus” Jn 19:25).
7. The last presence of Mary remembered in the Holy Scriptures is in the Last Supper. There Mary perseveres in prayer with the apostles and brothers in faith.
The Holy Spirit, who is the main Author of the Scriptures, wanted to leave us Mary with this image. From heaven Mary does not abandon us.
8. And it is good to remember the oldest prayer addressed to Mary, from the second or third century, which testifies to the faith of the Churchr: “Under your protection we seek refuge, holy Mother God. Do not despise the pleas of us who are in deprivation, but always free us from all danger, O glorious and blessed Virgin”.
Isn’t this testimony of faith important?
9. But, beyond reasoning, experience is worth.
Saint Bernard in his beautiful prayer to Mary says: “Remember, O most merciful Virgin Mary who never intended to tell the world that anyone who resorts to your protection, implores your help and asks for your patronage has been abandoned by you. Driven by this confidence too…”
I ask you to make it your experience.
You will change your mind soon.
10. So I would ask you to experience the patronage of St. Joseph.
Hear what Saint Teresa of Avila says about him: “I saw clearly that his help was always greater than I could have hoped for. I don’t remember ever praying to him for grace without getting it right away. And it is a wonder to remember the great favors that the Lord has done me and the dangers of soul and body from which He has freed me through the intercession of this blessed Holy One. To other Saints it seems that God has allowed them to help in this or that other necessity, while I have experienced that the glorious S. Joseph extends his patronage over all of them. By this the Lord wants us to understand that he who way was subject to him in the earth, where he as a putative father could command him, so also in heaven he does everything he asks of him. This has also been recognized from experience of other people who on my advice have recommended themselves to his patronage” (S. Teresa of Avola, Life, VI, 5-6).
11. Depriving people of devotion to Mary is a great theft.
And a similar thing must be said for those who want to take away the worship of saints.
It is the Lord himself who asked us.
12. I agree with you that those who wallpaper the house of holy images and then do not go to Mass give a counter-testimony.
Mary’s last words recorded in the Gospels are these: “Do what He will tell you”. And the Lord in his teaching said that if we are to enter eternal life we must keep the commandments (Mt 19:17), including the third (remember to keep the feasts holy).
I therefore also entrust you to Mary, so that you may free yourself from all danger.
The Lord has given her the task of guarding you, of being your mother.
I thank you, I very gladly assure you of my prayer, I greet you and bless you.
Father Angelo
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