Lets Find Out.
In this Analogous Apologetics series, we will systematically answer some of the most common objections to the Catholic faith, and we shall do so by employing the use of analogy or parable. Presently, we will address the question of whether all denominations are the same, and our response shall be through an analogy about a father and son.
The Analogy
Imagine, when you were little, waking up one day, and telling your father, “you know, I am going to go live at the neighbor’s house because it is exactly the same. It has a roof, a bed, and a fridge; there is no real difference between this house and that house.”
What do you think your father’s response would be? He probably wouldn’t be very sympathetic.
What if you couldn’t even tell which house was, in fact, your father’s house? What if every house on the block looked exactly the same, with the same address and everything?
How would you know which house was your father’s house?
One way to find out, would be to just start opening up the doors of the houses until you found the one your father was standing in.
In that same way, I know that when I step inside a Catholic Church that I am in the Father’s house because I can see the tabernacle, in which His Divinity is distinctly present, in the Eucharist.
The Explanation
Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he commissioned twelve men to “do this in remembrance of me,” and this which they were to be doing is described in that very verse, as Luke relates:
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk. 22:19).
They were to take bread and through prayer and in the person of Christ, repeat the words, “This is my body…” This body, precisely Christ’s body, would then be made actually present under the veil of common bread.
This mandate, to make the body of Christ actually present under the form of bread, was, as we see in the Gospels, only given to the twelve apostles, not to the other seventy-two missionaries (cf. Lk. 10), nor to the rest of the disciples at large.
And the only church which has not only retained the commission to present Christ under the veil of common bread but has also retained those commissioned (the apostles) through their successors, including the successor of Peter (also known as, the bishops – including the Bishop of Rome) is the Catholic Church.
That’s the difference. As well as many others too…
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