Transcript

One thing that really interested me about the Catholic Church when I was, um, early in the stages of learning about it was the unity.

I thought it was really interesting that I could go to a mass in Raleigh, North Carolina on a Sunday morning and it would be the exact same readings, the exact same structure of the mass as a Sunday mass taking place somewhere in Europe.

Or, or, you know, somewhere in Asia.

Wherever, across the world, it's all the same.

And I think that when God created his Christian church, when, when Jesus started the Catholic Church, I think he meant for us to be all one big human family, unified in our faith.

And, um, and I think the Catholic Church is that.

I remember reading scripture in the midst of my in-betweenness, before I was received into the church and still serving in the, in the chaplain service.

And I remember reading in scripture where it says, um, What is the pillar of truth?

And the pillar of truth is the church.

Well, when you're in the midst of the Protestant chaplain service, you're like, Okay, well now next question is which church are we talking about?

Um, and that sort of stunned me.

A- and I realized, you know, Jesus didn't plan it this way.

Um, and there is a church and it, it's his church.

Um, th- so there's supposed to be unity.

I work on the staff of a parish of about 2,500 families.

And the most amazing thing about that parish when you walk in t- to prepare for mass, is you look out over the faces of that congregation and you see the equivalent of a little United Nations.

You see people from Africa, people from Japan, f- people from Korea, people from Vietnam and the Philippines and from all of Latin America, and of course, from the United States.

You see people of every color, ethnic background.

And they're all there worshiping together.

They, they worship in the same words, they worship with the same gestures.

They worship the same god, the same Lord Jesus Christ.

It's a beautiful, powerful thing and I'm reminded again and again, just what the meaning of the word Catholic is.

It's universal.

It is the universal church and it never ceases to amaze me.

And the other thing I realize is that if I were to go with some of these people back to the, the lands of their origin, to the Catholic churches where they are, that I would know the mass that's there.

I would understand it, even if the language is different.

I would know what was at the heart of it, the Eucharist.

And I would know why we were reading scripture.

So many things I would know because the Catholic Church is Catholic.

The Catholic Church is universal.

And I never found that anywhere else, until I became Catholic.

The, the unity of a church is always something that, uh, it's extremely fascinating to me.

It's, uh, it's something that, you know, it's everywhere you go, uh, everywhere we go around the world, um, we, we try to g- you know, visit the church, um, and trying to see what's, what it's like in terms of the structure of the church, um, and also, um, the flow of the mass.

And, and it's surprisingly, uh, they're very, very similar.

Uh, one, one recent example that, uh, I want to share with you guys is that when we went to Japan recently, uh, we were, uh, we went to Sunday mass.

And it was all in Japanese, so we weren't really sure, uh, whether that, that's gonna be, that's gonna be something that we can understand.

But, um, surprisingly eno- surprisingly enough that everything was the exact same flow as what we experience here in America, uh, what we experience in Hong Kong, what we experience in Barcelona when we travel.

Uh, and it's just something that we, we really appreciate because it really speaks to the, the culture and the tradition of the church.

And also the, the, the high level of standard that, you know, uh, Catholics held around the world.

It's, it's also very comforting, um, to know that no matter where we are, um, whether we're two hours away in Chapel Hill, um, visiting the campus or we're on the other side of the world, um, in Barcelona or Japan, that, um, to know on Sunday, uh, to wake up and get ready for church and to go to church and be inside the church, uh, it's, it's a comforting feeling of knowing that, um, we're home.

Uh, so we find that going to any church around the world that we are home.

Um, we don't feel like we're missing, um, Sunday mass or we feel that, uh, we are somewhere different, even though we are, um, in a place where they don't speak the same language as us or they don't have the same culture.

Um, to be, to be in one place, um, and to feel like you're, you're there, you're home, uh, i- it's a great feeling.

Yeah, no, I think, I think to add to that, I think it's a, it's almost like a sense of community where, you know, you can find it back at home here in the United States, but if you go to a different place, you, you do not speak the same language, um, there's a lot of differences, uh, you know, how people look, how people dress, how people talk.

But one thing that i- is, you know, kinda unite all us together is, you know, it's, it's the faith itself and also the, the standard and the high standard that the church holds.

Well, one of the things for, for, for me and I think for us too, was that, is that, um, Peter was the first pope and upon him, the entire succession of popes and priests starts.

And so, um, I was able to really after being in RCIA and reading the catechism to see how it wasn't for the true chur- the first church.

And so, for, for me and for us, it was like coming home.

And then another thing that happened to me one time, my, my mom sent me an article from the newspaper.

You know, as I'm serving as a chaplain, and, and she figured it would be helpful for me for education and sharing with people.

But the article was about, Who founded your church?

So it just listed a bunch of different churches.

You know, the, the, the Mormon Church was founded by, um, Joseph Smith.

And, um, Methodist Church founded by John Wesley.

And, you know, they would give the, the year that these churches were founded.

And, and, um, you know, who, how can you trace, um, trace your church lineage and so on.

Anyway, it must have listed, like, 25 different churches.

And you get to the Catholic Church and it says, Jesus Christ, year one.

And I'm like, Well, what are the What are we doing then?

What is going on here?

And, and so I know she sent it to be helpful, but I'm thinking to myself, Wow.

Wow.

Um, yeah.

The Catholics, Jesus Christ, year one.

The rest of us, like, we're just Stop.

Stop this.

Also, um, with the authority of the Church.

Um, I, as a Protestant, I remember growing up, and of course we're living in a time with such moral relativism that so much is pushed as being up to your own personal interpretation.

You know, one faith One Christian faith allows you to believe in this, and another Protestant Christian faith says, Well, no, you know, it's really just the way you feel, or you perhaps should believe in this.

And I feel like we're all very flawed human beings.

And I feel also that we don't always have a moral compass leading us in a certain correct direction and we need a definitive authoritative body, guided by the Holy Spirit, to tell us this is right and this is wrong.

'Cause we're not, we're not gonna always get it right, um, in, in our own way.

Before I even began to look into Catholicism, and even right now, I'm just halfway through RCIA so I'm not Catholic yet.

Um, but I remember standing at the kitchen window and looking out at the backyard.

And actually I think I felt more like I was looking at the world and thinking, How is the Church going to save the world, because the world is falling apart?

It's just seems to be trembling on its axis.

And, um, I remember thinking, It, it can't, because we have no unity.

And we just keep Our denominations keep splitting off, and now we have over 30,000 Protestant denominations.

And what, what does this mean?

And sort of in the back of my mind was the realization that there is the Catholic Church.

And that was probably a, a seed of thought about Catholicism that later now, now that I'm in RCIA and I'm learning about the Catholic Church and learning about the unity in the Church, it's just so strengthening to my faith that And I truly believe that this is the Church that Jesus gave us, because as he said, The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And even though the Catholic Church has had its issues, it's had its problems, the gates of hell have not prevailed against it.

And how wonderful is that?

I need that.

The whole world needs that.

And so that, that's thrilling to me and reassuring to me and gives me the courage to keep moving forward in this.

Because this is the Church that I need, and I really believe this is the Church that the world needs.