“The church of the living God is the pillar and foundation of the truth.”
Louis Bosco, founder of Behold The Truth
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"IN MANY WAYS THIS SITE IS THE CULMINATION OF MY JOURNEY BACK TO THE CATHOLIC FAITH, the Faith of my childhood, after a long hiatus in the secular world. Although I had been baptized and received the Sacraments of Initiation as a youth, I had never really come to comprehend Catholicism in a meaningful way. While to a limited extent I may have known what Catholics believe, I had virtually no idea why they believed it. And, as I would later discover in a powerful way upon returning to the Faith, understanding the why of Catholicism makes all the difference!
"Looking back on my journey, a particular event stands out, which I like to call "my run in with the Evangelical Electrician." I had only recently returned to the practice of the Faith at that time, and was still in the process of overcoming the inadequate catechesis of my youth. I knew little Scripture or doctrine, and so would have had a hard time effectively explaining or defending the Faith to anyone (as I was destined to find out that day).
"The electrician had come to repair a faulty outlet. Yet, catching sight of the crucifix and saint statues at my house, his interest immediately shifted from electrical concerns to concern for my salvation. That is to say, he promptly set out to rescue me from the clutches of the Catholic Church, which he considered to be, not Christ's Church, but merely the corrupt invention of evil men.
"We spoke for two hours that afternoon (and that I was able to sustain such a lengthy discussion, given my meager grasp of the Faith, is testimony either to the workings of divine grace or to my own argumentative nature, or perhaps a bit of both. It is also somewhat remarkable that in the midst of our discussion the faulty outlet managed to be fixed!) Two key things from that conversation would remain with me. First, was his comment that, 'You Catholics know some of the Bible, but we (Evangelicals) know the whole Bible.' Second, was the way he disregarded my claim that Catholics were able to trace their beliefs back to the Apostles.
"His boast about knowing the whole Bible intimidated me in light my very real deficiency in Scripture. The one passage I did know well enough to recite was Matthew 16:18-19, in which Jesus says to Peter:
'And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.'
"Inhibited by the electrician's boast, I had avoided sharing this passage with him earlier. To my great surprise, when I at last in frustration blurted it out he fell silent and his jaw hung open. 'I never heard that before,' he then confessed. This amazed me, given the weight of the passage and its centrality to the Gospels. 'Doesn't this sound like a lot of authority that Jesus gave to Peter?' I asked. 'Yeah, it does,' he said. 'Don't you think you should find out what it means?' I asked. 'Yeah, I do.' With that he left the house unceremoniously, and I would not see nor hear from him again.
"The way he had laughed off my claim about Catholic beliefs being traceable back to the Apostles stayed with me. This was something I had been told from childhood, though I had never really been supplied with any proof to back it up. I resolved that afternoon to find that proof. Sitting at the computer and starting with the letters of then-Pope John Paul II, I looked for evidence of the Catholic Church's belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist in historical documents, running back through time from the contemporary era into antiquity, as far back as I could go, a century at a time, without skipping a century. To my delight, and in a relatively brief period of time, I was able to trace the doctrine of the Real Presence from the 2000's all the way back to Ignatius of Antioch in about 107 A.D., an early bishop who had been personally taught by the Apostle John. With tears welling up in my eyes, I read the following words from his letter to Christians in Smyrna:
'[The gnostic Docetists] abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, Flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His goodness, raised up again. … Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church' (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 7:2, 8:2).
"Not only did this disciple of the Apostles substantiate belief in the Real Presence, he also clearly identified the Catholic Church as the true Church of Christ! Overjoyed, I felt in that moment that I had transcended the millennia and come into contact with a true brother in Christ.
"I decided to search the historical record for proof of another doctrine: our belief about Baptism. Once again I was able, without skipping a century, to trace this doctrine from today back to the days of the Apostles—to the Didache (Greek for the "Teaching"), an ancient Church manual dated to about 70 A.D., which instructs Christians to baptize with water in the name of the Blessed Trinity, either by immersion or by pouring. That the early Christians allowed for pouring water in Baptism is significant inasmuch as it indicates provision for the Baptism of infants.
"My research would continue over the next several years, leading me to obscure corners of university library stacks and used bookstores, and expanding to cover all of the seven Sacraments, as well as the Church's belief in the Trinity, salvation, the papacy, purgatory, the saints, Mary, and the Church's moral teachings. (Review this research at 21 Centuries of Catholic Doctrine.)
"I've since dedicated my life to helping others to see the truth and beauty of Catholicism. For more than 20 years now, I've been privileged to serve the Church in the field of religious education, earning a Master's degree in Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, and publishing books on Catholicism.
"A fundamental truth I've learned over the years is that Jesus Christ and His Church are one (cf. Rom. 12:5; Acts 9:4). Thus, everything the Church teaches helps us to know Jesus more fully and to enter ever more deeply into a saving relationship with Him. This is what He established His Church on earth to do: to help others come to Him, primarily through the proclamation of the Gospel and through the Sacraments (cf. Matt. 28:18-20). In a similar way, Behold The Truth is dedicated to revealing the truth of Jesus Christ through a presentation of all that His Church believes and proclaims about Him. This site contains loads of free material, including downloadable resources, useful for evangelization, apologetics, catechesis and self-enrichment.
"Enjoy your visit, and may the grace and peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always!”