March 23rd, 2008 at 12:01 am

He Is Risen

in: Announcements., Catholicism

In this post I’m going to depart from the written word and explain what we believe. It is understood that those who believe know that Christ rose from the dead before the morning of the first day. Some say during the night of the second. But based on the prophesy and Christ’s own words, he would rise in 3 days, the theory of his resurrection on the third day holds more true for some than others.

Here’s what Catholics believe…

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten not made, one in Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and our salvation
he came down from heaven:
(bowing) by the power of the Holy Spirit
he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. (rise)

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

We believe this so intently that we declare it during the mass.

During the consecration of the Eucharist, we even declare…

Christ has died,
Christ is risen,
Christ will come again.

Christ is center of our lives. Practicing Catholics live our weeks around receiving Christ in Holy Communion each Sunday. Some of us even attend daily Mass in order to receive our Lord daily.

At each Mass we hear an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a Letter of the New Testament, and the Gospel. We don’t read our Bibles in Church during Mass because we are taught that the word is meant to be heard. We hear the readings. The complete readings. Not some cherry picked verses selected to emphasis a particular lesson. Each reading is the same reading that is being read in each church thought the world. Others cannot say this. A reading in Rome today, will be read in Dayton Ohio, in Los Angeles California, and in Tokyo Japan. Will two “Bible Churches” of practically any of the many hundred Protestant denominations have the same readings for Easter Sunday alone? I doubt it. And if they do, I would wager that neither will read it completely in context.

The Catholic Church is structured and whole. We consider our Protestant brothers and sisters part of the greater Body of Christ. It is a shame, many of them do not consider us the same.

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