Reason #1 Why I'm Catholic

Jesus Christ

I know. Anyone could say this. So what. I am and I will (I just did). Just because I'm Catholic doesn't mean I can't gush with my affection for Christ. Don't confuse Catholicism with a religion purely of the mind. A 2,000 year learning curve and numerous genius saints can create the false illusion that Catholicism for anyone less than a brain surgeon doesn't exist. It actually keeps some people out of the Church.

"Oh, that Catholicism is not for me. I'm too simple."

"I don't understand all their terminology. It's just too hard."

In one sense, theology is like any other ology. Just like it doesn't take a biologist to be a good lover, it doesn't take a theologian to be a great saint. To know the beloved is to become the beloved which is the message of the Gospel: God became man that we could become sons and daughters of God. Pope Benedict XVI reminds us of this in his book Jesus of Nazareth:

"The Fathers of the Church say that when God created man 'in his image' he looked toward the Christ who was to come, and created man, according to the image of the 'new Adam,' the man who is the criterion of the human... Jesus is 'the Son' in the strict sense - he is of one substance with the Father. He wants to draw all of us into his humanity and so into this Sonship, into his total belonging to God."

St. Athanasius put it rather forcefully when he said, "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God” [De Incarnatione 54.3]. In Adversus Haereses, St. Irenaeus tells us that God sent his Word so that we could be "partakers in the divine nature" (2 Peter 2:12). St. Chysostom clarifies how we partake of this nature:

"Wherefore with full assurance let us partake as of the Body and Blood of Christ: for in the figure of Bread is given to thee His Body, and in the figure of Wine His Blood; that thou by partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, mayest be made of the same body and the same blood with Him. For thus we come to bear Christ in us, because His Body and Blood are distributed through our members; thus it is that, according to the blessed Peter, we become partakers of the divine nature" (source)

I'm Catholic because Jesus came to earth and established a Church so that all of humanity could be re-configured, re-made, and renewed into the image of Himself. Catholicism is the story of the epic unfolding of that love affair.

May the Body and Blood of Christ bring me to everlasting life.

Amen.