Vanishing Points

Abstract art is a product of the modern world. In such a world, pluralism is valued and encouraged. Sometimes growing up in such a world, having a single point of perspective is difficult to find. One ends up living a life that appears like a cubist painting or an abstract surreal found object collage. Our lives may be interesting and full but somewhat confusing and lacking coherent meaning. In visual art, for an artwork to appear realistic, it must have a vanishing point. So too our lives without a vanishing point are out of perspective. We are like a cubist painting trying to see life from all angles at once and it just doesn't make sense. But if we want to have a single perspective, which perspective is the right to choose?

For me, becoming a follower of Christ was like finding the horizon in my artwork. I could now tell up from down, yet with thousands of denominations and interpretations of Sacred Scripture, it was difficult to pinpoint exactly where my vanishing point should sit. Becoming Catholic nailed the vanishing point into place so that reality and God were not some elusive reality that I had to struggle to piece together on my own as I sought to interpret Scripture on my own. God was real; he became man, resurrected, ascended, and left behind an authoritative group of apostles with Peter at the head to pass on and interpret the word of God both written and oral. These apostles with Peter at the head passed their authority successively down to the present bishops who make up the Magisterium with the bishop of Rome at the head, our Pope.

I never even considered that I would one day be Catholic. After all the anti-Catholic teaching I had received about the "whore of Babylon" and the "second Beast"...well I just thought I knew the Bible too well to ever be Catholic. I was wrong. It took a willingness to follow Jesus wherever he lead even if it was uncomfortable. It took a study of Scripture and the early Church fathers. And it took hearing the Catholic point of view from authoritative Catholic texts and teaching instead of from anti-Catholic teachers who misquoted and misrepresented Catholic positions and teachings.

I now believe that the Catholic faith is the fullness of Christianity, and that the New Testament teaches and affirms the Catholic worldview. I don't struggle to piece together my cubist worldview into a reality, even a Christian reality, that makes sense to me. I rest upon the authoritative teaching of Christ and the apostles that has been passed down to the present day in the Catholic Church.

I plan to share my journey and discuss misunderstandings in this blog, so follow along if you are interested.