I've had a lot of interactions with Protestants on social media over the years, anonymous Protestants usually. They often have no interest in an honest discussion about faith and the differences between Catholic belief and Protestant belief. Often they tell you what Catholics believe which is almost always wrong and, when you correct them, they just repeat their errors insisting they're right. It's actually pretty funny. They know more about what Catholics believe than a life-long Catholic does. They often aren't interested in a good-faith exchange; they just repeat their bigot points. Catholics worship Mary. The Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon and the pope is the anti-Christ. Catholics aren't allowed to read the Bible. Yadda Yadda. Many Protestants are rabidly anti-Catholic bigots who are just trolling and lobbing insults -- not exactly a model of Christian charity.
I pretty much don't engage with this kind of Protestant any more, since I take seriously the scripture about not casting your pearls before swine. All they are interested in doing is trampling and snorting like pigs trying to rip and shred Catholic doctrine for whatever motivates them. It certainly isn't conversion, because they often resort to ad hominem attacks and insults. That's not exactly likely to draw admirers!
Having said that, please don't think I lump all Protestants into that bad faith bucket. I know many kind, wise, and intelligent Christians who aren't Catholic. Years ago, one of them, a Navy captain, came to my parish, St. Louis in Alexandria looking for a partner to start a local Life Chain. I was the pro-life coordinator and we ended up working together for a number of years. He was an Episcopalian if I remember correctly and had read the Fathers of the Church among other things. One stumbling block for him was the number of Masses said throughout the world and the erroneous idea that we crucify Jesus again at every Mass.
My response to that was to affirm the belief that Jesus died once, for all, and will never die again. I explained it by saying the Mass was like a time machine taking us back in a liturgical way to that central historical moment that changed everything. It's been years since I saw Jim or even thought about him, but a stupid comment on the blog today by an obviously anti-Catholic Protestant bigot chanting sola scriptura brought him back to mind. I wonder if the bigot knows that there was no bible for almost 400 years, just loose letters and books. There was no agreed upon body of work that made up the body of scripture until the Catholic Church provided it. I wonder if Protestants think Jesus handed the apostles a book before He ascended into heaven.
From what I've read sola scriptura doesn't mean they reject all tradition, but it's secondary and only scripture is considered infallible. But they don't really believe that either. Of course, since every Protestant is his own pope, I suppose it depends on his infallible interpretation of scripture which may conflict with every other Protestant interpretation and still be true. Got that straight?
And they don't even really believe their own sola scriptura is infallible mantra. They threw out the obvious interpretation of John 6 eons ago, making it a symbol. Then Luther deep-sixed the books of Maccabees because they didn't match his version of the faith. And they ridicule many Catholic teachings affirmed by scripture.
I'll just give one example. I can't count the number of Protestants who've told me that they pray directly to Jesus and don't need Mary and the saints. The only correct biblical approach is to bypass Mary and the saints and pray only to Jesus. (Sometimes, ironically, these same folks have asked me to pray for them. Go figure.) They ignore the fact that the Bible is filled with intercessors who stand between God and the people: Abraham, Moses, all the prophets, Mordecai, Esther, the apostles, especially Peter. Remember when Jesus tells Peter to "strengthen his brothers?" [Luke 22:32] Should Peter have replied, "They can just come to You, Jesus. I have no role here."
At any rate, I'll offer my rosary for Jim and the bigot this evening. I hope all of us meet merrily in heaven. One of my biggest hopes is that at the moment of death God gives everyone one last chance to embrace the creed through enlightenment by the Holy Spirit. What will happen then?
In the Screwtape Letters, Wormwood's patient dies in the war. At the moment of death he sees everything clearly. Is this how it will be at the moment of death for each of us? Victory for the patient who has a faith-filled moment and chooses eternal life; defeat for the demon assigned to him? C.S. Lewis presented that moment with blinding brilliance through his senior devil, Screwtape in his final letter to Wormwood:
You have let a soul slip through your fingers.... How well I know what happened at the instant when they snatched him from you! There was a sudden clearing of his eyes (was there not?) as he saw you for the first time, and recognised the part you had had in him and knew that you had it no longer.... He got through so easily! No gradual misgivings, no doctor's sentence, no nursing home, no operating theatre, no false hopes of life; sheer, instantaneous liberation. One moment it seemed to be all our world; the scream of bombs, the fall of houses, the stink and taste of high explosive on the lips and in the lungs, the feet burning with weariness, the heart cold with horrors, the brain reeling, the legs aching; next moment all this was gone, gone like a bad dream, never again to be of any account.
Defeated, out-manoeuvred fool! Did you mark how naturally — as if he'd been born for it — the earthborn vermin entered the new life? How all his doubts became, in the twinkling of an eye, ridiculous? I know what the creature was saying to itself! “Yes. Of course. It always was like this. All horrors have followed the same course, getting worse and worse and forcing you into a kind of bottle-neck till, at the very moment when you thought you must be crushed, behold! you were out of the narrows and all was suddenly well. The extraction hurt more and more and then the tooth was out. The dream became a nightmare and then you woke. You die and die and then you are beyond death. How could I ever have doubted it?
I pray that it will be like that for all of those who now reject the one, true faith. I asked a priest if there is anything wrong with that belief and he said no. God certainly desires the salvation of all His children. It's all about holy hope. But each of us has to choose it for ourselves. God gave us our free will to choose the good; He's a gentleman will not force our will. I pray that many see the truth at the last moment and embrace it? I also ask the intercession of the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, and all the angels and saints. They are our friends in heaven whose prayers are powerful with God.
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