The Fullness of the Faith

Most who know me know that I am a Christian. Few know that I have become a "Catholic" Christian. Since joining the Church on Easter 2023, I have not utilized social media or any other medium to inform the world of this decision. My immediate family attended and celebrated this occasion with me. Yet, there are still many friends and extended family who were not there and who I assume do not know about this. It is not that I think everyone or anyone for that matter will be or has to be interested. My desire is for family and friends to have the opportunity to understand what has led me to this destination. I do not intend to force my reasoning upon them. As much as I think it is better to discuss in person the joys and challenges of following the Lord wherever He may lead, those conversations in life can be too few and far between. Therefore, when interested, I am here providing a place where this information can be accessed. I assume responses to this will cover a broad spectrum from a few not thinking anything of it, to others possibly considering I have left the Faith! The plan is to be brief and be as direct as possible to that which re-directed my walk with the Lord leading to Catholicism. If anyone has questions, I will be happy to provide the details.

• "Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's holy people" (Jude 3 - NIV)

I had read Jude 3 plenty of times before and memorized it early in life. I always loved the explicit direction to "contend for the Faith" and still do! But, on one particular occasion, it was the "once for all" part of the verse that got me thinking about the truth of "The Faith" being directly linked to the history of "The Faith." I had never seriously considered that it mattered much how the objective truths of "The Faith" are necessarily anchored to Church history. The "once for all" had to mean that for a believer in the first century there had to be a "Faith" that was already intact, that may develop, but would not essentially change for two-thousand years to the present time. This Christian faith tradition would in essence be the same for us today as it was for those first believers and as it will be for all future believers. It was the intact "once for all" Faith for the earliest Christians before they could even read their Bibles. How did the believers in the early church know "The Faith" that was "Once for All" delivered? A Catholic understanding of the past two-thousand years of Church history with its equal emphasis on sacred tradition and sacred scripture as well as the teaching authority of the Church provides what I now believe to be the fullest, best, most complete answer rather than my previous five-hundred year old protestant understanding which I had believed by default without question.

In the Preface of CS Lewis's classic book 'Mere Christianity', he describes the Christian faith as a hallway with several doors that lead into rooms. His purpose is to help people into the hallway while encouraging them not to stay in the hallway for it is in the rooms where there are fires and chairs and meals. But, he also emphasizes above all the door one chooses should be chosen because it is believed to be the true door and not the door liked the best due to its paint and paneling. Is this door true? Is this where holiness resides? He says.

I have lived most of my Christian life as an evangelical protestant and never considered opening the door of the Catholic Church for many reasons that seem obvious to the protestant mind. They just didn't make sense or seem necessary until the encounter with Jude's epistle happened leading to a deeper dig into Church history to better understand "The Faith." I am thankful for the protestant churches that I grew up in, was baptized in, got married in, served in, and raised my family in. Those churches were filled with God-fearing people who have taught me much about following Jesus and loving others. I remain united with them serving 'The Lord', yet I have now made a definitive decision regarding where "The Faith" that the Lord taught is found in its fullness.

In Christ,

Coach Ambrose

• "When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more: and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house." - C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)