Why Catholic? - 2

So, it was the realization that I had no mother that awakened in me a desire to know more about the Catholic Church.

You see, in Protestantism the church is generally thought of as an "it." We talk about the church in the neuter gender almost all the time. If we talk about the Bride of Christ, we may use feminine pronouns, but in general conversation, we talk about the church as a thing, an it. However, in the Bible, the Church is described with feminine imagery.

Think of the New Birth in Christ. In that birth we see the work of the Church in preaching the Gospel, baptizing and teaching believers. It is through this work of the Church that new birth comes by the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through her. Again, how can we miss the feminine imagery here?

Thus Church is our Mother. No, she is not the author of our salvation. Christ is, but we are born into the Church, Christ's body.

She is also called His bride. (See 2 Corinthians 11:2;  Ephesians 5:24;25-27; Revelation 19:7-9; 21:1-2). The feminine imagery here is hard to miss, yet most Protestants don't give this strong imagery a second thought, and continue to call Christ's Bride an "it."

Also, the Church has strong feminine images, especially that of Mary. She is indeed our mother, as Jesus spoke from the cross to John. I won't go farther than that, since there are many resources out there which explain this much better than I ever could. Marian theology is new to me, but the veneration of Mary as Christ's mother and ours is a very ancient tradition. The early Church held her in high honor.

In Protestantism, Mary is practically ignored or even demonized. Well, we don't think we are demonizing her, but we really do not know what to do with Mary. I wrote about that in several posts here.  In these posts I was kind of thinking out loud, trying to work out in my mind what I was beginning to see as far as the Catholic Church goes. There are a number of incomplete ideas or even mistaken concepts, so please check out what the Church officially teaches about the Church as our Mother.


For now, I will refer you to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

I. "LORD, LOOK UPON THE FAITH OF YOUR CHURCH"

168 It is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes and sustains my faith. Everywhere, it is the Church that first confesses the Lord: "Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you", as we sing in the hymn "Te Deum"; with her and in her, we are won over and brought to confess: "I believe", "We believe". It is through the Church that we receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism. In the Rituale Romanum, the minister of Baptism asks the catechumen: "What do you ask of God's Church?" And the answer is: "Faith." "What does faith offer you?" "Eternal life."⁵⁴

169 Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: "We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation."⁵⁵ Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in the faith.