From tradition to truth |
The Early Years |
|
We
were a typical Irish Roman Catholic family. My father sometimes knelt down to
pray at his bedside in a solemn manner. My mother would talk to Jesus while
sewing, washing dishes, or even smoking a cigarette. Most evenings we would
kneel in the living room to say the Rosary together. No one ever missed Mass
on Sundays unless he was seriously ill. By the time I was about five or six
years of age, Jesus Christ was a very real person to me, but so also were
Mary and the saints. I can identify easily with others in traditional
Catholic nations in |
The
catechism was drilled into me at the Jesuit School of Belvedere, where I had
all my elementary and secondary education. Like every boy who studies under
the Jesuits, I could recite before the age of ten five reasons why God
existed and why the Pope was head of the only true Church. Getting souls out
of Purgatory was a serious matter. The often quoted words, "It is a holy
and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from
sins," were memorized even though we did not know what these words
meant. We were told that the Pope as head of the Church was the most
important man on earth. What he said was law, and the Jesuits were his
right-hand men. Even though the Mass was in Latin, I tried to attend daily
because I was intrigued by the deep sense of mystery which surrounded it. |
We
were told it was the most important way to please God. Praying to saints was
encouraged, and we had patron saints for most aspects of life. I did not make
a practise of that, with one exception: St. Anthony, the patron of lost
objects, since I seemed to lose so many things. |
When
I was fourteen years old, I sensed a call to be a missionary. This call,
however, did not affect the way in which I conducted my life at that time.
Age sixteen to eighteen were the most fulfilled and enjoyable years a youth
could have. During this time, I did quite well both academically and
athletically. |
I
often had to drive my mother to the hospital for treatments. While waiting
for her, I found quoted in a book these verses from Mark 10:29-30, "And
Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath
left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or
children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, But he shall receive an
hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers,
and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal
life." Not having any idea of the true salvation message, I decided that
I truly did have a call to be a missionary. |
Trying
to earn salvation I left my family and friends in 1956 to join the Dominican
Order. I spent eight years studying what it is to be a monk, the traditions
of the Church, philosophy, the theology of Thomas Aquinas, and some of the
Bible from a Catholic standpoint. Whatever personal faith I had was
institutionalized and ritualized in the Dominican religious system. Obedience
to the law, both Church and Dominican, was put before me as the means of
sanctification. I often spoke to Ambrose Duffy, our Master of Students, about
the law being the means of becoming holy. In addition to becoming
"holy," I wanted also to be sure of eternal salvation. I memorized
part of the teaching of Pope Pius XII in which he said, "...the
salvation of many depends on the prayers and sacrifices of the mystical body
of Christ offered for this intention." This idea of gaining salvation
through suffering and prayer is also the basic message of |
In
the Dominican monastery in Tallaght, |
|
|
Then
in 1963 at the age of twenty-five I was ordained a Roman Catholic priest and
went on to finish my course of studies of Thomas Aquinas at The Angelicum
University in |
One
day I went for a walk in the Colosseum so that my feet might tread the ground
where the blood of so many Christians had been poured out. I walked to the
arena in the Forum. I tried to picture in my mind those men and women who
knew Christ so well that they were joyfully willing to be burned at the stake
or devoured alive by beasts because of His overpowering love. The joy of this
experience was marred, however, for as I went back in the bus I was insulted
by jeering youths shouting words meaning "scum or garbage." I
sensed their motivation for such insults was not because I stood for Christ
as the early Christians did but because they saw in me the Roman Catholic
system. Quickly, I put this contrast out of my mind, yet what I had been
taught about the present glories of |
One
night soon after that, I prayed for two hours in front of the main altar in
the |
The
priest who was to direct my thesis did not want to accept my decision. In
order to make the degree easier, he offered me a thesis written several years
earlier. He said I could use it as my own if only I would do the oral
defense. This turned my stomach. It was similar to what I had seen a few
weeks earlier in a city park: elegant prostitutes parading themselves in
their black leather boots. What he was offering was equally sinful. I held to
my decision, finishing at the University at the ordinary academic level,
without the degree. |
On
returning from |
|
|
|
On
|
In
the suffering that I went through in the weeks after the accident, I began to
find some comfort in direct personal prayer. I stopped saying the Breviary (the
Roman Catholic Church's official prayer for clergy) and the Rosary and began
to pray using parts of the Bible itself. This was a very slow process. I did
not know my way through the Bible and the little I had learned over the years
had taught me more to distrust it rather than to trust it. My training in
philosophy and in the theology of Thomas Aquinas left me helpless, so that
coming into the Bible now to find the Lord was like going into a huge dark
woods without a map. |
When
assigned to a new parish later that year, I found that I was to work
side-by-side with a Dominican priest who had been a brother to me over the
years. For more than two years we were to work together, fully seeking God as
best we knew in the parish of Pointe-a-Pierre. We read, studied, prayed, and
put into practise what we had been taught in Church teaching. We built up
communities in Gasparillo, |
About
this time the Catholic Charismatic movement was growing, and we introduced it
into most of our villages. Because of this movement, some Canadian Christians
came to |
"If
by grace, it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace.." Romans 11:6. "All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). |
One
particular sin of mine was getting annoyed with people, sometimes even angry.
Although I asked forgiveness for my sins, I still did not realize that I was
a sinner by the nature which we all inherit from Adam. The scriptural truth
is, "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one"
(Romans |
"That
I may know him, and the power of his
resurrection..." (Philippians 3:10) continued to be the cry of my heart.
I knew that it could be only through His power that I could live the
Christian life. I posted this text on the dashboard of my car and in other
places. It became the plea that motivated me, and the Lord who is Faithful
began to answer. |
|
|
First,
I discovered that God's Word in the Bible is absolute and without error. I
had been taught that the Word is relative and that its truthfulness in many
areas was to be questioned. Now I began to understand that the Bible could, in
fact, be trusted. With the aid of Strong's Concordance, I began to study the
Bible to see what it says about itself. I discovered that the Bible teaches
clearly that it is from God and is absolute in what it says. It is true in
its history, in the promises God has made, in its prophecies, in the moral
commands it gives, and in how to live the Christian life. "All scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (II Timothy |
This
discovery was made while visiting in |
Three
days later, the archbishop of |
|
|
While
I was still parish priest of Point-a-Pierre, Ambrose Duffy, the man who had
so strictly taught me while he was Student Master, was asked to assist me.
The tide had turned. After some initial difficulties, we became close friends.
I shared with him what I was discovering. He listened and commented with
great interest and wanted to find out what was motivating me. I saw in him a
channel to my Dominican brothers and even to those in the Archbishop's house.
|
|
|
Mary,
the saints, and the priesthood were just a small part of the huge struggle
with which I was working. Who was Lord of my life, Jesus Christ in His Word
or the Roman Church? This ultimate question raged inside me especially during
my last six years as parish priest of Sangre Grande (1979-1985). That the
Catholic Church was supreme in all matters of faith and morals had been dyed
into my brain since I was a child. It looked impossible ever to change. |
|
This
contradiction was symbolized in what I did with the four statues in the |
I
did not see that what I was trying to do was to make God's Word subject to
man's word. My Own Fault While I had learned earlier that God's Word is
absolute, I still went through this agony of trying to maintain the Roman
Catholic Church as holding more authority than God's Word, even in issues
where the Church of Rome was saying the exact opposite to what was in the
Bible. |
|
|
One
day, a woman challenged me (the only Christian ever to challenge me in all my
22 years as a priest), "You Roman Catholics have a form of godliness,
but you deny its power." Those words bothered me for some time because
the lights, banners, folk music, guitars, and drums were dear to me. Probably
no priest on the whole |
In
October 1985, God's grace was greater than the lie that I was trying to live.
I went to |
Now
to see and to understand the meaning of church as "fellowship" left
me free to let go of the Roman Catholic Church as supreme authority and
depend on Jesus Christ as Lord. It began to dawn on me that in Biblical
terms, the Bishops I knew in the Catholic Church were not Biblical believers.
They were for the most part pious men taken up with devotion to Mary and the
Rosary and loyal to |
|
|
I
left the Roman Catholic Church when I saw that life in Jesus Christ was not
possible while remaining true to Roman Catholic doctrine. In leaving |
I
spent six months with a Christian couple on a farm in |
Having
been refurbished both physically and spiritually by this Christian couple
together with their family, I was provided a wife by the Lord, Lynn,
born-again in faith, lovely in manner, intelligent in mind. Together we set
out for |
|
|
In
September 1988, we left |
To
explain the abundant life of which Jesus spoke and which I now enjoy, no
better words could be used than those of Romans 8:1-2: "There is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." It is not
just that I have been freed from the Roman Catholic system, but that I have
become a new creature in Christ. It is by the grace of God, and nothing but
His grace, that I have gone from dead works into new life. |
|
|
Back
in 1972, when some Christians had taught me about the Lord healing our
bodies, how much more helpful it would have been had they explained to me on what
authority our sinful nature is made right with God. The Bible clearly shows
that Jesus substituted for us on the cross. I cannot express it better than
Isaiah 53:5: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised
for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his
stripes we are healed." (This means that Christ took on himself what I
ought to suffer for my sins. Before the Father, I trust in Jesus as my
substitute.) |
That
was written 750 years before the crucifixion of our Lord. A short time after
the sacrifice of the cross, the Bible states in I Peter 2:24: "Who his
own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to
sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." |
In
repenting, we put aside, through God's strength, our former way of life and
our former sins. It does not mean that we cannot sin again, but it does mean
that our position before God has changed. We are called children of God, for
so indeed we are. If we do sin, it is a relationship problem with the Father which
can be resolved, not a problem of losing our position as a child of God in
Christ, for this position is irrevocable. In Hebrews 10:10, the Bible says it
so wonderfully: "...we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all." |
The
finished work of Christ Jesus on the Cross is sufficient and complete. As you
trust solely in this finished work, a new life which is born of the Spirit
will be yours -- you will be born again. |
|
My
present task: the good work that the Lord has prepared for me to do is as an
evangelist situated in the |
My
testimony shows how difficult it was for me as a Catholic to give up Church
tradition, but when the Lord demands it in His Word, we must do it. The
"form of godliness" that the Roman Catholic Church has makes it
most difficult for a Catholic to see where the real problem lies. Everyone
must determine by what authority we know truth. |
Yet
according to the Bible, it is God's Word itself which is the authority by
which truth is known. It was man-made traditions which caused the Reformers
to demand "the Bible only, faith only, grace only, in Christ only, and
to God only be the glory." |
|
|
|
I
share these truths with you now so that you can know God's way of salvation. Our
basic fault as Catholics is that we believe that somehow we can of ourselves
respond to the help God gives us to be right in His sight. This
presupposition that many of us have carried for years is aptly defined in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994) #2021, "Grace is the help God
gives us to respond to our vocation of becoming his adopted sons...." |
With
that mindset, we were unknowingly holding to a teaching that the Bible
continually condemns. Such a definition of grace is man's careful fabrication,
for the Bible consistently declares that the believer's right standing with
God is "without works" (Romans 4:6), "without the deeds of the
Law" (Romans |
So
it is as Christ Jesus Himself said, He died in place of the believer, the One
for many (Mark |
Paul's
preaching is summarized at the end of II Corinthians 5:21, "For he hath
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him.." (II Cor. 5:21). |
The
most difficult repentance for us dyed-in-the-wool Catholics is changing our
mind from thoughts of "meriting," "earning," "being
good enough," simply to accepting with empty hands the gift of
righteousness in Christ Jesus. To refuse to accept what God commands is the
same sin as that of the religious Jews of Paul's time, "For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of
God." (Romans 10:3) |
Repent
and believe the Good News! |
|
|
A native
of |
|
P.O. Box 1192 |
Del Valle, TX 78617-1192 (USA) |
rbennett@stic.net |
|