Here is the testimony of a
Catholic in the Philippines who e-mailed me his story in August 2006.
Fiducia Mia
“…but sanctify Christ as Lord in your
hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to
any one who asks you for a reason for your
hope.” (1Peter 3:15)
“Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders
(non-believers), making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be
gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you know how you should respond to each
one.” (Colossians 4:5-6)
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Hello.
I would like to share to you something about my faith, my Catholic faith. But first, allow me to share to you a little
from my background.
My
name is Pedro Gerardo Villegas Sarmiento Jr.
I am a Filipino and of course, a Catholic. I was born in the serenity of
the city of Lipa in the province of Batangas but I grew up in my father’s
hometown of Malita in the province of Davao Del Sur in Mindanao. I was educated in both Protestant and
Catholic schools during my younger days. Though I grew up with a Catholic
background, I must admit that I was not really very knowledgeable of my faith
and back then, religion played an insignificant role in my young life. During
my formative years as a child in Lipa City, I was enrolled by my mother in an
Evangelical school then later on I was transferred to a Seventh Day Adventist
institution both of which were very near our ancestral house. Though I studied
in Protestant schools, I really didn’t know then the differences between my
Catholic faith and the rest of the Protestant churches. Due to family matters,
we were compelled to move to Mindanao thus the reason why I grew up in my
father’s hometown.
In
Malita, I enrolled and graduated in a Catholic high school which was just a
block away from our house. And although I was a product of such, I still could
never say that I‘ve been knowledgeable enough with the “faith of my fathers”
for aside from the basic prayers taught by the nuns and going to early morning
masses (for additional points in our religion subject), I really knew nothing
about the Catholic Church and its basic teachings. In short, I was but a sacramentalized
Christian all through those years.
My spiritual journey to the truth of the
church began when I temporarily stopped schooling during college. It was when I
got acquainted with a team of Mormon missionaries who would regularly invite me
to their scripture studies plus I also have a lot of acquaintances with pastors
of different denominations (our Poblacion may be small but different
denominations were literally found in every block). Many a time, I would be
taken aback by “seemingly” scriptural questions from different missionaries and
preachers and not have a ready answer. There was a point that I have already
joined the worship services of some of these sects and have engaged myself in
what fundamentalists call “street evangelism”. I have occasionally been
involved with different denominations (Baptists, Born Again, Iglesia Ni Cristo,
Methodists etc.) at some point in time but I should say it is with the Mormons
that I have been most willing to spend my time with because they never showed
any form of hostility towards me. They were all so friendly and seemed so
family-oriented. I befriended them, attended their services and went to “Family
Home Evenings” and house-to-house visitations. I have witnessed many baptisms
there, read their literature and almost got convinced that it was the true
church and even prepared myself for baptism there. However, the foundations
that the Mormons (many of them are Americans) have laid on me were easily blown
away by an old catechism book which used to belong to my mother’s eldest sister
which I accidentally(?) came across with one night while arranging my stuff .
From the old catechism book of my aunt which she used during her St. Louis
University days, I have unearthed some facts about the early church especially
about how the Bible came to be which kind of
“blew me off the water” and made me realize the mistake that I was about
to commit and so I politely declined the baptism ceremony that was supposed to
be “scheduled” for me. I stopped attending the LDS services and quietly went
back to my Catholic church where I have found a “renewed enthusiasm”. As an
out-of-schooler, I ended up as a Flores De Mayo catechist and became active in
church when I went back to college in Davao City. In the University of Mindanao
(UM) where I have enrolled and finished my baccalaureate degree, I became an
active auxiliary of the campus ministry which was then supervised by the Marist
Missionaries from Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. There in UM Campus
Ministry, I, together with some “reverts” like me became active in trying to
win back fallen-away Catholics by way of inviting them to our regular prayer
meetings and faith studies. Gladly, a number of students who, by honest
mistake, went out of the Catholic Church came back to the one, true fold that
traces its origin to no one but Jesus Christ Himself.
Ever
since the day that I have “returned”, I have never tired of sharing my faith to
countless people. As I looked back, I have been quietly serving the church for
more than twelve years now in my own little ways.
Today,
I am a college Instructor in a school called FAITH (First Asia Institute of
Technology and Humanities) located in Tanauan City, Batangas.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Now, I
would like to share to you about an encounter of mine with a fundamentalist
preacher and some insights I have concerning about the fundamentalist’s points
which happened when I was still new in the teaching profession and I was
employed with another tertiary institution in Lipa City. It happened a few
years ago and this was how it happened:
One
fine afternoon, after my class, I went to relax under the shade of the old
Narra tree at the Plaza Independencia which was just a stone’s throw away from
the school were I used to teach. It was such a relaxing afternoon. The cool
winds blew. Suddenly, a neatly clothed, nice-looking fellow approached me from
nowhere. He was smiling and he was holding a Bible in his hand and he told me
that he would like to talk to me about Jesus. As a Catholic and as someone who
grew up in Mindanao where religious tolerance is carefully observed, I deeply
value ecumenism and inter-faith dialogues so I consented to the request of this
friend. Please don’t get me wrong but our sharing began and was really doing
fine when all of a sudden, the man began pointing out saying that religion is
bad and that a lot of “churchy” people spend time getting drunk and swearing.
Religion, according to him can never save anyone. Then he pointed at the nearby
Catholic cathedral and condemned it as filled with idols and that Catholics are
idolaters and he said a lot of awful things about the church which according to
him, were completely against the Bible. He said the Bible alone should be the
sole guide and authority. He said he pitied Catholics because surely, Catholics
will go to hell. It was very obvious that he was a fundamentalist who was
trying to proselytize me. He testified of himself as a former Catholic who has
been enlightened by scripture. Catholics according to him, knew nothing about
the faith
Well,
knowing what I believe, I just smiled at his attacks against my faith. I just
let him express everything he wanted to. I have been in numerous situations
like this one before and I believe you don’t have to meet fire with fire for it
will only make the flames bigger. As it was already near the time for my next
class, I politely ended the conversation. However, as I walked away, I was
saddened by what he said and somehow he was right. Catholics knew very little
about the faith. I really feel bad that a lot of fellow Catholics don’t seemed
to understand much about the faith and they become apostates even at the
slightest attack on the faith by fundamentalists and many times, Catholics
leave the church without any effort to know its basic tenets.
I would like to clarify somehow, some of the points that the
young man was trying to raise in an effort to “save” me.
Religion (from the Latin “religare” meaning “to bind”) is not bad. But
one must see it in its proper context to fully understand it. The idea of this
binding was taught by Jesus himself when He said: “love the Lord your God with
all of your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.” (see Mt. 22:37-39). Love
serves as the rope that binds with our God and with our fellowmen. On the other
hand, it is indeed unfortunate to see a lot of people (in this case, Catholics)
spending their time drinking, swearing and cursing others but it is not
religion that makes people bad. It is the failure to “practice” religion. So let
us all try to be practicing Catholics/ Christians so as to inspire others to do
the same.
A
religion founded by a mere man indeed cannot save or be an instrument for
salvation no matter how the founder claims and insists that he is an “angel”,
“prophet” or an “enlightened one”.. It should be the religion/ church founded
by Jesus Christ himself which is “…built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets with him as the corner stone.” (see Eph. 2:20). Why would Jesus
found such a religion/ church if it would be useless anyway? True religion and
church is one.
Did
you know that catholic means universal? And speaking of universal, it refers to
something that is actually accepted or spread throughout the whole world.
The word catholic traces its origin from the original Greek text of the Bible.
In Greek, the last words of St. Paul the apostle in Romans 1:8 reads “…he
pistis humon katangeletai en holo to kosmo.” In English, it means “…your faith
is spread throughout the whole world.” From the words katangeletai
(spread/ heralded), holo (whole), and kosmo (world), the word
“katholokos” was derived and from it came the Greek word “katholikkos”
(catolico in Spanish, catholic in English). Now, whose faith was “catholicized”
or spread throughout the whole world? Of course, it’s the faith of the Romans
to whom that epistle of St. Paul was particularly addressed. In this light, I
don’t see anything wrong in calling the church Roman Catholic. “Roman” and
“catholic” are basically adjectives not nouns used to describe the church
founded by Jesus. Jesus wanted his church to be catholic when he commanded the
apostles to “…go and make all the nations my disciples…” (see Mt.
28:19).
Did
you know that the Bible is actually a book of the Catholic Church? Had it not
been for the Catholic Church, there would be no Bible today. The Catholic
Church was the one who carefully chose which books were inspired by the Holy
Spirit and which books should be included in the canon of scriptures especially
the new testament and it was the Catholic Church who eventually declared it to
be the written word of God through her so-called “church councils” (council of
Trent; council of Nicea…etc.) The Catholic Church has preserved the Bible for
over a thousand years even before a single protestant denomination existed.
Even highly respected Protestant theologians and historians David Coote and
Robert Ord agree with this in their book
“Is The Bible True?”. The person responsible for dividing the Bible into
chapters is a priest named Stephen Langton while the one who divided it into
chapters was Cardinal Hugo De Sancto Caro. In using the Bible as a book of
faith, one should not ignore its history and the authority of the church that
proved its contents. To accept the Bible therefore, is an unconscious
acceptance of Catholic authority and truth. Martin Luther (yes, the one who
started Protestantism which his followers loved to call “reformation”) has this
to say in his pamphlet entitled
“Commentary on John XIII”: “ We are compelled to concede to the Papists
(Catholics) that they have the word of God, that we have received it from them
and that without them, we would have no knowledge of it at all.” It is really
unfortunate that a lot of so-called “Christians” do not know this and they even
reached the point of accusing the Catholic faith as “anti-Bible”. How could
that be? The Bible came from its bosom.
Nowhere
can it be found in the Bible that it is the sole authority, the “scripture
alone” principle therefore is unscriptural. Though the Bible contains God’s
message, still the BIBLE IS NOT GOD HIMSELF! God through Jesus Christ gave the
authority to the church which is the “…pillar and ground of truth.” (see
1Tim.3:15; read and reflect also on Mt. 16:18-19). Jesus never had any
intention of spreading his gospel through the Bible alone for if he had, he
would have been the first to write. But he never wrote any gospel. Instead, he
enjoined his apostles to “go teach all nations” (Mt. 28:19) and “preach the
gospel to all nations” (Mk. 16:15). Teaching and preaching are acts entirely
different from writing.
Did
you know that not all images can be considered as idols? Idols are sometimes
represented by images but not all images are idols. Try to read and reflect on
the following passages: Exodus 26:1; 1 Kings 6:23; Numbers 21:8-9. on those
passages, God commanded and approved the use of images. Surely, we cannot
accuse our God of going against His commandment in Exodus 20. Pictures and
images serves as reminders of the ones who have gone before us. Touching and
kissing of images doesn’t necessarily mean that a person is already worshipping
them. Catholics know who are the ones we venerate and we worship only God. If a
person suddenly feels a longing for a love one and then kisses the picture of
that loved one, it is wrong to conclude that he is in love with the picture
since the person perfectly knows (unless he’s insane) that the picture is just
a mere representation. Love is reserve for the one whom the picture represents.
Our faith as Catholics are fixed with or without the presence of images.
Did
you know that Jesus founded the church on St. Peter (Greek Petros meaning rock;
see Mt. 16:18) and that the last place Peter went was Rome ( known as Babylon
in ancient times, the city with the seven hills). He did a lot of evangelizing
there. His graveyard there is the present location of the Holy See. It is the
location of St. Peter’s Basilica named in his memory. St. Peter is regarded as
the first pope and this fact will remain as it is unless the contrary is proven
(Benedict XVI is the 265’th pope from an unbroken line of succession). Since
the papacy started with Peter the apostle through Jesus’ commission, it is
wrong therefore to associate it with the anti-Christ. Saying that the pope is
the anti-Christ is just a baseless figment of the imagination.
Roman
Catholicism according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, is a Christian church
characterized by its uniform and highly developed doctrinal and organizational
structure that TRACES its origin to the apostles of Jesus Christ in the first
century A.D. (EB, Vol. X, pg. 644)
And
according to the Grolier Encyclopedia, Catholic Church “…is the church founded
by Jesus Christ.” (GE, Vol. 5, pg. 106).
Did you know that the term “born again”
in John 3:3 shouldn’t have come out in the first place for the simple reason
that St. John did not use the term in writing his gospel?. In the original
Greek form of John 3:3, the word palin (again) was never used. St. John instead
employed on the word anothen (from above). It is quite puzzling why some
translators of scriptures insist on “born again” instead of “born from above”
which is a more accurate translation. One must admit that in the English
language, “again” and “from above” do not mean the same. A wrong translation
from the original text leads to a wrong understanding of the scriptures.
Someday we shall all grow old and then teach our own
children. Shall we give them only a partial of the truth? Or the full truth?
If
you are a Catholic, remain and understand the faith. It is God’s gift to you.
If
you have left, have the courage to
return. It is God’s grace.
Now,
if you’re not Catholic, don’t get me wrong in putting all of these stuffs in
here. I don’t intend to argue with you. I simply wanted to give you some points
to consider for I believe that you are an open-minded person. My purpose is to
give you a better understanding of my Catholic faith, put away your prejudice
and learn to love us as your brethren in Christ. I am a Filipino. I am a
Catholic. Filipinos are Catholics at heart (Philippines by the way, was named
after King Philip II of Spain who in turn was named after Philip, the disciple
mentioned in Acts 8:26-40)
Hope that we’ll never tire in searching for the truth and
that someday, we’ll see each other in heaven. Just like anyone else, I, the one
who wrote this, also have my faults and I also commit mistakes. And just like
anyone else, I need Jesus in my life. May God bless us all as we continue to
grow in his love for young as we may be, we can all be a “good example” for
other believers (see 1 Tim. 4:12)
Fiducia
mia. This is my hope. This is my faith.