Lansing, MI. On a recent outing, Adam and Tom spoke to Benji, who had stopped by to speak to them before. Benji is studying philosophy and advertising at Michigan State University. He believes in God, loves Jesus, and knows how important it is to worship with other Christians. He is very skeptical, however, of religions that have require adherence to dogma and rules, but he still told them that he has a special affinity for the Catholic Church, and has been to Mass before. He still struggles with “denominationalism,” and how Christians disagree so much with each other outside of the most fundamental teachings, such as the golden rule.
Adam started from a place of common ground with philosophy-major Benji. They talked about the foundational questions of philosophy: What ‘is’? What is true? Who are we? How shall we live? Adam explained that God, revealing His divine name as “I AM,” is above all things most real, and has revealed the truth to us. That truth is preserved for us in “the deposit of faith,” which is guarded from error by the Catholic Church. Jesus gave his own authority to his disciples and promised that the gates of hell will never prevail against it. We can have peace knowing that the Catholic Church will never lead us into error.
This resonated with Benji, who agreed to stay in touch, and swapped information with the evangelists. But Benji also felt that the Catholic Church had changed its teachings in the past. Again, with Benji’s predilection for philosophy in mind, Adam encouraged him to read “An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine,” by Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman. At the end of their conversation, Benji agreed to look further into the faith and even to attend Mass that weekend. Please pray for Benji; for his conversion to the unity of the Catholic Church, and for the success of his studies.