"Puzzled"

JMJ. My wife and I were Amway distributors for a number of years--good products, good business. One of the many things we learnt at training sessions was that "whenever you stick your head up above the crowd, someone is going to throw tomatoes at it." Good lesson in Amway, good lesson in Catholicism. Only one Christian denomination has been around for the whole shooting match and as such it's the one most apt to be the target for tomato-slingers.

Protestants of one stripe or another are always taking potshots at us for any of a myriad of reasons. Take the crucifix for example. "Why do you people have Jesus on the cross--don't you know that He's not there anymore?" Well, as I've said elsewhere, St. Paul says, "We teach Christ and Him crucified." Or, "why do you folks worship statues?" "Why do you kneel before pictures?" Well, statues and pictures tell stories visually and help us focus our prayers.

"Why do Catholics worship Mary?" Again, we don't worship anyone but God. We honour the Blessed Mother. (Doesn't it just seem sensible to honour the Woman whom Christ honoured, too? After all, we just imitate Him.) "And what about the Rosary? Why do you pray that--it's not in the Bible. Well, neither is the word trinity... Now it's my turn.

Why do you Protestants worship the Bible? Why do you claim it's the only revelation of God? I mean, we read the Bible, too, and every day at Mass the Word of God is proclaimed to us, far more religiously (pardon the pun) than at Protestant worship services. The answer's very simple, really. The Christian church exists for one reason only--to help us get to heaven. We do this by cooperating with the sanctification of our souls by God.

Anything that helps in this respect is to the good. Praying the Rosary helps us meditate on Christ's life and ministry. Asking the saints for their intercession on our behalf is no different than asking a friend to put in a good word for us with the boss. Wearing a scapular reminds us in a scratchy way of what we should be focusing our prayer life on. Seeing Christ on His cross reminds us in the most visceral way of what His death really entailed.

Now, can you attain salvation without all these things? Sure, but why make it difficult? If following a map helps you arrive at a destination you've never visited before, would YOU throw it away and blindly drive off into the sunset? Neither would I.