This past weekend, I attended an ACTS men’s retreat with a Catholic church.
Though I was baptized Catholic, I’m not Catholic and was the only Protestant in attendance.
I was not sure what to expect. I’ve never been on a men’s retreat with any church, Catholic or otherwise, and wasn’t allowed to ask any questions about what we would do, so I really had no idea what I was in store for.
I was given an address and told to show up at 5pm on a Thursday. The only other thing I knew was that it would be over after Mas on Sunday.
I tried to keep myself from creating many expectations. I told myself that I was there to “be blessed and be a blessing”.
I thought it might well be substantially more “be a blessing” than being blessed, as a light in the darkness among these 80 Catholic men (40 retreatants & 40 team members).
Two of the first men I met seemed to be having some doubt about Christianity. One of them told me he most identified with “Doubting Thomas” from the Bible. My fears seemed to be being confirmed – men who were confident in Catholicism, but not Christ.
We aren’t allowed to give many details about the retreat, but here’s what I stood up and said to everyone towards the end of the retreat:
“As the only Protestant, I had some concerns. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure if I would feel the presence of God at all. But I did feel the Holy Spirit and I was deeply touched by some of the men’s stories. I knew that I was hearing from Godly men. I had some wonderful sharing with you all, especially my roommate.
I’ll tell you all a story.
Over the past couple days I kept hearing guys say it’s your job to help get people to Heaven – your wife, your kids, people you meet. And so when my roommate and I went back to the room at break earlier I told him that I don’t agree with that, that I believe “Once saved always saved” and that God changes people’s hearts – not us.
And even though I know better than to use the Bible this way, I decided to flip it open and find the “proof text” to support my view of Once saved always Saved.
I opened to a random page of my Bible and read a single sentence to get a bearing on where I was. It read, “In later times some will depart from the faith“.
Shit…
Now I didn’t take this to mean I was wrong, of course (this got lots of laughs)… Just that it wasn’t as clear cut as I thought it was.
And so I kept looking for my proof text. I start skimming Romans looking for “sheep” keywords as my roommate and I talked. At one point we got into a discussion about the crosses we bear, and I said something about different sizes of those crosses, but that some are weak.
I looked back at my Bible to find my place, and read “Some are weak in faith, do not quarrel with your brothers.”
So I stopped looking for my proof text. Thanks brothers!”
True story.
I didn’t really care for some of the super-Catholic events of the retreat, but they were really limited, and actually we talked about Jesus and being Christian – almost never about being “Catholic”, which was very refreshing to me.
All in all, I had an amazing time at the ACTS retreat and I highly recommend it for anyone – Catholic or not.
Before the retreat, I had already come a long ways in my view of Catholicism. I went from truly despising them (though I didn’t specifically say it, I thought Catholicism = Religion) to recognizing that they can be Christian (though still with plenty of doubt about how many of them) to now truly appreciating them.
I still see some issues in the Catholic church, of course. I’m not converting to Catholicism because I don’t personally enjoy the ritualism or the pageantry, but some people love that, and that’s okay. We can and should have different preferences for how we worship.
It may well be that there are parameters which are vital to being a Christian or to going to Heaven, but I can’t define what specifically makes you saved. And since I can’t define it, I’m not going to worry too much about it.
All I’m worried about is the fruit. You deny the Trinity? Well, I’m not sure if that’s real important or not. What does your life look like? Do you have the fruit of the Spirit? If you aren’t producing fruit, it’s time to re-examine your beliefs.
If you have the fruit of the spirit, welcome brother.
