My thoughts on the last class session (6/24)

As a youth, my pastors would tell me Catholics were not truly saved because they emphasized that salvation was acquired by both faith and works. After hearing about the Catholic Church in this light, I grew suspicious of their theology. Today’s class, however, led to me to greatly admire the Catholic tradition, especially on how they did missionary work. Missionaries from the Catholic tradition had tried to take what was there in a certain culture and redirect those components to the Lord. I love how these Catholic missionaries were able to see that God’s fingerprints were already in a culture and that there were already seeds of faith planted. I think all Christians can learn from such perspective of culture. In addition, I’ve also come to admire the Catholic Church because of their emphasis on the poor. I completely agree that we should strive to know the poor and be known by the poor. This action would certainly impact our spirituality and how we view God.  I believe that God wishes for all Christians to integrate the poor in their communities. We can certainly learn valuable lessons from the Catholic tradition!