More on Beckwith

(National Catholic Register) Catholics should celebrate when anyone enters the Church. After all, we have it on good authority that the angels in heaven do. But when a prominent Protestant converts, we might not just feel like celebrating; we might feel like doing a victory dance in the end zone.

We should fight the urge.

Francis Beckwith was president of the Evangelical Theological Society until he quit the post to return to the faith of his childhood. The story of Beckwith’s conversion to Catholicism has much to teach us.

The first lesson is this: The human attempt to build a version of Christianity without the sacraments was tragically flawed. Christ didn’t come merely to teach us all a lesson; he came to give us real channels of grace that incorporate us into his life. To pretend otherwise, as modern evangelical Protestantism does, is to strip his mission of its power and life. The more Christians of all stripes we can bring back to the sacraments, the better.

But the second lesson is this: Despite the tragic decision of Christian denominations to split from the Church, there is still much good in Protestant Christianity, and the biggest conversions come when we treat Protestant believers with respect.

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Comments

[Carol]

Well, his first paragraph is a bit off-kilter, isn't it? We're happy for and with the one who enters or re-enters the Catholic church, not because of; and rather, heaven rejoices over any and every truly repentant sinner. The New Testament implies Catholicism's every tenet, but the whole Bible calls all to Him, and not everyone comes all the way in to the Hearth, nor even hears of it, and/or are still in wait. And yes, the biggest conversions (and reversions!) come when we let the Holy Spirit do most of His own Personal and tailored-to-the-person apologetics. I'm always a little unnerved by anyone pointing to conversions.. it's never contest-like, thus it is never a victory for anyone but that person whose soul was aching for the Deepening. It is a work for Compassion to do, and even if we're filled with that, it is not enough.

"The more Christians of all stripes we can bring back to the sacraments, the better."
Rather, we can only (re)invite, and live the faith as honestly as we understand it. If it were possible for any of us to talk people into or back to the Church, we'd none of us have family who are away from the Sacraments.

I must say that I have never met a truly happy, settled ex-Catholic. Never. There is a holy reason for that dissatisfaction, tho' folks will call it anything but that. We know the People of, and the reason for, the Upper Room, even when we're absent for many years.