When I came to the time in my life that I decided to convert, in my initial inquirers' meeting, the RCIA director asked me why I wanted to be Catholic. I don’t recall that I had specifically considered one reason in particular over any other.
There were many reasons, but above all else I was coming to the Church because of a spiritual longing that I had experienced for a long period of time, which at the moment was difficult to verbalize. However, one thing in particular stood out clearly – the image of a rock. Just briefly, I also recalled an earlier experience where a different kind of rock inspired my spiritual search.
Several years prior to my conversion, while as a teenager attending Oneness Pentecostal services, I had a close friendship with the preacher, Brother Noel, a man whom I admired much and looked to for guidance. One Sunday before the evening service I arrived early to find Brother Noel gathering rocks from the church driveway, picking through them, saving some and discarding others. He told me that I would be getting something special that night.
After the lengthy opening ritual of mostly unstructured singing, praise, and the usual gyrations, we settled in to hear the preacher’s message, ready to respond with plentiful affirmations of “amen.” The sermon was on Revelation 2:17. During his sermon Brother Noel took out a paper grocery bag, which contained several small rocks that he had collected earlier from the driveway. He gave each member of the congregation his or her own rock. Having been careful to pick out only white stones, he explained that the rocks stood to remind us of the scripture that we had been fed upon and of our having been given a white stone spiritually , which he said signified our having been given the Lord’s name in baptism.
The image of the white stone stayed in my mind for a long time to follow. Perhaps it was the peculiarity of the scripture passage that caused me not to forget it easily. I pondered its meaning, which I came to view as a sign of steadfast adherence to the faith and the reward of the resurrection, but the preacher’s interpretation was always near. As I grew away from the Pentecostal Church my memory of the white stone eventually slipped into the past, that is until the time came for my conversion to Catholicism.
When the RCIA director asked me what I saw in the Church that was strong enough to make me want to become Catholic, I replied that the Catholic Church represented a rock of stability that had stood the test of time. In the back of my mind I remembered the white stone that my preacher friend had given me several years prior. It stood to remind me, just for that moment, of the faith of my youth. I was at a turning point, a time of decision. Becoming Catholic meant letting go of what I had been deeply indoctrinated to believe about salvation. It meant letting go of the religion of my youth.
As I made my final decision I thought of the rock of stability that the Catholic Church represented, and I thought of Jesus’ proclamation to Peter that he would build his Church upon the rock. At the same time I thought of the white stone and what it had come to represent to me, and what I was leaving behind, but in front of me was the Eucharist that I longed for. It made my decision an easy one.
In my experience as a Catholic, I believe that I have received the true white stone of the faith. As I look at various commentaries on Revelation 2:17 the meaning of the passage is still hard to get at – there is plentiful disagreement. However, being a Catholic, I have come to appreciate the gift of authority invested in the apostles and their successors. Furthermore, I have come to understand the power of Jesus’ name to be the power of authority. Perhaps the white stone does in fact symbolize our having been given the Lord’s name – the gift of his authority.
I wonder if Brother Noel considered the impression that his sermon prop would make.
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