A Letter to Bible Christians

Dear Friends,
I call you "dear" because I have so much love for you! I call you "friends" because I know we have so much in common - we have Christ in common. If only we could share Him in Communion. That's the reason for this letter.

I was raised in your circles and your language is my mother tongue. I have heard your sermons & your Sunday School lessons; I read your books & sang your songs. Today, I was in one of your Bible studies, and I heard you say again what I've heard a thousand times. I love you for saying it; in fact, it's one of the reasons why I'm alive this day.

You live on the Scriptures. It's so evident how much you love them! Today, you told me to "hunger for the Word of God," to "chew on it for a few minutes every day," to "digest the Word." You've told me that it "nourishes" and "feeds the soul," that I would die without it.

But oh! you don't know how sweet the Word really tastes. You gave me this to memorize years ago and I still remember it:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him a all things were made, and without Him, nothing was made that has been made.

I know you hunger for the written word because you love the true Word of God - the Living Word that came down from Heaven. Don't you know He offers us His flesh to eat?

How can I describe my discovery of this? I don't know how to explain it exactly, but it reminds me of The Giver by Lois Lowry. All the characters live in a world without color, but they don't know what they're missing because they've never seen it. It's like I was living in a 2-dimensional world and found depth. To find that all your beautiful symbols are truly literal is such a discovery!

What you have is good. Go deeper. When you desire the Word you truly hunger for the Eucharist. I love you and I long and pray for you to have this infinite, unifying gift.

Tactility

The simplest way to say this is: Catholicism has blown open my spiritual life.

I tend to rationalize through my temptations; reconciling my mind to the sin. Imagine the weak mind and flesh reaching for some forbidden fruit, but then making the Sign of the Cross. It's a powerful, physical, paralyzing symbol. When I make it over myself I remember to whom I've entrusted body, and it saves me.

When I enter into the church to pray, I often come feeling foolish and ashamed for my selfish failings. Imagine entering, bent with the weight of self, but then seeing the font filled with Baptismal water. Immersing my hand and raising it dripping, I remember who washes me, and how He leads me to pass from old to new.

I hold a rosary and finger the beads; I walk between the 14 images of the stations of the cross; I touch a relic of the bone of a saint; I smell the chrism; I light the candle; I stand and bow and sit and kneel; I fast before every Mass to eat the Eucharistic meal.

Catholicism has captivated me with its corporeal symbols - its sacraments.

A sacrament is a visible sign of God's grace. The Blessed Sacrament is the ultimate sign of God's grace - Christ's tactile, physical body sacrificed for us. This is our Salvation! The Catholic Church constantly presents this Salvation over and over again through its sacraments.

It amazes me how such a huge, complicated thing like the Church can one single point to which everything leads. It's Jesus Christ, the man, the world's Salvation. And He is so real and tangible that we can feed on His saving flesh.