Accepting authority is not unusual, so choose yours wisely

"You're not the boss of me!" you most likely have heard one child say to another. Though adults may not speak as glibly and candidly as little children, most of us think the same thing. Here are some of our silent thoughts when challenged or corrected: Who are you anyway? I don't have to listen to you. You are no better than I am. What makes you think you're right? I've got as much right as anybody to...

This carries right over into our thinking about the Catholic Church. We don't want religious leaders in our bedroom. One of the chants at pro-life rallies goes: Get your rosaries off our ovaries! Many Americans refer to our country as one having a separation of church and state. And some Catholic politicians set their religious views aside when they vote.

A lot of Catholic families learn about our faith from everywhere except the Church, the Catechism, and the Bible. When I was growing up, the only time I heard about what anybody said who mattered in the Church, like the Pope, was if it happened to be on the nightly news. I had no idea that these are intelligent individuals who actually wrote profound encyclicals and books. I accepted whatever was said about them as if it were the gospel truth. Little did I know that my authority, who I listened to, was the liberal reporter on my TV screen. I had no idea there was a liberal bias, nor that quotes are often taken out of context. I assumed that I was getting objective information from a trustworthy source, and that it was the truth.

We may not easily warm up to the authority of the Catholic Church initially, because it seems to come down on our lifestyle. We don't want the Church to be the boss of us. We have life experience and think we know how things work just about as well as the next guy. However, if you think about it, we really do listen to somebody and accept what that authority says. Just as I accepted what was shown on the news, you accept some source as your authority for what you believe. Like it or not somebody in some way IS the boss of you. Even if you want to believe that this person is you.

Since the truth of the matter is that we learn from many different sources and incorporate those ideas into our lives, why not let one of those voices of authority be from the One who gave His all for us, Jesus. Jesus, we see in the Scriptures, is the Truth. He came, the Bible tells us, to build His Church. He thinks the Church is pretty important. He said that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. There's power in the Church, then, according to our Lord. Christ finds His Church authoritative. The Holy Spirit knows more than we do, thank goodness. Isn't it time we stopped playing god and/or allowing unbelieving teachers to influence us to doubt our faith and embrace sinful ways; and rather take as our authority she who has safeguarded the Truth for us for about 2000 years, our holy Catholic Church.

“Some people are so foolish that they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother. Love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today. All graces given by God pass through the Blessed Mother.” - St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina