Top 10 Questions Every Catholic Must Know and Answer about the Faith (Part I)
We Catholics are often asked tough questions about our Catholic faith and its relationship to the Bible. Here are the ten most asked questions and the answers that should help you and your questioner.
1. Are you saved?
Anyone can have some assurance that they are in God’s good graces. The apostle John states that “you may know that you have eternal life” (1 Jn 5:13 – see also Jn 5:24). But this “assurance” has to be understood in the light of John’s other teachings in the same book: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments” (1 Jn 5:3 – see also 1 Jn 2:3-6). Likewise, St. Paul does not regard salvation as a one-time event, but as a lifetime goal to be pursued, one that can be lost: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12 – see also 1 Cor 9:27, 10:12; Gal 5:1, 4; Phil 3:11-14; 1 Tim 4:1, 5:15).
2. If you died tonight, would you go to heaven?
Catholics have an assurance of salvation if they are faithful and keep God’s commandments (1 Jn 2:3).
3. Why do you worship wafers?
Catholics do not worship wafers; they worship Jesus. A consecrated host (that looks like a wafer) at a Catholic Mass is the true Body and Blood of Christ, real, sacramentally present. In the Gospel of John (6:51-56), Jesus states repeatedly that “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (6:54). St. Paul agrees and writes that those taking Communion “in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor 11:27 – see also 1 Cor 10:16). Moreover, in the Last Supper passages (Mt 26:26-28; Mk 14:22-24; Lk 22:19-20), nothing suggests a metaphorical or symbolic interpretation. The Last Supper was the Jewish feast of Passover. This involved a sacrificial lamb and Jesus referred to His imminent suffering (Lk 22:15-16, 18, 21-22). John the Baptist had already called Him the “Lamb of God” (Jn 1:29).
4. Why do you worship Mary?
Catholics do not worship Mary, that would be idolatry. We venerate her because she is the Mother of God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
5. Why do you confess your sins to a priest?
Jesus Christ gave to His disciples – and by extension, to priests – the power not only to “release” sins (that is, forgive in God’s name), but also to “bind”: “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loosen on earth shall be loosened in heaven” (Mt 18:18 – see also Mt 16:19). Thus, the Church must know what sins to forgive… or retain. How? The human way: listening to the speaker.
6. Why do you pray for the dead?
The Bible teaches the excellence of prayers for the dead in 2 Maccabees (12:40, 42, 44-45). The apostle Paul also appears to be praying for a dead person, Onesiphorus, in 2 Timothy (1:16-18).
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