Last week, a US reader commented through twitter about Prof Felipe Aquino’s article about what to do when we do not agree with Church teaching. His complaint was that the tone of the article came across as yelling that we must believe in the teaching.

So, let us look at it from another perspective. What if we do not believe what the Church teaches, what do we do? The Church calls us to submit our mind and will to this teaching.

OK, however, we are speaking to a US audience, this type of talk is hard to accept. So let us look more closely about what is being said.

Catholic teaching comes to us from Christ, through the apostles and inspired by the Holy Spirit. It would seem that with such qualifications, it would be easy to accept. But in reality, like one who has yet to comprehend the world fully and decides he is right and you are wrong, or the grandparent who has yet to understand technology and has the same attitude, we can easily decide that despite the origins of Catholic teaching, we are smarter.

It may also seem that way as well. Who are you going to believe a thousands of year old teaching or the latest word coming out of a local world renown university (LWRU)? That is our struggle.

The Church will tell you to listen to the ancient teaching and LWRU will teach you to listen to its words.

So, to whom should you listen? The answer is based on a few things. One is the difference between what comes out of LWRU and what comes out of our faith, that difference is simple. LWRU offers education, the Church offers wisdom. Second, the Church’s wisdom from comes understanding who we are.

Jesus calls us witnesses. We are witnesses to what, an ancient wisdom based on understanding realities beyond our immediate perception.

Faith presupposes that our universe is bigger than our perception of it. We do not perceive God, but that does not mean He does not exist. Jesus is the revelation of God, in other words, the face of God in a way the human can understand. The Holy Spirit is the guide of discovery more of that revelation. So, we begin in faith by our understanding that our universe is bigger than our ability to perceive it.

Many embrace an education that teaches that we can perceive and understand the entire universe. But can we?

If you found a million dollars that clearly was not yours, but there is no way that someone could prove it was not yours so you could keep it with impunity, would you? Remember, you will get a way with it, even though the money is not yours.

In a materialistic world, where there is nothing beyond what we perceive, your keeping the money would indeed have no long term affect on you. However, in a world where there are realities beyond our perception, your ability to maneuver in the world would be drastically affected by whether you were honest with the money and turned it in to someone who could find the rightful owner or just kept it with impunity. In other words, on paper your keeping the money would be a great windfall, in reality, it may become your worst nightmare. That simple understanding is the difference between education and wisdom. One teaches you realities in the material world, the other teaches you realities that have long term affects for you to the very core of your being.

The decision to keep or not keep your money would be based on who you are, what your goals are in this world and where do you expect to be at the end of your Earthly life. Each of these questions, among others defines not only your goals in life, but also your mission. What is your mission and do you have one? Jesus gave us a mission, not only Heaven, but helping others to get there as we continue our journey. Hence, why he called us witnesses and Church teaching is the manner in which we witness.

This is why church teaching is all about mission and witness. If we reject it, then we also do so for another mission or witness.
What is your mission in this life? To what do you witness? What is your stand on church teaching? Why?

Fr. Robert J Carr

Fr. Carr is the editor of this blog for Canção Nova