Apologetics…but Never Apologize 

By Kathleen Herbert

I happened to be talking with my neighbor the other day, a very devout Christian man, but whose denomination I’m not sure of. (I’ve noticed that the trend in some Protestant churches is to do away with their unique denominational names and instead rename their building something like Stone Bridge, Full Life, First Bible, New Beginnings and the like.)  But I digress….

During our conversation, the subject of the Rapture came up and, if truth be told, I was at a loss at how to discuss this, other than to say that as a Catholic, it is not in our belief system that a certain portion of the population will suddenly be caught up and taken into the clouds. While we, as Catholics, don’t believe this, it is an important part of the teaching in his church.  The wildly popular Left Behind books, along with its varied series, speak to the widespread belief of the Rapture.  And so it got me to thinking.

About the same time this conversation took place, my Pastor put an article in the weekly bulletin about why the Catholic Church does not subscribe to the Rapture theory.  A coincidence?  Some say it never is. Father Joe pointed his parishioners to an article in Catholic Faith Facts at http://www.catholic.com/library/Rapture.asp

For more articles on why we believe what we believe, at http://www.Catholic.com, click on the Library drop-down menu, and choose and click on several sub-topics. The purpose of this Apologetics section is to inform Catholics about their faith.  “Apologetics” comes from a Greek term “apologia” from the first letter of St. Peter (3:15) where he says we should “always be ready to give a reason for the hope that lives within us.”

My Bible Study group at the Rectory every Tuesday morning after the 8:30 Mass, is now studying the book of Matthew. One of the main themes in Chapter 10 is that, as Jesus sent his apostles and disciples out into the world, he told them to not be afraid.  Can’t you just hear Blessed Pope John Paul II’s voice saying, “Do not be afraid”?  And how Pope Benedict XVI instructs us of the importance of evangelization, evangelizing with new methods, even to the point that the “Church exists to evangelize.”

Over the last 2,000 years, the Catholic Church was the number one messenger of Christ, but somewhere in the last couple of hundred, we’ve lost our edge so to speak. Even if we cannot change some one’s mind about their own belief, we should be prepared to at least defend our own. We agree we should always be prepared to share our Faith with others, and the only way to do this is to understand why we believe what we believe. If we don’t have sufficient knowledge, there’s no way we can share it.

Have you recently, or in the past, been questioned on your Catholic beliefs? Were you able to answer the question with sincerity and gentle authority?  Did you know where to turn to get the answer?  We live in a wondrous time of information at our fingertips. With a little research, the answer is there for the learning.